Levitt Quotes & Sayings

She had a great big heart
but very little grace.
Every time she fell in love
she landed on her face. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Quality isn't about where the money came from or which company gets to put their name on the thing. What matters is who made the movie and why they made it. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

On some level, we as human beings can be who we want to be. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

I just like to do work that inspires me, and I don't pay any attention to whether it's a high- or low-budget movie. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

That may not be a simple conversation. But when you are dealing with root causes, at least you know you are fighting the real problem and not just boxing with shadows. — Steven D. Levitt

What must occur is a greater recognition by investors of their individual responsibility. — Arthur Levitt

Any damn fool can build homes. What counts is how many you can sell for how little. — William Levitt

The oil industry is a stunning example of how science, technology, and mass production can divert an entire group of companies from their main task ... No oil company gets as excited about the customers in its own backyard as about the oil in the Sahara Desert ... But the truth is, it seems to me, that the industry begins with the needs of the customer for its products. From that primal position its definition moves steadily back stream to areas of progressively lesser importance until it finally comes to rest at the search for oil. — Theodore Levitt

So in the tradition of Poland Spring, Evian, and other hydro-geniuses, we've decided to bottle something that was freely available and charge you money for it. — Steven D. Levitt

Promoting the interaction of orders remains one of the most difficult, but crucially important, challenges we face concerning our national market system. — Arthur Levitt

Incentives are the cornerstone of modern life. And understanding them - or, often, deciphering them - is the key to understanding a problem, and how it might be solved. — Steven D. Levitt

The career stuff is for business people. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

I'm ready for another adventure now, take me far away please!
Ok one more ... But then you have to read to me! — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Certainly the animation technology is growing like crazy. All media technology is. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Of my four marriages, the one to Bob Levitt is the only one I don't regret. — Ethel Merman

I mean, movies in general tend to sort of portray time, space and identity as these very solid things. Time moves forward. Space is what it is. You are you, and you're always you. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

The most important thing, married or single, is that you can't compare your life to overly simplified fantasy figures on TV, in movies, or in magazines. Every human being is unique. Every relationship is unique. If you're in it, it's your job to find out what's unique about it. I don't think you should be in a relationship and downgrade it because it doesn't look the same as some Hollywood image. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

It has long been said that the three hardest words to say in the English language are I love you. We heartily disagree! For most people, it is much harder to say I don't know. — Steven D. Levitt

And while it sounds bad to hear that Americans underpay their taxes by nearly one-fifth, the tax economist Joel Slemrod estimates that the U.S. is easily within the upper tier of worldwide compliance rates. — Steven D. Levitt

He loved me.
He loves me not. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Colleges and universities, meanwhile, have no such qualms about torturing their applicants. Think about how much work a high-school student must do to even be considered for a spot at a decent college. The difference in college and job applications is especially striking when you consider that a job applicant will be getting paid upon acceptance while a college applicant will be paying for the privilege to attend. — Steven D. Levitt

Oh yeah, I'm the president of the lucky club. There are so many talented people who don't work. And the crop of young actors I'm surrounded by is incredible. When you have people like that around you it amps you up a little bit. Also, Emile Hirsch and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, or guys like Ryan Gosling. It's a really good crowd and I feel I'm coming up at a good time. But equally, there's a lot of good young actors who don't get to work who are more talented than I. I'm just lucky. — Shia Labeouf

I don't blame the people for the fact that so many movies are bad. I think there's a corrupt, perverted, lazy and sloppy attitude that's pervasive in the movie business. The whole entertainment business is kind of crumbling around us. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Don't listen to what people say; watch what they do. — Steven D. Levitt

You want to dig your well where you have the best chance of finding water with the least amount of digging — Theodore Levitt

Why is it so important to have fun? Because if you love your work (or your activism or your family time), then you'll want to do more of it. You'll think about it before you go to sleep and as soon as you wake up; your mind is always in gear. When you're that engaged, you'll run circles around other people even if they are more naturally talented. From what we've seen personally, the best predictor of success among young economists and journalists is whether they absolutely love what they do. If they approach their job like - well, a job - they aren't likely to thrive. But if they've somehow convinced themselves that running regressions or interviewing strangers is the funnest thing in the world, you know they have a shot. — Steven D. Levitt

To be honest, I sort of feel like 'movie actor' isn't of this time. I love it. But it's a 20th-century art form. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Bikes are clearly a superior form of transportation when it comes to just simple getting around. A car makes sense if you need to carry a bunch of stuff. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

The thing about Occupy is that the sentiment the movement embodies is timeless: Don't be greedy, share. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

It is often possible to elicit the behavior you want through nonfinancial means. — Steven D. Levitt

Poverty is a symptom - of the absence of a workable economy built on credible political, social, and legal institutions. — Steven D. Levitt

