Miles Davis Quotes

You have to be slightly uncomfortable with what you're doing, and you have to be able to try to find moments of newness.

You're abandoning a lot of ideas when you are too into comfort. 'Comfy'-that's one of the worst words!

I got a chance to work with Miles Davis, and that changed everything for me, 'cause Miles really encouraged all his musicians to reach beyond what they know, go into unknown territory and explore. It's made a difference to me and the decisions that I've made over the years about how to approach a project in this music.

Comfort is the enemy of the artist.

Nobody ever died of discomfort, yet living in the name of comfort has killed more ideas, more opportunities, more actions, and more growth than everything else combined. Comfort kills!

My direction as a person working in film has been to never get comfortable with anything I was doing. At the time that I decided to do action films, people were telling me, "Well, you can't do it. You're not that type. It's not going to work." And so obviously that made me think, "Well, that's not comfortable. Maybe I should try it. What can I do with it?" So I did that, and I'm glad I did it. I'll probably do it again, and I did other kinds of things that seemed like challenges for me, because I like being on the high wire.

I think that we, as writers, get excited by risk. When we are feeling comfortable and familiar, I wouldn't say that we get bored, but the energy in the room gets flat. When we're most excited and when the show is the most fun, it's when we're duking things out.

I always felt that if you're not trying something different each time out of the gate, you're being safe, and you don't ever want to find that place of safety. I like that, each time, before I even go in front of the cameras, the studio's reaction will be fear.

I'd hate to feel in a comfort zone while I am working. That's not the way I like to do things. I want to be pressurized and challenged every day.

Discomfort brings engagement and change. Discomfort means you're doing something that others were unlikely to do, because they're hiding out in the comfortable zone. When your uncomfortable actions lead to success, the organization rewards you and brings you back for more.

I am really not interested or excited by repeating former successes.

It's fun to be on the edge. I think you do your best work when you take chances, when you're not safe, when you're not in the middle of the road, at least for me, anyway.

The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.

I like having my back against the wall and doing things I'm not supposed to be good at.

All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.

The more I compose, the more I know that I don't know it all. I think it's a good way to start. If you think you know it all, the work becomes a repetition of what you've already done. I try to make sure that I don't repeat my music.

I do tend to apply myself to projects that make me uncomfortable because usually when that happens I try to find a way of existing in the project that is more creative.

I think actors get too comfortable. I like being uncomfortable as an actor because it keeps you alive. I don't know, I think it's important.

I like pushing boundaries.

When I've worked with established artists, I've naturally been more restricted, but you still have to take risks and push yourself to do something different.

You have to be willing to offend in order to make progress.

Music changes, and I'm gonna change right along with it.

Well, every movie is an experiment. And the only way you can grow at what you're doing is to take chances. You can't try to stick with what worked last time.

Often, the fact that I haven't done something as a writer is all the reason I need to try it.

If you want to do something different, you're going to come up against a lot of naysayers.