Edwin Catmull Quotes

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Edwin Catmull

Profession : Scientist

Birth : March 31, 1945

Sometimes a leap of faith doesn't pan out.

Edwin Catmull

A hallmark of a healthy creative culture is that its people feel free to share ideas, opinions, and criticisms. Our decision-making is better when we draw on the collective knowledge and unvarnished opinions of the group.

Edwin Catmull

We need business leaders who have a respect for technical issues even if they don't have technical backgrounds. In a lot of U.S. industries, including cars and even computers, many managers don't think of technology as a core competency, and this attitude leads them to farm out technical issues.

Edwin Catmull

We have to evolve, we have to change, and in order to do that, we have to initiate the change.

Edwin Catmull

'Balance' is a soft word. It implies calm, something almost yogic, but that's not it at all. The process is always chaotic and turbulent.

Edwin Catmull

I have received a great deal of benefit from the simple yet difficult practice of learning to stop the internal voice in my head. I learned that the voice isn't me, and I don't need to keep rethinking events of the past nor overthink plans for the future. This skill has helped me both to focus and to pause before responding to unexpected events.

Edwin Catmull

Programmers are very creative people. And animators are problem solvers, just as programmers are.

Edwin Catmull

What happened in the early days of Disney is that Walt Disney used all of the new technologies as they came out. When matting came out, they adopted it. They adopted sound and color and xerography. Walt did that. And then, when he died, people began to think that this is just about making films, so they stopped bringing in new technologies.

Edwin Catmull

In the early 1970s, I headed to graduate school at the University of Utah and joined the pioneering program in computer graphics because I realized that's where I could combine my interests in art and computer science.

Edwin Catmull

When I was in high school in the early 1960s, I wanted to be an animator and even took art classes. But by the time I was in college, I realized I couldn't draw well enough.

Edwin Catmull

Every new idea in any field needs protection.

Edwin Catmull

The Braintrust developed organically out of the rare working relationship among the five men who led and edited the production of 'Toy Story' - John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich, and Joe Ranft.

Edwin Catmull

I apply the term 'creativity' broadly... it's problem solving. We are all faced with problems, and we have to address them and think of something new, and that's where creativity comes in.

Edwin Catmull

Believe me, you don't want to be at a company where there is more candor in the hallways than in the rooms where fundamental ideas or policy are being hashed out.

Edwin Catmull

Creativity has to start somewhere, and we are true believers in the power of bracing, candid feedback, and the iterative process - reworking, reworking, and reworking again until a flawed story finds its through line or a hollow character finds its soul.

Edwin Catmull

Communication needs to be between anybody at any time, which means it needs to happen out of the structure and out of order.

Edwin Catmull

I started off life at Pixar with interesting technical problems. But as time has moved on, I found that the social and management problem was far more complex and interesting.

Edwin Catmull

Look at the computer industry. I've watched a lot of companies come and go, some that were right at the pinnacle of their success.

Edwin Catmull

The problem is some of our riskier films just don't make as much money. But if you only make films that will just be commercially successful, then you can also sink yourself as a studio.

Edwin Catmull

Believe me, sequels are just as hard to make as original films.

Edwin Catmull