Following rules is, of course, the reason the dog is man's best friend is because the dog follows rules, and they actually do experiments on that, is that how well certain breeds of dogs follow rules, and how much they internalize them. And so many hierarchical animals, obviously they follow rules.
It's very important, at least to me as a writer, that there be some rules on the table when I'm writing. Rules come from genres. You're writing in a genre, there are rules, which is great because then you can break the rules. That's when really exciting things happen.
There are so many rules about how you make a film and so many conventions that you can and can't do. I think people have forgotten that they are just rules that were invented for convenience - sometimes it is more convenient not to obey the rules.
Rules about public sanitation are a simple and familiar example. Without them, a city can't be a healthy place to live; but these rules don't just happen. The rules for a city are different from the ones for a village, but as a village slowly gets bigger, a city may be stuck with the rules of the village.
These are party-sanctioned debates. This is a presidential election, you show up at the debates. These are the rules. We have a series of unwritten rules of how campaigns are run, and everybody has followed those rules consistently over the decades. And no one has really even seriously thought about breaking them.
The circadian neurons are one of the few circuits in neurobiology where we have a chance to understand at multiple levels how different sets of neurons communicate with each other - including understanding the wiring rules, the biochemical rules, and the functional behavioral rules.
There are certain things that we can deal with by following the rules. But at times, we find the rules restrict you from doing the right things. On such occasions, we have to rethink - either you change the rules or break the rules.
I think that the essence of being an artist is to break rules. You have to learn rules, and you have to break them, because if you make art only by the rules, then you make very boring art.
Rules matter, and to be rules they need to be universal in form: always do this, never do that. But it is foolish to rule out in advance the possibility that an occasion might arise when normal rules just don't apply. Rules are not there to be broken, but sometimes break them we must.
I have rules about eating, exercising and rules about staying positive. And these rules are sacred to me.
So let me tell you, as you prepare to go off into the world, remember six rules: Trust yourself, Break some rules, Don't be afraid to fail, Ignore the naysayers, Work like hell, and Give something back.
Marla [from Rules Don't Apply] especially, believed that she has a certain set of rules that she had to abide by, in order to be successful in Hollywood. How she acted, how she approached things and even in her relationship with her mother - there were a lot more rules and regulations expected of ambitious women, even before they got into the door.
There's a perception out there that Airbnb doesn't want there to be rules. We think rules would be fantastic. We think rules would help our community, but not necessarily the rules that have simply existed for decades.
I believe in rules. Sure I do. If there weren't any rules, how could you break them?
I used to think that when I grew up there wouldn't be so many rules. Back in elementary school there were rules about what entrance you used in the morning, what door you used going home, when you could talk in the library, how many paper towels you could use in the rest room, and how many drinks of water you could get during recess. And there was always somebody watching to make sure. What I'm finding out about growing older is that there are just as many rules about lots of things, but there's nobody watching.
We're breaking all of the rules, even our own rules, and how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.