“In the olden days, a memoir was something written by Churchill and people like that, because they had a grand experience and considered it useful for future generations. And then it became what it became - a public purging in which other people have the chance to judge you and then forgive you, perhaps learning something from your sorry example.” PeopleChanceWrittenGenerationsExampleJudgingForgivingSorryMemoirFuture GenerationPurgingOlden Days Author:Aleksandar Hemon
“Legalized drugs would cause dislocations in the US economy - the prison industry for example and tens of billions spent annually on drug enforcement. But because the US economy is so large, this would be a minor blow, hardly as severe as the ultimate nightmare for the US economy, global peace, which would shutter its death industry commonly called the military/industrial complex.” Would BeCausesEconomyMilitaryExampleIndustryDrugUltimatePrisonComplexesBlowBillionsNightmareMinorsSevereEnforcementShuttersMilitary Industrial ComplexDislocationGlobal Peace Author:Charles Bowden
“Every once in a while a messy character who manifests a REAL body emerges, for instance, Lisbeth Salander - and certainly commercial genre fiction is full of examples of real bodied sexual encounters or violence encounters - but for the most part, and particularly if you are a woman or minority author, your characters' bodies have to fit a kind of norm inside a narrow set of narrative pre-ordained and sanctioned scripts.” IfsKindRealCharacterBodyFictionViolenceExampleFitScriptsInstanceNarrativeGenreEncountersMinoritiesNormMessyLisbeth Salander Author:Lidia Yuknavitch
“The biggest considerations I had were practical: how do you move such a large number of actors around a small space? So, for example, if I have to have the mother bring a pot of tea from the kitchen to the living room and serve it to the others, how do I, on a practical level, get everyone into the frame? Any decisions I made about the camera angles or movement came out of necessity, versus any sort of stylistic choice.” IfsMadeMovingMotherChoicesActorsSpaceDecisionLevelsRoomsNumbersExampleMovementCamerasPracticalsTeaKitchenConsiderationPotAngleVersusLiving RoomLarge NumbersSmall SpacesCamera Angles Author:Hirokazu Koreeda
“I feel like one of the things I'm trying most to do is stretch my empathetic reach, as far as it will go. I got as far as Gilles de Rais' assistant, for example, and not really as far as de Rais himself.” FeelsTryingExampleAssistantsEmpathetic Author:Jim Shepard
“I'm one of the many people for whom coffee helps but often, inattention is a symptom of something else: for example, that you're not getting six to eight hours of sleep.” PeopleHelpingHoursSleepExampleSixEightCoffeeSymptomsInattention Author:Marty Nemko
“I wasn't that familiar with silent films. I didn't know, for example, how hugely popular silent films were in the 1920s, how people would go to the movies several times a week.” PeopleKnowsFilmWeekExampleSilentFamiliarSilent Films Author:Laura Moriarty
“What we accomplished during World War Two is just amazing. We turned our country upside down. African Americans were demanding to be given combat missions. 10% of Americans moved in order to relocate for a war job. We as a country accomplished this heroic, nearly miraculous thing, and we have this legacy of policies and agency - how did they do it? How did they fund it? How did they organize it? It is actually an example that we can borrow from very productively to guide us.” WorldTwoWarCountryJobsOrderGivenPolicyExampleMovedMissionsGuidesOur CountryAfrican AmericanLegacyWar Of The WorldsAgencyAccomplishedFundCombatHeroicOrganizeMiraculousUpside DownWorld War Two Author:Margaret D. Klein
“At the moment, for example, maybe ten percent of money in the world is related to goods and services. Ninety percent of money is just moving around the world, chasing money. So, money has become the ruler. And we have become the servant.” WorldMomentsMovingExampleTenPercentAround The WorldServantRelatedGoodsRulersChasingNinetyGoods And ServicesChasing Money Author:Satish Kumar
“Mac [Barnett] and I prank each other during our presentation. We show baby pictures of each other looking completely ridiculous. I can't believe the frilly shirt that I'm in, and Mac's wearing a sailor suit and playing a toy piano. That's a perfect example of a good prank, where we have three hundred people literally laughing in our faces, three hundred kids at every assembly. And it feels really good. It's really fun.” PeopleFeelsBelieveI CanShowsKidsFacesThreeFunPerfectLaughingExampleBabyHundredRidiculousSuitsPianoShirtsToysPresentationAssemblySailorMacsPranksBaby Pictures Author:Jory John
