Eisner Quotes & Sayings

Oh, let what I am keep on existing and ceasing to exist,
and let my obedience align itself with such iron
conditions
that the quaking of deaths and of births doesn't shake
the deep place I want to reserve for myself eternally. — Mark Eisner

The arts inform as well as stimulate; they challenge as well as satisfy. Their location is not limited to galleries, concert halls and theatres. Their home can be found wherever humans chose to have attentive and vita intercourse with life itself. — Elliot W. Eisner

Years later, I found myself running
a network television division and then a
movie studio and now an entire entertainment
company. But, much of the success I've achieved
can be traced to the direct and metaphorical
lessons I learned in building those campfires.
I can hardly think of an aspect of my life
that wasn't positively affected by my camping
experience. — Michael Eisner

Graduate school is a place to hide for a couple of years. — Michael Eisner

Balanced emotions are crucial to intuitive decision making. — Michael D. Eisner

The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer. — Elliot W. Eisner

There's no good idea that cannot be improved on. — Michael Eisner

The term comics long ago became obsolete and inaccurate. It merely defined the content of the early joke-based comical strips. Sequential Art is a more accurate description of the form. I first suggested it because I believed something needed to be done to correct the feeling of inferiority by artists and writers in this field. — Will Eisner

The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition. — Elliot W. Eisner

I gravitate toward the team thing. I'm not a golfer - I much prefer basketball. — Michael Eisner

Nick Cardy's work helped define some of the things we see in comics today and take for granted. He broke out of the mold in terms of covers and layout and created a truly interactive experience for the reader that directly points back to his time with the Eisner studio. — Jim Lee

If you're really good, you should express yourself ... a lot. — Michael Eisner

I'm not sure I was a typical head of a company. Most people that run big companies come out of sales and they come out of marketing and they're quite serious and they have MBA's from very good schools and things like that. I'm an accidental CEO, thank the Disney Company. — Michael Eisner

You can't succeed unless you've got failure, especially creatively. — Michael Eisner

We have inadvertently designed a system in which being good at what you do as a teacher is not formally rewarded, while being poor at what you do is seldom corrected nor penalized. — Elliot W. Eisner

Thus, sped by currents of curiosity afloat the swift river of rumor do secrets sail to strange ports. — Will Eisner

We try to see patterns, to judge the events in our lives as rewards or punishment, parse things into good and evil. But there is a randomness to life that is beyond analysis... — William Eisner

I don't think individual achievement in business is the most meaningful way for it to operate. — Michael Eisner

If you're soft and fuzzy, like our little characters, you become the skinny kid on the beach, and people in this business don't mind kicking sand in your face. — Michael Eisner

When I read biographies, I'm only interested in the first few chapters. I'm not interested in when people become successful. I'm interested in what made them successful. — Michael Eisner

We cannot escape that Hollywood is in the middle of a wave of technological change. The current angst over all the implications of new entertainment technology is nothing new. — Michael Eisner

Biodiversity is the greatest treasure we have ... Its diminishment is to be prevented at all cost. — Thomas Eisner

A key to my thinking has always been the almost fanatical belief that what I was engaged in was a literary art form. That belief was compounded out of ego and necessity, I guess, a combination of the two. — Will Eisner

Bugs are not going to inherit the earth. They own it now. So we might as well make peace with the landlord. — Thomas Eisner

Eventually the consumer will come to appreciate the editorial point of view of every different brand. User-generated content without editorial oversight will simply be background noise. — Michael Eisner

A brand is a living entity-and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures. — Michael Eisner

Still,[ ... ] in all forms of comics the sequential artist relies upon the tacit cooperation of the reader. This cooperation is based upon the convention of reading and the common cognitive disciplines. Indeed, it is this very voluntary cooperation, so unique to comics, that underlies the contract between artist and audience. — Will Eisner

It doesn't matter whether it comes in by cable, telephone lines, computor, or satellite. Everyone's going to have to deal with Disney. — Michael Eisner

