“I know that being an in-house person is much, much harder than being outside…that’s why I’ve never had a job.”

We need practice solving problems.

Counter the effects of culture (steering your design ideas) by going out and looking for new experiences.

Strange as it may seem, wrote Richard Feynman, we understand the distribution of matter in the interior of the Sun far better than we understand the interior of the Earth.

If you haven’t read Alan Fletcher’s The Art of Looking Sideways you should be arrested for calling yourself a Designer

Unless you can begin with an interesting problem, it is unlikely you will end up with an interesting solution.

No matter how many times your amazing, absolutely brilliant work is rejected by the client, for whatever dopey, arbitrary reason, there is often another amazing, absolutely brilliant solution possible. Sometimes it’s even better.

There’s nothing in my head that’s worth anything at all because it’s the culture that put it there.

Be stimulated by rejection

How do you do original work when culture is telling you which font face to use, which layout.

Yes, it’s harder being younger and growing up yourself, but all those anxieties and problems are going to be faced by anyone at any age.

So there’s more competition, so you have to work harder and be right for it.

Every time you say no to Jesus Christ, it makes it that much harder for you to say yes to Jesus Christ.

He has a heart of gold – only harder.

And when you’re a perfectionist little monster, it makes it even harder.

I’m working harder now than ever before. I couldn’t turn down the BBC job because I’ve never been offered the opportunity of killing three or four people on screen before!

If my blond lab Molly was the size of T-Rex, that would just mean more kibble, more work for the gardener in the backyard, and a harder time moving her to my wife’s side of the bed at night.

Being a good actor isn’t easy. Being a man is even harder. I want to be both before I’m done.