“I woke up early one morning a couple of years ago and felt the tenderness of my being alone, the bitter sweetness of it. It has many colors, being alone. I walked out into my living room and I can say honestly that everything was pouring with life - the red sofa, the chairs with their patterns of roses, even the coffee table with its scattering of books. Everything was alive with the presence of being. Seeing the world though those eyes, I realized that I could never really be alone.” WorldYearsI CanBookEyeFeltRoomsMorningAliveSeeingColorCoupleRedYears AgoTablesRosePatternsCoffeeI RealizedHonestlyBitterChairsTendernessSweetnessLiving RoomPouringUp EarlySeeing The WorldSofas Author:Roger Housden
“A couple of years ago my friend and business partner Jeffrey Richards was doing the Gore Vidal play, The Best Man, starring James Earl Jones. I asked Jeffrey out to lunch and asked him what he thought of James playing Grandpa in You Can't Take It With You. Jeffrey thought it was a fabulous idea and so did James.” MenYearsIdeasPlayCoupleMy FriendsYears AgoPartnersLunchFabulousGoreGrandpaBusiness Partners Author:Chris Hart
“There's nothing new. I think that's the weird thing for me. Over the last couple of months, the keep-fit shows, and then at the end of it you get to lose weight and one of you is going to win a million dollars - that's not real. In many ways, even 10 years ago that wouldn't have worked.” ThinkingWayYearsRealEndsShowsLastsWinningLosesMillionsMonthsCoupleFitYears AgoWeightDollarsMillion DollarsLose WeightWeird ThingsNothing New Author:Gordon Ramsay
“My fourth mother, my godmother, she passed away a couple years ago - her name was Gwen. She was the theater director over at the gym where I grew up and learned about all those awesome things I told you about already. She was the one who taught me terms like "upstage" and "downstage," all those technical things about the art of what I do - how to breathe what I see, how to move. They were all her tactics, not anything learned or given to me through a theory, but rather by her natural abilities.” YearsArtMovingMotherNamesGivenTermNaturalAbilityTaughtTheoryGrewCoupleDirectorsGrew UpYears AgoTheaterBreatheGymFourthTacticsPassed AwayNatural AbilityGodmotherAwesome Things Author:Erykah Badu
“I do a certain amount of work in religious communities on these issues. It's not the central focus of my work but it is certainly an area where I have worked a lot. It has gotten much better over the years, especially over the last couple years. There wasn't a religious environmental movement 15 years ago, but there is now - in the Catholic community, the Jewish community, the mainline Protestant community, and in the Evangelical community.” YearsLastsCertainCommunityReligiousIssuesFocusMovementAmountCoupleAreasYears AgoCatholicEnvironmentalProtestantsEvangelicalJewish CommunityReligious Community Author:Bill McKibben
“A couple of years ago, I went to see a production of Wicked in San Francisco with a friend of mine, one that Patty Duke was in, and he said, "Do you want to meet her?" And I said, "Yeah!" And I went backstage, and she walked out of her dressing room, looked at me, and said, "I know you." And I went, "Well, uh, yeah, I was in My Sweet Charlie." And she said, "Yeah! You were the guy in the car on the road!" And I was. It was amazing.” KnowsWantYearsWellsSaidGuyRoomsCarMinesSweetCoupleYears AgoYeahProductionsWickedDressingsSan FranciscoCharlieDukesDressing Rooms Author:Brent Spiner
“A couple of years ago, my wife, Erica, and I were getting our daughter ready for school and an image of President [Barack] Obama was on one of the morning shows. And I said, oh, look, Carina, there's the president. You can be president one day. And she said, right away, that's for boys. And so right away I said, oh, no, you can be a doctor. You can be a lawyer. You can be anything you want. You can be president.” WantYearsLooksSaidShowsSchoolPresidentBoysMorningWifeReadyCoupleOne DayDaughterYears AgoDoctorsMy WifeLawyerBarackPresident Barack ObamaOur Daughter Author:Julian Castro
“I worked at Disney many years ago. They just let me sit in a room for a couple of years and draw whatever I wanted to draw, so it's a very personal thing to me. Drawing and everything you do there is something meaningful and personal.” YearsWantedRoomsCoupleDrawsYears AgoLet MeDrawingMeaningfulPersonal Things Author:Tim Burton
“[Carnival Ride] is part of a line from my favorite song on the album, "Wheel of the World." It sums up everything that's happened to me. It's nuts to think of where I was a couple of years ago.” ThinkingWorldYearsSongLinesHappenedCoupleYears AgoMy FavoriteAlbumsWheelsNutsFavorite SongCarnivalsCarnival Rides Author:Carrie Underwood
“A couple of years ago I picked up New Yorker writer Alma Guillermoprieto's "The Heart That Bleeds," which is reportage from Latin America in the 1990s. You can predict that some books will give you a thrill, but you can't predict the books that will hit you hard. It is a little bit like falling in love.” GivingYearsHeartLittlesBookHardAmericaFallBitsCoupleLittle BitYears AgoFalling In LoveLatinThrillNew YorkersLatin America Author:Stephen Greenblatt
“What's the purpose of NATO? Well actually we have an official answer. It isn't publicized much, but a couple of years ago, the secretary-general of NATO made a formal statement explaining the purpose of NATO in the post-Cold War world is to control global energy systems, pipelines, and sea lanes. That means it's a global system and of course he didn't say it, it's an intervention force under US command, as we've seen in case after case. So that's NATO.” WorldYearsWellsMeanMadeWarPurposeCoursesEnergyForceAnswersCasesSeaColdCoupleYears AgoStatementsCommandPostsOfficialsSecretaryCold WarFormalInterventionExplainingLanesNatoPipeline Author:Noam Chomsky
“Half of the [USA] population, roughly, thinks the world was created a couple thousand years ago. Two thirds of the country is expecting the second coming of Christ. They've also had to turn to nativists. The gun culture in the United States, which is out of control, is party fueled by people who think 'we've got to have our guns to protect ourselves.'” PeopleThinkingWorldYearsTwoCountryStatesTurnsCultureChristUnitedPartyHalfUnited StatesCoupleThousandProtectGunYears AgoThirdsPopulationUsaExpectingThousand YearsGun Culture Author:Noam Chomsky
“A young person in Africa with a smartphone has more communications technology than the U.S. president had 25 years ago. So if the tools to change the world are now in everyone's hands, then the individuals now have the power that only governments and corporations used to have a couple of decades ago. I get excited by how that increases our capacity to be creative, and how that increases our capacity to create transformative things in the world.” IfsWorldYearsPersonsHandsGovernmentYoungUsedIndividualPresidentTechnologyCreativeCommunicationCoupleCapacityYears AgoToolsIncreaseExcitedDecadesCorporationsChanging The WorldBe CreativeSmartphonesCommunication Technology Author:Jason Silva