Doing stuff that I don't have to talk about because I'm not in a public company is fantastic. — Michael Eisner

As for me, I am in pursuit of excellence. I have no time to get old. — Will Eisner

It is rare to find a business partner who is selfless. If you are lucky it happens once in a lifetime. — Michael Eisner

The only thing that gives [new technology] purpose is the kind of creative content we all produce. — Michael Eisner

Comics, which are really best described as an arrangement of images in a sequence that tell a story - an idea - is a very old form of graphic communication. It began with the hieroglyphics in Egypt, it first appeared in a recognizable form in the Medieval times as copper plates produced by the Catholic church to tell morality stories. — Will Eisner

If you make something good, eventually the audience will be there, eventually there will be something on the Internet that is a cultural phenomenon that's not available anywhere else, that's not available on television broadcasts, that's not on cable, it's only on some Web site. And the world will find it. And when that happens, it will be what the 'kiss' was to the theatrical movie business, 5,000 years ago or whenever it was. — Michael Eisner

The company should be run from a creative point of view rather than a financial point of view. — Michael Eisner

Diversity is a great force towards creativity. — Michael Eisner

I remember the first time we stood in this spot. We were on the deck of a boat in the middle of what was then Penny's Bay, envisioning what could be, what would be, what will be. Six years later, through our dream partnership with Hong Kong government, the creative dream is now a reality. Hong Kong Disneyland stands before us as a living symbol of the creativity and imagination that are the heart and soul of Disney. — Michael Eisner

What brought me to Disney was the new regime, which is now the old regime, came over with Michael Eisner, Frank Wells, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and all these people really wanted to reinvigorate the animated musical, so they came to Howard Ashman and me. That was my entry into Disney. — Alan Menken

The movie business has always been like the wild-catting oil business. Everyone wants a gusher. — Michael Eisner

The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said. When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job. — Elliot W. Eisner

I want to point out to adults that there is a world of good material available to you now in comic form - in this medium - and learn to give it your support because the more you support it, the better the material will be as it comes out. — Will Eisner

21 years as CEO is a long time. I was and probably still am the longest serving CEO in America. Certainly I am in the media industry, bar none. — Michael Eisner

I call myself bisexual because I acknowledge that I have in myself the potential to be attracted - romantically and/or sexually - to people of more than one sex, and/or gender, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree. — Shiri Eisner

One problem with the systems of assessment that use letters and grades is that they are usually light on description and heavy on comparison. Students are sometimes given grades without really knowing what they mean, and teachers sometimes give grades without being completely sure why. A second problem is that a single letter or number cannot convey the complexities of the process that it is meant to summarize. And some outcomes cannot be adequately expressed in this way at all. As the noted educator Elliot Eisner once put it, Not everything important is measurable and not everything measurable is important. — Ken Robinson

Michael Eisner contacted me once and asked me if he could change the name of Disneyland to 'Braffland.' I said no, because whenever I go to Disneyland there's always fat people everywhere wearing tight clothes. Disneyland, frankly, has a lot of improving to do before it gets my namesake. — Zach Braff

If apple is the language of the future, then art must be the core. — Elliot W. Eisner

To punish failure is yet another way to encourage mediocrity. — Michael Eisner

In the world of comics, Jack Kirby and Will Eisner may have been more influential artists, but Joe Kubert was its most influential man. Even if he were to be remembered solely for his body of illustration work, he'd still be one of the greats, but by opening the Kubert School in 1976, he was able to personally mentor and educate literally thousands of successful artists who owe their careers to his teachings. — Mark Waid

The disposition to continue to learn throughout life is perhaps one of the most important contributions that schools can make to an individual's development. — Elliot W. Eisner

Bob Iger, Disney's chief operating officer, had to step in and do damage control. He was as sensible and solid as those around him were volatile. His background was in television; he had been president of the ABC network, which was acquired in 1996 by Disney. His reputation was as an corporate suit, and he excelled at deft management, but he also had a sharp eye for talent, a good-humored ability to understand people, and a quiet flair that he was secure enough to keep muted. Unlike Eisner and Jobs, he had a disciplined calm, which helped him deal with large egos. " Steve did some grandstanding by announcing that he was ending talks with us," Iger later recalled. " We went into crisis mode and I developed some talking points to settle things down. — Walter Isaacson