“What's really interesting, though, is that some people in the Messirya are starting to see Darfuri rebels - so non-Arab, [from the] Justice and Equality Movement - have moved over into Southern Kordofan, which is supposed to be a Messirya stronghold, and started recruiting Messirya to go and fight against the Khartoum government in Darfur. Just another example of how everything in Sudan is interlinked.” PeopleGovernmentFightingJusticeInterestingExampleMovementMovedStartingSupposed To BeSouthernRebelReally InterestingEquality And JusticeSudanStrongholdsDarfur Author:Rebecca Hamilton
“That being said, some of my favorite poets are extremely funny. The aforementioned Matt Rohrer, for instance. Mary Ruefle. James Tate might be the best example of someone who is systematically misread because he can be hilarious. In his poems, as in all great funny poems, the humor is one very appealing version of the surprise and associative movement that is at the heart of all poetry.” HeartSaidMightExampleMovementPoetSurpriseMy FavoriteVersionsInstanceBeing The BestMaryExtremely Funny Author:Matthew Zapruder
“That said, a lot of people buy products with "green" in the brand name, but make no attempt to understand what it would really take to live sustainably. I think one of the most pernicious examples of magical environmental thinking is the anti-GMO movement.” PeopleThinkingSaidNamesExampleMovementProductsGreenEnvironmentalBrandsPerniciousGmosBrand Names Author:Annalee Newitz
“The early Triassic was a period when the planet was recovering from the worst mass extinction it had ever known - that was the end Permian extinction, where climate change caused in part by mega-volcanic eruptions wiped out ninety-five percent of life on Earth. It took about ten or twenty million years for the planet's ecosystems to stabilize. During that time you saw a lot of weird, out-of-balance ecosystems where, for example, crocodile-like predators ripped the crap out of each other along the coasts.” YearsEndsEarthKnownMillionsFiveSawsWorstExamplePlanetsBalancePeriodsTenMassPercentTwentiesClimateClimate ChangeCrapCoastNinetyExtinctionEcosystemsPredatorRippedRecoveringCrocodilesEruptionMegaMass ExtinctionVolcanic Eruptions Author:Annalee Newitz
“In terms of fiction, there are a number of writers who are thinking about the future of the environment whose work complements mine. Kim Stanley Robinson's novel 2312 is a great example, as is Tobias Buckell's novel Arctic Rising.” ThinkingTermNumbersFictionNovelEnvironmentExampleMinesRisingKimArcticComplementStanleyTobiasThinking About The Future Author:Annalee Newitz
“There is less gray area there, less doubt. There is a security in being some thing all the way. Our culture, too, encourages this way of being - exaggeration, for example, is the key to advertising success in the United States. But hyperbole also seems a big part of Iranian culture, as well.” WayWellsStatesBigsSeemsCultureUnitedUnited StatesDoubtSecurityExampleKeysAreasAdvertisingGrayExaggerationIranianHyperboleGray Area Author:Porochista Khakpour
“For example, instead of being asked to write an article, suddenly editors wanted me to make super-short videos. The assumptions of those video gigs was that kids don't read as much news and basically need to be read to, which I found really problematic and kind of insulting. I thought, Isn't it just that you don't have any money and that's why you want me to make some crappy "content" for your website?” WantNeedsWritingKindKidsWantedFoundExampleNewsVideoAssumptionEditorsArticlesWant MeGigsWebsiteInsultingYou Want Me Author:Astra Taylor
“I'm interested in the way the whole cultural landscape can shift over time. Okay, this will seem like a silly example, but look at the whole discourse around "selling out," a concept people say is irrelevant because there's no more distinction between mainstream and underground, inside and outside (which I don't really believe, but that's another issue).” PeopleWayBelieveLooksWholeSeemsIssuesExampleConceptsOkaySillySellingLandscapeDistinctionMainstreamDiscourseIrrelevantSelling OutInside And Outside Author:Astra Taylor
“I think that overall, ultimately the impact of advertisers calling the shots is a more cloying, complacent culture. For example, it was just announced that Unilever is branding environmental content at The Guardian. How radical or pointed can that content be?” ThinkingCultureExampleCallingShotsImpactEnvironmentalRadicalBrandingGuardianComplacentAdvertisersCalling The Shots Author:Astra Taylor
