A Curious Mind

The Secret to a Bigger Life

Brian Grazer, Charles Fishman

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781476730790
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Creativity
• Index: Business

#1 New York Times bestselling author and Oscar–winning producer Brian Grazer has written a brilliantly entertaining and eye-opening exploration of curiosity and the life-changing effects it can have on every person's life. From Academy Award–winning producer Brian Grazer, New York Times bestseller A Curious Mind offers a brilliant peek into the "curiosity conversations" that inspired him to create some of the world's most iconic movies and television shows. He shows how curiosity has been the "secret" that fueled his rise as one of Hollywood's leading producers and creative visionaries, and how all of us can channel its power to lead bigger and more rewarding lives.Grazer has spent most of his life exploring curiosity through what he terms "curiosity conversations" with some of the most interesting people in the world, including spies, royals, scientists, politicians, moguls, Nobel laureates, artists…anyone whose story might broaden his worldview. These discussions sparked the creative inspiration behind many of his movies and TV shows, including Splash, 24, A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, Arrested Development, 8 Mile, J. Edgar, Empire, and many others. A Curious Mind is not only a fascinating page-turner—it also offers a blueprint for how we can awaken our own curiosity and use it as a superpower in our lives. Whether you're looking to strengthen your management style at work, uncover a new source of creativity, or become a better romantic partner, this book—and its lessons on the power of curiosity—can change your life.

Index

---

A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.

Entries found on pages 273–286 refer to content found in the Notes.

Abrahamson, Joan, 154–55

Academy Awards, 107–8, 139, 165, 177

accountability

and curiosity, 182

and democracy, 183–84

action, taking, 9, 129, 149

See also: doing nothing

actors: characteristics of great, 140–41

Adam and Eve story, 11–13

advertising executives:

curiosity of, 94

Affleck, Ben, 90

Allen, Herbert A., 117

Allende, Salvador, 70

Allred, Gloria, 53

American dream:

Imagine movies about, 167–68

American Gangster (movie), 6, 36, 77, 167–68, 169

Andersen, Hans Christian, 104

animals:

curiosity of, 6–7

answers to questions:

and familiarity as enemy of curiosity, 159

paying attention to, 9

purpose of, 152

and questioning culture, 152

“right,” 146–52

surprising, 63–67

See also: listening

anti-curiosity

and Cry-Baby movie, 173–74

definition of, 170

of Grazer, 172–74

and “making the case,” 170, 171

need for, 169–85

and “no,” 170–71, 172–73

and when to be anti-curious, 175

and when not to be curious, 173–75

Apollo 13 (movie):

and curiosity as shared knowledge, 82

and curiosity as storytelling, 35–36...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Introduction: A Curious Mind and a Curious Book
• One: There Is No Cure for Curiosity
• Two: The Police Chief, the Movie Mogul, and the Father of the H-Bomb: Thinking Like Other People
• Three: The Curiosity Inside the Story
• Four: Curiosity as a Superhero Power
• Five: Every Conversation Is a Curiosity Conversation
• Six: Good Taste and the Power of Anti-Curiosity
• Seven: The Golden Age of Curiosity
• Brian Grazer’s Curiosity Conversations: A Sampler
• Brian Grazer’s Curiosity Conversations: A List
• Appendix: How to Have a Curiosity Conversation
• Acknowledgments
• About the Authors
• Notes
• Index
• Copyright