Quotes About Precision

Punctuality is an obsession with the Japanese

Fiction should be specific rather than general, because people are specific.

That's right," said Milton. "That's what you call a basal thermometer. It reads the temperature down to a tenth of a degree." He raised his eyebrows. "Normal thermometers only read every two tenths. This one does it every tenth. Try it out. Put it in your mouth.

A sense of timing is the mark of a genius.

Livingston: What is the key to excellence for an engineer? Wozniak: You have to be very diligent. You have to check every little detail. You have to be so careful that you haven't left something out. You have to think harder and deeper than you normally would.

T]hey are trying to find the right word, to choose, finally, the one that is most exact, most incisive. It's a process of sifting, which is exhausting and, at times, exasperating. Writers can't avoid it. The heart of the craft lies there.

A joke is like building a mousetrap from scratch. You have to work pretty hard to make the thing snap when it is supposed to snap.

The way that I work is very specific, very thorough, and the process has to be totally clear.

Second base is anything but magic. If it's anything at all, it's speed, sureness with your hands and lots of hard work.

For the big stuff to work credibly, you've got to get the little stuff absolutely right.

I have very, very specific ideas about how I want to do my work and how I want to be perceived and to the point of ridiculousness sometimes.

If it really made sense to "let the club do the work," you'd just say, "Driver, wedge to the green, one-putt," and walk to the next tee.

The smaller your work, the bigger your name will become.

My work knocks people out; you've not seen the best of me yet.

If a craftsman wants to do good work, he must first sharpen his tools.

If you're not aiming at perfection, you're not trying hard enough.

A small sharp axe clears a forest quicker than a big blunt one.

A small sharp axe can cut down more trees than a big dull one.

Touch paper only once.

I usually stick out my hand and hope he puts the ball in it. Except the one time I went out to take Early Wynn out. I stuck out my hand and he hit me right in the stomach with the ball.

The stability of what's called the Standard Model of particle physics and its ability to make so many clever predictions with immense precision suggests that we may just be stuck with it, and there may never be an overthrow of that.

I haven't exaggerated anything, I've stuck to the facts.

I remember doing a little student film where we had a guy that couldn't pull focus. We ended up spending three times the amount of time shooting this thing as opposed to if the guy could've just pulled focus.

In the studio, you can redo things. In concert, you only have one shot at it, so you have to try to be as perfect as possible.