“Not to give too big of a spoiler, but I never find myself thinking, for example, Oh, remember that crazy time I stumbled on that closeted Republican candidate's sex tape?” ThinkingGivingBigsRememberSexCrazyExampleRepublicanCandidatesTapeSpoilersCrazy Times Author:Kathleen Rooney
“I try to think as little as possible, at least while working. I look at some of my early stories and can see the machination behind them, like a gear slowly moving. For example, sticking a dead father into the story to explain a character's sadness and bad decisions, or trying to impress myself with my own cleverness.” ThinkingTryingLooksLittlesCharacterStoriesMovingFatherMy OwnDecisionBehindsSadnessExampleImpressGearsClevernessBad DecisionDead Father Author:Mary J. Miller
“Math-thinking, I would say, encourages flipping and substituting letters in words (in the novel, one of the boys double-majors in math and myth, for example, and his twin cracks a joke about the father's handwriting that morphs "cacography" into "dadography").” ThinkingFatherBoysNovelExampleMajorsJokesLettersMathMythCracksTwinsHandwriting Author:Mary Kay Zuravleff
“The ways sexuality plays out in political economies is central. And Cambodia's political economy is organized around this notion of family. So lesbianism is actually perceived as being threatening to a degree that it would have not been, for example, under socialist East Germany. But it's one of the essential issues of women's freedom: Do you get to do want you want to do with your body? Not if you don't know what your body is for.” IfsKnowsWayWantPlayBodyPoliticalEconomyIssuesExampleEssentialsDegreesNotionSexualityEastYour BodyGermanyOrganizedSocialistThreateningPolitical EconomyCambodiaLesbianismEast Germany Author:Anne Elizabeth Moore
“There are famous examples of people who just had really strange ways - [Jimi] Hendrix being the biggest example of that. Or someone like Keith Richards, he just has a really idiosyncratic style.” PeopleWayStyleExampleStrangeHendrixKeith Author:Bryce Dessner
“Frank [Zappa] always wanted to do a sound library - he sampled so many great musicians. For piano, for example, he sampled every octave, not just one (that you could just transpose electronically), and he did all different types of attack, with and without pedals, all that kind of stuff.” KindDifferentWantedStuffSoundExampleTypeMusicianLibraryPianoJust OneFrankGreat MusicPedalsGreat MusicianZappa Author:Gail Zappa
“I don't know what to say about Asians. I think everyone is "racist," to differing degrees, in that everyone's brain will automatically associate information with other information, based on the information they are looking at (for example skin color, bone structure), but I think focusing on race in any manner that isn't neutral or self-aware probably increases racism.” ThinkingKnowsSelfRaceBrainInformationExampleColorDegreesRacismSkinsIncreaseStructureBonesRacistAssociatesSkin Color Author:Tao Lin
“Alan Menken, for example, is one of my heroes for all of the music he's written for Disney.” WrittenExampleHeroMy Hero Author:Dave Koz
“On the one hand the world is getting more integrated and we should not dismiss social values as "Western" when they are actually modern values. On the other hand, individual countries have their own history and their own evolution. Trade unions, for example, don't play the same role in China as they do in Europe or the US.” WorldShouldCountryPlayHandsValuesIndividualSocialRolesModernExampleEvolutionEuropeTradeUnionsWesternChinaIntegratedTrade UnionsSocial Values Author:Zhang Xin
“It is worthwhile to engage in something that is close to one's heart. I had a scholarship. So if I donate money to give brilliant Chinese students an opportunity to study abroad, then this embodies everything I believe in: education, globalization, social mobility. I am an example of social mobility.” IfsGivingBelieveHeartOpportunityI BelieveSocialStudyExampleStudentsI Believe InBrilliantChineseWorthwhileGlobalizationScholarshipMobilityDonateStudy AbroadSocial Mobility Author:Zhang Xin
“A good example of how it must have been is today's world of conducting, which is still utterly dominated by men, and the prejudice the few female conductors have to battle even today is astounding.” MenWorldHas BeensStillsTodayExampleBattleFemalePrejudiceConductorGood ExamplesConductingToday's World Author:Lara St. John
“I just used to love the sound of especially a female vocal like Ella Fitzgerald for example, it's just that empowering self-control that can make a whole room go silent. I fell in love with that sound.” SelfWholeUsedSoundRoomsExampleFemaleSilentEmpoweringSelf ControlVocalUsed To Love Author:Ella Henderson
