Selective Engagement Quotes

I do not read newspapers. I do not watch television. I am not interested in current events, although I will occasionally discuss them if other people want to discuss them.

You want to win the wars you fight. That’s why you have to pick your wars carefully.

You gotta choose what battles you can win.

If you look at my career and you look at the span of my work and the things I have done, as far as to garner fame, you'll see that I have turned down more interviews than I do. Or I turn down more things than I do.

You know, you pick and choose your battles.

If I'm not in the mood to deal with you, then I just don't deal with you. I look at it like, me not dealing with you could save me a lot of trouble - me forcing myself to deal with you could bring me a lot of trouble. So I just play it by ear.

I've got to pick my fights at the right time.

There are routes not to be followed, armies not to be attacked, citadels not to be besieged, territory not to be fought over.

Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your troops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless the position is critical.

When I look at the work, if it speaks to me, I'll say 'yes' and if the work doesn't resonate with me, I'll politely decline.

When I was younger, I was somewhat of an idealist. I guess I'm a little bit more of a realist now. I think there's a lot that can be done to make the world a better place, but it's more about choosing your battles.

I am on sort of a diet in terms of the Internet. It's the sheer quantity. It's the Niagara of opinion, of information. It's not that I have any kind of compassion fatigue. I just insist on having a life.

In a perfect world, I only act when I really want to. I don't do most of the stuff that is out there, but it's a joy and a pleasure to do anything that promotes this higher power - this light, if you will. I just think there aren't enough projects in the world that do that.

I'm very much in a mindset that I take myself out of anything that I'm not involved in.

I try to keep my life low key, and I don't like going to parties unless they're thrown by a friend of mine, or they're to do with a project I'm in, or it's because I've been nominated for an award.

Avoid People and Situations That Upset You. Those things, people, situations, and experiences you dont like--avoid them. Stay away. Walk away. Do something else. Some might call this cowardly. I call it smart. The world is brimming with things, people, and experiences. We will never experience all of them if we live to be 10,000. So why not associate with the ones that naturally please you?

It's the luxury of time that lets me in some ways now spoil myself. I get my workout in every day. I get a good, long sleep every day. I won't say they're guilty pleasures. When I first left Microsoft, I would say I spent the better part of a year saying, "OK, how do I get as busy and crazy and manic as I was at Microsoft?" Since then I said, "No, I'll make a bigger contribution in this phase of my life by being able to pick and choose, not being so manic, having time to step back, a little more time for what I'll call discernment rather than just activity."

Anything that doesn't make sense, I don't want to give too much of my brain to.

I just get involved in things when people come to me: I'm not a musician-slash-activist, that's not the word.

Choose your battles, but don't choose very many.

I don't really pick my opponents.

The foreign policy, you have to know how to pick and choose. There's no way, if Saddam [Hussein] had not had weapons of mass destruction, I would have gone, because I don't believe that the U.S. should be involved directly in civil wars.

I tend not to argue about things that I don't believe in.

I only do a show when there's somebody I want to talk to.

I follow politics, but I don't like to discuss it.