One thing we've learned is that when people, especially politicians, start making decisions based on a reading of their moral compass, facts tend to be among the first casualties. — Steven D. Levitt

You usually get one or the other, you get someone who knows how to tell a story but they don't necessarily know about light and camera and rhythm, or you get someone who can make beautiful images but they can't necessarily tell a great story. He[Mark Webb] does both and I think he's going to be one of the film-makers that our time is remembered for. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Consider the kind of questions that kids ask. Sure, they may be silly or simplistic or out of bounds. But kids are also relentlessly curious and relatively unbiased. Because they know so little, they don't carry around the preconceptions that often stop people from seeing things as they are. When it comes to solving problems, this is a big advantage. — Steven D. Levitt

The spiral in a snail's shell is the same mathematically as the spiral in the Milky Way galaxy, and it's also the same mathematically as the spirals in our DNA. It's the same ratio that you'll find in very basic music that transcends cultures all over the world. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

He found himself one night in a bar standing beside a gorgeous woman. "Would you be willing to sleep with me for $1 million?" he asked her. She looked him over. There wasn't much to see - but still, $1 million! She agreed to go back to his room. "All right then, " he said. "Would you be willing to sleep with me for $100?" "A hundred dollars!" she shot back. "What do you think I am, a prostitute?" "We've already established that. Now we're just negotiating the price. — Steven D. Levitt

If you are willing to confront the obvious, you will end up asking a lot of questions that others don't. — Steven D. Levitt

I lost you
when you left me
to find yourself. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

A powerful force drives the world toward a converging commonality, and that force is technology. ... Almost everyone everywhere wants all the things they have heard about, seen, or experienced via the new technologies. — Theodore Levitt

I stopped getting nervous a long time ago, so any time I do get nervous, which is rare - about work, anyway - I always take that as a really good sign. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Good social media is authentic. What makes social media work is actually having something to say. — Steven Levitt

I'd been an actor my whole life, since I was a kid. And then, I quit for awhile and went to university. When I wanted to start acting again, I couldn't get a job, and that was really depressing. So, I realized, at that time, that I have to take responsibility for my own creativity. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Once upon
a dream
in a blanket
of night sky
you asked me
to tell you a story
which began with
us holding hands. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Our culture has a tendency to pigeonhole people and to try to tear down anybody who's breaking out of our comfort zone. That's why we get into these cultural ruts that end up being destructive prejudices. But breaking out of that comfort zone is the most rewarding thing you can do, in your life. I do my best to push myself, when I can. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

I'm the last person to tell my friends to go see something I'm in. I could care less if friends of mine never saw anything I'm in. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

When I was a teenager, if anyone recognized me for anything I did, it would ruin my day. I couldn't handle it. It was some sort of neurotic phobia. I guess I was paranoid that people would treat me differently, or in an unfair way, because of my job. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

The major challenge facing most foundations is that they are risk averse. This inhibits their ability to experiment and commit to the experimentation and innovation process. — Steven Levitt

Though progress starts with the imagination, only work can make things happen. And work itself works best when fueled, again by the imagination. — Theodore Levitt

The tension between centrality, on the one hand, and competition, on the other, is probably the oldest of all market structure issues. — Arthur Levitt

It's less about what you do and more about who you are doing it with. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

As my story came to a
close I realized that I was
the villain all along. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Making checklists of things you're looking for in a person is the numero uno thing you can do to guarantee you'll be alone forever. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

That you can be whatever you want to be, whoever you want to be, regardless of your gender. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Mapmaker mapmaker
make me a map
one to one scale,
without a single gap.
Map every rock,
every thought, every tree
and erase all the territory. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

To me, a sex scene in a movie generally means a gratuitous scene that doesn't serve the story but gives a kind of excuse - we've got these two actors, we want to see them naked, so let's bring in the music and the soft light. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

If it takes a lot of courage to admit you don't know all the answers, just imagine how hard it is to admit you don't even know the right question. — Steven D. Levitt

Anything in excess is a poison. — Theodore Levitt

It is well and good to opine or theorize about a subject, as humankind is wont to do, but when moral posturing is replaced by an honest assessment of the data, the result is often a new, surprising insight. — Steven D. Levitt

I think that anybody who says 'This is the one way to go about being an actor' has probably not done a lot of professional work before. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

I never had a "project." I would go out and shoot, follow my eyes ... I tried to capture with my camera, for others to see. — Helen Levitt

It would be mistaken to suppose that any of the best photography is come at by intellection; it is like all art, essentially the result of an intuitive process, drawing on all that the artist is rather than on anything he thinks, far less theorizes about. — Helen Levitt

A lot of my early pictures are, I think, quite funny. And these days I tend to look for comedy more and more. — Helen Levitt

Although the Internet makes it seem as if you have a direct connection to the securities market, you don't. Lines may clog; systems may break; orders may back-up. — Arthur Levitt