“I don't think you see a pirate with a parrot on his shoulder, for example. And even with the accents.” ThinkingExampleShouldersAccentsPirateParrots Author:Ray Stevenson
“If someone is brought in for an interview, for example, and is asked about their views on things, but has posted things that are completely contrary to the interview, frankly I have much more faith in what they posted than what they say during the course of an interview.” IfsCoursesViewsExampleContraryInterviews Author:Adam Schiff
“For example, John Law's Mississippi Company venture printed shares, and the money had gone up in smoke when it had been inscribed objects. The inscription made it magic and changed its meaning. That's how objects become charmed in The Arabian Nights, and they are often originally ordinary objects. The carpet is an ordinary, paltry object. The lamp is a rusty old lamp, and the bottles jinns are imprisoned within are old bottles. They are changed by the magic and the jinn's presence, and the jinn's presence is often embodied in the seal or inscription.” MadeLawNightCompanyGoneMagicShareExampleObjectsChangedOrdinaryMade ItSmokeBottlesVentureLampsCarpetPrintedSealsMississippiCharmedInscriptionsArabianJinnArabian Nights Author:Marina Warner
“There are a range of women not represented in the Western fairy tale tradition. Husband-beaters are particularly interesting, as well as male pederasts. Children are often told in The Arabian Nights, "This man likes to abduct boys, be careful of him." These issues are explored through the medium of the stories, but actually the architecture of the book is such that there are many examples of women who are loyal, brave, devoted - especially to their lovers.” MenWellsChildrenBookStoriesNightInterestingBoysIssuesExampleLoversHusbandTraditionBraveWesternMalesCarefulArchitectureLikesTalesMediumsRangeFairyBe CarefulFairy TaleLoyalDevotedArabianArabian Nights Author:Marina Warner
“An interesting example is that the worst woman in the book, who is so cruel and violent, is the sorceress in "The Prince of the Black Islands." She's a beautiful young woman, and she has turned her husband into stone from the waist down. A traveling sultan finds him, in his dreadful state, and the man petrified from the waist down tells his sad story...how his wife comes every afternoon and beats him until the blood runs down. She's just unwontedly, arbitrarily cruel.” MenBookStatesStoriesRunningBeautifulYoungBlackInterestingWifeBloodWorstExampleHe ManHusbandBeatsStonesViolentIslandsAfternoonYoung WomenSad StorySorceress Author:Marina Warner
“Love can make you turn on yourself, and it can do harmful things to you. It's a deep lesson in human psychology, as with many of the stories. Anyways, that's just an example of one of the most wicked women in the Nights.” HumansStoriesNightTurnsCan DoPsychologyExampleLessonsWickedTurn-on Author:Marina Warner
“There's a whole slew of wonderful speculation of flying in a fanciful way. Gulliver is one of the central examples; Swift has the hum of Arabian Nights in his ear with Gulliver's Travels. The difference is in scale - Gulliver as a kind of Sinbad kind of figure, the way he is picked up and carried. Just to finish up with Scheherazade, I do think that The Arabian Nights could be considered as a great book on women's position in the world.” ThinkingWorldWayKindBookWholeNightDifferencesWonderfulFiguresExamplePositionEarsFlyingScalesSpeculationGreat BookArabianGulliverArabian NightsGulliver's Travels Author:Marina Warner
“You don't really want an army of people making individual decisions. And I don't think I completely understood that until people gave me examples of what happens when your army takes over your government and it's like, "Oh, yeah, I guess you can't really have people make individual moral decisions."” PeopleThinkingWantGovernmentHappensIndividualDecisionMoralExampleUnderstoodArmyYeahOver YouMoral Decisions Author:Joel Stein
“Someone said to me that we have to encourage more young women to want top-level editing jobs. I think that will happen naturally as we have more role models, more examples of boss ladies who aren't sad and cruel and overworked and undersexed like in DevilWearsPrada, but who are straight-up owning it and notable not for their gender but for their editorial savvy.” ThinkingWantSaidHappensJobsYoungLevelsRolesExampleModelsGenderBossRole ModelsYoung WomenEditingNotableEditorialsSavvyStraight UpOwning It Author:Ann Friedman