In some sense our aim ought to be to convert the school from an academic institution into an intellectual one. That shift in the culture of schooling would represent a profound shift in emphasis and in direction. — Elliot W. Eisner

Many people you think are individual achievers in fact have either a strong spousal partner over many years or a business partner who's either in the background, not given enough publicity or less egocentric. — Michael Eisner

Eisner mentioned he was uncomfortable calling Kirby someone with heavy artistic intent. I paraphrase, but Eisner felt Jack was mostly
concerned with hitting his page count, telling good stories, and
keeping his family fed. Not pursuing some aesthetic ideal - to seek
that motive in Kirby's work was, he suggested, misguided. I happened to be holding the original artwork to the Devil Dinosaur #4 double-splash, which I turned around and showed Eisner - who took a moment, and said something uncharacteristic: Okay, I might be wrong. — Glen David Gold

If connoisseurship is the art of appreciation, criticism is the art of disclosure ... Connoisseurs simply need to appreciate what they encounter. Critics, however, must render these qualities vivid by the artful use of critical disclosure. — Elliot W. Eisner

We all know that the Disney brand is our most valuable asset. It is the sum total of our seventy-five years in business, of our reputation, of everything that we stand for. — Michael Eisner

The limits of our cognition are not defined by the limits of our language. — Elliot W. Eisner

Failure is good as long as it doesn't become a habit. — Michael Eisner

We are not an isolated insulated community anymore — Jane Eisner

A decision will be made before it's too late or soon thereafter. — Michael Eisner

To this day, I fondly recall the challenges of building a fire, pitching a tent, climbing a New England mountain, canoeing on a lake. Camp songs still resonate inside me. Competition exists at Keewaydin, of course, but nobody fails summer camp, a nice respite from winters of fortune and misfortune at school. — Michael Eisner

The odds of being successful are the same for every group that is educated in America. It's just that the group that is not wealthy is 95 percent of the population. So if there are 100 successful people in a room, probably 95 out of 100 came from more modest means. — Michael Eisner

Failure is good as long as it does not become a habit. — Michael Eisner

The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world. — Elliot W. Eisner

Minds, unlike brains, are not entirely given at birth. Minds are also forms of cultural achievement. — Elliot W. Eisner

Privacy laws are our biggest impediment to us obtaining our objectives. — Michael Eisner

There's no good idea that can't be improved on. — Michael Eisner

I grew up Jewish. I am Jewish. I went to an Episcopal high school. I went to a Baptist college. I've taken every comparative-religion course that was available. God? I have no idea. — Michael Eisner

A company that pays attention to the family unit is a successful company. We don't isolate the family. We don't make rides that say, 'Hey mom, dad, you go sit on the bench.' — Michael Eisner

The arts' position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important. — Elliot W. Eisner

In every business, in every industry, management does matter. — Michael Eisner

In a capitalist society, persons who create capital, like Michael Eisner, are given the staggering rewards. — Carroll O'Connor

The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships. Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts it is judgment rather than rules that prevail. — Elliot W. Eisner

We have this history of impossible solutions to insoluble problems. — Will Eisner

Michael Eisner let it be known last week that he had no intention of leaving the entertainment business once he steps down as CEO of Disney in October. — Peter Bart

The Arts are fundamental resources through which the world is viewed, meaning is created, and the mind developed. To neglect the contribution of the Arts in education, either through inadequate time, resources, or poorly trained teachers, is to deny children access to one of the most stunning aspects of their culture and one of the most potent means for developing their minds. — Elliot W. Eisner

User-generated content is not done by professionals. The best user-generated content eventually becomes those people gravitated in the professional world. — Michael Eisner

I find that, once you get into a position where you can afford a pair of shoes and a decent level of living, success in itself is empty. — Michael Eisner

