10 Tips on Giving Tips

1. Do it as a list rather than one run along sentence.

9. Do things in the right order.

3. Content wise you should, without doubt, be completely and utterly concise. Only say what is essential and not a word more. If you say too much, it's not as good. In fact it's quite bad. That's rule number 3.

4. Have one tip which is pure filler.

5. Don't use words or phrases that are solely used to attract people through google searches, that's as pointless as Megan Fox's nude tits sex naked body.

6. Speak with absolute authority and certainty.

7. I'm not sure about rule 6.

8. Look at websites that give tips about healthy living, I get a lot of inspiration from them.

9. Eat fresh fruit every day.

2. Be encouraging, simplistic and positive, otherwise the dumb idiots won't understand a thing.

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Top Five Self-Help Tips

1. To truly succeed with self-help, do what has worked for others.

2. Visualize what you want, unless you want visualization. In which case visualize visualization.

3. Follow The Bible (unless it takes a left when approaching Orlando).

4. If you believe it, you can have it, unless someone else believed they can have it, in which case toss a coin.

5. Be grateful, especially for the word grateful, which was originally going to be called Frackendoplleflaff (the K is silent, due to trauma).

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ADAM DURITZ On The Struggle Between Art & Real Life

Adam Duritz, lead singer of Counting Crows, on that decision every artist has to make.

"We were all in bands then and we had shitty jobs, and we'd, y'know, wash dishes or work in record stores or wash windows by day, so we could be in a rock 'n roll band by night, y'know -- and it was after college and our friends were getting on with their lives. And they had good jobs--- well, boring jobs; but they made more money than we did and they had futures and we didn't. And there comes a point in the life of everyone in a rock 'n roll band when you have to decide, am I gonna do this with my life or am I gonna go and be in one of those other jobs, cause I can't deal with washing dishes anymore and I can't dig any more holes and I can't wash another window.

And there are those that go.

And those that stay.

And you walk out on the edge of the world and you balance yourself there for a little while, and you try and figure out which one you're gonna be.

And a lot of our friends are doing other things right now, and we're up here singing on this stage."

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No Laughing Matter

What do surfing Facebook and creative productivity have in common?

NOTHING.

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Kevin Costner On The Animals That Understand You

"I knew what I wanted to be. I was really really happy. I didn't care if I took out trash. I just knew in my psyche, that it needed to be movie trash, it needed to be stage trash, I needed to be close to the business. And I think that's what you have to be, you have to be close, you have to talk with the animals that understand you."

-Kevin Costner

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Advice From Charles Chaplin - On Belief, Directing, And Persistence.

Chaplin is one of the few true geniuses of cinema. When I read the things he says about his work, I am always on the lookout for little hints as to what he did to bring out the best in his work. Any thoughts or beliefs he had - I wanted to explore them. Not only has he left a legacy with his films, but also his views on creativity, film directing, and the power of imagination. Here are some of my favourite Charlie Chaplin quotes.

"Persistence is the road to accomplishment."

"I neither believe nor disbelieve in anything. That which can be imagined is as much an approximation to truth as that which can be proved by mathematics. One cannot always approach truth through reason; it confines us to a geometric cast of thought that calls for logic and credibility."

"I believe that faith is a precursor of all our ideas."

"I believe that faith is an extension of the mind. It is the key that negates the impossible. To deny faith is to refute oneself and the spirit that generates all our creative forces."

"Over the years I have discovered that ideas come through an intense desire for them; continually desiring, the mind becomes a watchtower on the look-out for incidents that may excite the imagination - music, a sunset, may give image to an idea."

On Directing:

"Simplicity of approach is always best."

"Photographing through the fireplace from the viewpoint of a piece of coal, or travelling with an actor through a hotel lobby as though escorting him on a bicycle; to me they are facile and obvious."

"When a camera is placed on the floor or moves about the player's nostrils, it is the camera that is giving the performance and not the actor. The camera should not obtrude."

On What We Now Know As High-Concept Event/Disaster Movies:

"The theme of most of these spectacles is Superman. The hero can out-jump, out-climb, out-shoot, out-fight and out-love anyone in the picture. In fact every human problem is solved by these methods - except thinking."

"It requires little imagination or talent in acting or directing. All one needs is ten million dollars, multitudinous crowds, costumes, elaborate sets and scenery."

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Is She Really Attracted To You Or Does She Just Want A Role In Your Next Movie?

The answer is that she wants a role in your next movie. No exceptions.

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Great Advice From Tom Hanks on how to survive as an actor, using perseverance.

A few years back I was watching Tom Hanks on The Actors Studio with James Lipton. I think it's from around 1999. Hanks, as always, was funny, profound and interesting. But it was this last question, from a young actor, which really showed the most wisdom. I typed this out; and I'm glad I did, because the videos of this interview keep getting taken down from YouTube. Luckily, it's a great thing to read off the page.

Young Actor to Tom Hanks - "I was wondering if you could impart some knowledge about the nuts and bolts of the industry.. just the grey reality of what that entails, and how do you really survive?"

Tom Hanks - "Wow - well you're really talking about perseverance. Um, and it's sometimes perseverance in the face of great adversity. And the adversity always is, 'I'm not working.' That's hard, man. It's hard to get past-- look I'm not in a play, I'm not in a movie. The best I can say is I'm up for a callback on a Danone Yogurt commercial - that's hard in order to have that be the thing that is kind of like defining what you do. There's no trick getting past it, there's no magic thing you can do. But it's like a love affair with someone you're gonna live your whole life with. You have to protect what it is ----- Now, you're talking to a guy; I haven't been out of a job since 1982. I had a fallow year after 'Bosom Buddies' in which I really thought well that's it, I've had my shot. Nothing else is gonna happen for me. And a year unemployed in Los Angeles is like six years unemployed in New York. It is a long friggin' time. And you think you've got a sticker on the back of your car that says "I used to be an actor", it feels that bad some times. But since then, I'm the luckiest man in the world...... The perseverance aspect of it is something that you can define every day and that takes a little bit of discipline - and more than anything else it takes this degree of perseverance that ultimately is not your measure of who you are as an artist but it's a measure of what you are as a professional, and it's HARD - cause there's nothing greater; nothing greater than saying I am a professional actor and I will be till the day I die. So, and that's where it gets tough."

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