Edwin Catmull Quotes

#1. If you aren't experiencing failure, then you are making a far worse mistake: You are being driven by the desire to avoid it.

Edwin Catmull

#2. I actually feel awkward being at the center of attention.

Edwin Catmull

#3. If you give a good idea to a mediocre group, they'll screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a good group, they'll fix it. Or they'll throw it away and come up with something else.

Edwin Catmull

#4. For me, creativity includes problem-solving. That's the broad definition of it.

Edwin Catmull

#5. It's pretty popular today to say that everybody should learn to fail and that failure's a good thing. Intellectually, it's an obvious thing. But in fact, it gets conflated with another meaning of failure, so when we grow up as kids, failing in school was a really bad thing.

Edwin Catmull

#6. You are not your idea, and if you identify too closely with your ideas, you will take offense when they are challenged.

Edwin Catmull

#7. If everyone is trying to prevent error, it screws things up.

Edwin Catmull

#8. I love solving the problems of having groups work together and removing barriers. But to actually turn around and be in the center of that is an awkward place to be.

Edwin Catmull

#9. Art isn't about drawing; it's about learning to see. What organization doesn't need this ability?

Edwin Catmull

#10. Every creative person can draft into service those around them who exhibit the right mixture of intelligence, insight, and grace.

Edwin Catmull

#11. We start from the presumption that our people are talented and want to contribute. We accept that, without meaning to, our company is stifling that talent in myriad unseen ways. Finally, we try to identify those impediments and fix them.

Edwin Catmull

#12. The future is a direction, not a destination.

Edwin Catmull

#13. Success hides problems ... you don't need to address problems.

Edwin Catmull