Success is not important to me, nor are power or money. If the script feels good, then I'm in. It's that simple. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Nothing drives progress like the imagination. The idea precedes the deed. The only exceptions are accidents and natural selection. — Theodore Levitt

Tetlock's words, even when their predictions prove — Steven D. Levitt

Real life is not as simple as it is on a screen. I think real life is actually a lot more beautiful. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Social scientists sometimes talk about the concept of "identity". It is the idea that you have a particular vision of the kind of person you are, and you feel awful when you do things that are out of line with that vision. — Steven D. Levitt

Fuck the lot of you and your hypocritical bullshit. You sit around spouting brotherhood. You don't know the first thing about being a brother. Or being a man. Because a real man sure as hell would never have disrespected a woman the way each and everyone of you have disrespected Maysie. — A Meredith Walters

She drank in all their compliments and soon she was full of herself. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

While fund performance is unpredictable, the impact of fees is not, .. A 1- percent annual fee will reduce an ending account balance by 17 percent after 20 years. — Arthur Levitt Jr

An expert must be BOLD if he hopes to alchemize his homespun theory into
conventional wisdom. — Steven D. Levitt

It's easy to die. Just give your breath back to the trees and the wind. — Peter Levitt

Just as energy is the basis of life itself, and ideas the source of innovation, so is innovation the vital spark of all human change, improvement and progress. — Theodore Levitt

Decency can push almost any interaction into the cooperative frame. — Steven D. Levitt

We could have been the greatest love story ever told.
If only you'd stayed in character. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Every day I've got to be thankful that I am alive, and you never know - the cliche is, I guess, you could get hit by a bus tomorrow, so you'd better be at peace with whatever you got going at the moment. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

I think our culture is sick and tired of fluffy nonsense and people want something more sincere and heartfelt. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Organizations exist to enable ordinary people to do extraordinary things. — Theodore Levitt

I love her [Kimberly Peirce]. Incredibly intense is a good way of describing her. Brutally honest. Really sharp. She's a director for actors. That's what she's best at, sitting down with an actor and just getting to the heart of what a scene is. And getting to the heart of not just what the scene is and the character is, but what you are, and how to build that bridge between the "me" and the character, and those emotions. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

One of the best things about having a blog is that you've got a place to run your craziest ideas up the flagpole and see just how quickly they get shot down. — Steven D. Levitt

The cool thing about my character was that it's not that digital. I get to put hours of prosthetic makeup on and see a different creature altogether. I've seen how he looks and it's really cool. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

I think any time you set out to make something, anybody is going to be confronted by those voices in their head that say "You don't need to do this. Someone else can do this better. You should probably just quit right now." — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Our markets have not achieved their great successes as a result of government fiat, but rather through efforts of competing interests working to meet the demands of investors and to fulfill the promises posed by advancing technology. — Arthur Levitt

Darkness is a lot of what art is and certainly in our community a lot of it is people sort of wrestling with their demons. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

I know other worlds exist. I can see them in my peripheral vision. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

I tend to think having an impact on the world is a lot more complicated than government. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

The universe is not made up of atoms; it's made up of tiny stories. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Everyone has a unique perspective and that's valid. Everyone's perspective is valid. That doesn't mean that everyone has the same degree of skill level as an entertainer, but skill isn't the only important thing. It's also what kind of perspective and feelings you're bringing to it. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

The purpose of a business is to get and keep a customer. Without customers, no amount of engineering wizardry, clever financing, or operations expertise can keep a company going. — Theodore Levitt

Once again, stock markets have been threatened with extinction for almost 75 years, and I have found that stock markets are harder to kill than roaches. — Arthur Levitt

The most valiant thing you can do as an artist is inspire someone else to be creative. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Few people think more than two or three times a year," Shaw reportedly said. "I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week. — Steven D. Levitt

Of course I'm excited about the Nobel. But I am passionate about my research. Passion is really important for anything you do; it's a general requirement — Michael Levitt

Parent in a retirement home is more likely to be visited by his grown children if they are expecting a sizable inheritance. But wait, you say: maybe the offspring of wealthy families are simply more caring toward their elderly parents? — Steven D. Levitt

My favorite actor that I look up to is Joseph Gordon-Levitt. His career is something I look up to, I just want to be that guy. He's always part of projects that have a lot of soul and that's what I want to do as an actor. — Grant Gustin

My dad never blew anything up, but he probably had friends who did. He and my mom have always preached that the pen is mightier than a Molotov cocktail. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

The Sun is such a lonely star. Whenever he comes out to see his friends, they all disappear. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

There seems to be a notion in Hollywood that if you want to make money, you have to sacrifice doing good work with integrity. And I think that's bullshit. I think that's an excuse, and it's what people say who are scared that they can't do good work. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Would a diet high in omega-3 lead to world peace? — Steven D. Levitt