Recovering from failure is often easier than building from success. — Michael Eisner

years. MICHAEL EISNER. Hard-driving Disney CEO who made — Walter Isaacson

I became a member of the faculty at Northwestern University in 1965 but did not complete my thesis until two years later at a graduate ceremony at which Carnegie Institute of Technology became Carnegie-Mellon University. At Northwestern, I was mentored by the 'three Bobs:' Robert Eisner, Robert Strotz and Robert Clower. — Dale T. Mortensen

There is no law that says a man who earned a hundred million dollars in his first half-dozen years on the job has to be a decent human being, but Mike Eisner is that and more. — Joseph Barbera

Content has always driven the business. Now it's no longer the queen to a king of distribution; it is the king, king, king, because the consumer has complete choice. — Michael Eisner

If it's not growing, it's going to die. — Michael Eisner

It means understanding that different kinds of oppression are interlinked, and that one can't liberate only one group without the others. It means acknowledging kyriarchy and intersectionality - the fact that along different axes, we're all both oppressed and oppressors, privileged and disprivileged. — Shiri Eisner

You either play by the rules, change the rules, or get out, altogether. — Michael Eisner

Then, abruptly, it was his turn to feel ashamed, not only for having extended, however momentarily, the consideration of his sympathy to a Nazi, but for having produced work that appealed to such a man. Joe was not the early creator of comic books to perceive the mirror-image fascism inherent in his anti-fascist superman - Will Eisner, another Jew cartoonist, quite deliberately dressed his Allied-hero Blackhawks in uniforms modeled on the elegant death's-head garb of the Waffen SS. But Joe was perhaps the first to feel the shame of glorifying, in the name of democracy and freedom, the vengeful brutality of a very strong man.
[...] Now it occurred to Joe to wonder if all they have been doing all along, was indulging their own worst impulses and assuring the creation of another generation of men who revered only strength and domination. — Michael Chabon

Succeeding is not really a life experience that does that much good. Failing is a much more sobering and enlightening experience. — Michael Eisner

A good journalistic organisation upholds four values: inform, reflect, crusade, connect. — Jane Eisner

The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling. — Elliot W. Eisner

The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects. The arts traffic in subtleties. — Elliot W. Eisner

Well, when you're trying to create things that are new, you have to be prepared to be on the edge of risk. — Michael Eisner

Schools are not about enabling children to have a living but about children being able to have a life. — Elliot W. Eisner

The needs of children during adolescence are particular and acute. They need an opportunity to develop a sense of identity and to maintain the sense of security that emanates from group acceptance. — Elliot W. Eisner

I find that no matter how long a meeting goes on, the best ideas always come during the final five minutes, when people drop their guard and I ask them what they really think. — Michael Eisner

Comics deal with two fundamental communicating devices: words and images. Admittedly this is an arbitrary separation. But, since in the modern world of communication they are treated as independent disciplines, it seems valid. Actually, the are derivatives of a single origin and in the skillful employment of words and images lies the expressive potential of the medium. — Will Eisner

Privileged people can feel the way these identities threaten their privileged status and the benefits that they receive as a result. For this reason also, trying to reassure hegemony that these identities are not a threat to it (for the purpose of being "accepted" into society) is moot. Hegemony is right to feel threatened, because there's no way one could change social order without deconstructing power. — Shiri Eisner

[Before the Spirit] I had been producing comic books for 15-year-old cretins from Kansas [I wanted to aim for] a 55-year-old who had his wallet stolen on the subway. You can't talk about heartbreak to a kid. — Will Eisner

It was said Daredevil grew up in Hell's Kitchen, an amazing name for a neighbourhood. But that opened a Pandora's box of all the crime stuff I wanted to do. I borrowed liberally from Will Eisner's 'The Spirit' and turned 'Daredevil' into a crime comic. — Frank Miller

I write about what I know and what I have experienced. This keeps me an "honest" writer. — Will Eisner

You just have to make sure the model you're working on does not undersell your product. — Michael Eisner