Edwin Catmull

I use a progressive alarm that makes a soft sound at first and then progressively gets louder. But I usually wake on the first sound, so it doesn't disturb my wife. When I used a loud alarm clock, I was more likely to hit it on the head and go back to sleep. ”

The need to challenge the status quo is just more obvious when you're failing than when you're succeeding. But it's no less urgent. ”

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. ”

With certain ideas, you can predict commercial success. So with a 'Toy Story 3' or a 'Cars 2,' you know the idea is more likely to have financial success. But if you go down that path too far, you become creatively bankrupt because you're just trying to repeat yourself. ”

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. ”

We'll fund a project even if I'm skeptical because I'd rather be proven wrong by somebody on the inside than by somebody on the outside. ”

The skill of a good creative leader is being comfortable with blowing up an idea and knowing it will get better. ”

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. ”

When you take a director off a project, that makes a person feel humiliated because everyone knows it. But we're responsible because we put them in that position. ”

Beware of being blinded by your own success. ”