“I began to firmly change my mind when I saw how young Egyptians used Facebook, for example, to begin to coalesce their social justice movement in their country. And a good Iranian friend of mine showed me how also in Iran, till the government shut it down, much was communicated via social media. So I'm not against. I use the internet regularly to do research. It's great but you have to use your discernment, especially if researching content.” IfsMindCountryUseGovernmentYoungUsedSocialJusticeSawsMediaExampleMovementMinesInternetResearchSocial JusticeSocial MediaIranDiscernmentIranian Author:Micheline Aharonian Marcom
“For example, an author whose parents fled a war but he himself was born in the country where they fled to, and that is where he went to school and college before he wrote his first book of poetry in the language of this country - he should be labeled as: "Author whose parents fled a war but he himself was born in the country where they fled to, and that is where he went to school and college before he wrote his first book of poetry in the language of this country."” ShouldFirstsBookWarCountrySchoolLanguageParentBornExampleCollege Author:Sasa Stanisic
“I also did a great amount of writing while doing research. It gave me the opportunity to meet and talk to people other than family, but also to explore my own memory deeper by comparing it to the memories of others who were in my home town during, for example, the political transition from socialism to a nationalistic "democracy" or during the bombings.” PeopleWritingHomePoliticalOpportunityMemoriesMy OwnDemocracyExampleAmountResearchTownsDeeperSocialismCompareTransitionBombingNationalisticHome Town Author:Sasa Stanisic
“Many messages are just thanking a stranger for a kindness...I love those ones, because I imagine everyone else reading them feels encouraged by such examples of humanity and generosity and tenderness. And if they encourage us to reach out to strangers more often, that's a good thing.” IfsFeelsHumanityReadingKindnessImagineExampleMessagesGood ThingsStrangerGenerosityReach OutTenderness Author:Sophie Blackall
“A lot of things sound neutral, but they're not. A typical example would involve police violence. It's usually forbidden to call police "murderers," even if they're convicted of murder. People will say that it sounds hysterical and unobjective.” PeopleIfsSoundViolenceExampleMurderPoliceTypicalForbiddenMurdererHystericalPolice Violence Author:Molly Crabapple
“And if you look at the experience of Turkey, for example, where the modern Islamists are in power and are doing fine - this is very good. Because democracy is not possible in the Muslim world without bringing in the Islamists or part of the Islamists who hate us now into these governments.” IfsWorldLooksGovernmentHateDemocracyModernExampleFineVery GoodTurkeysIslamistsMuslim World Author:Yaroslav Trofimov
“Germany is Europe's heart. But bitterness is widespread. Currently the Germans hate the Greeks and the Greeks hate the Germans. The demonization of the country has to stop if we want a strong Europe. So I am setting a positive example.” IfsWantHeartCountryHateStrongExampleEuropeSettingSettingsGreekGermanyBitterness Author:Yanis Varoufakis
“If a person just takes what is socio-political and geographical from the themes of my films then that's not enough. But if the person goes out of the theatre and, for example, makes the dinner he's eating later on, extra nice then I feel that I have succeeded. We have this urge to anaesthetize the moment we're living in.” IfsFeelsPersonsEnoughMomentsFilmPoliticalNiceExampleEatingDinnerTheatreExtrasThemeUrges Author:Elia Suleiman
“I definitely have friends who - they've gone to multiple jobs, they've had trouble finding jobs, some have gone back to school - it's a very transitional period in anyone's life. I think definitely people have, even like my girlfriend for example, she works her job - and just the fact that she has a job - she just feels super lucky in this economy. But it can really shape, I think, the way you view the world.” PeopleThinkingWorldWayFeelsFactsSchoolJobsViewsEconomyGoneTroubleExamplePeriodsShapesLuckyFindingsGirlfriendMultipleMy GirlfriendMultiple Jobs Author:Chris Baio
“Take charity work for example; the motivation of my various charitable activities is neither for fame nor profits. It is my sincere wish that, through my efforts, more people can realize how important it is to protect our planet and to start to act for a change.” PeopleImportantMotivationWishRealizingEffortExamplePlanetsActivityFameProtectCharityProfitVariousSincereOur PlanetCharitableCharity Work Author:Li Bingbing