“Well I've made no secret of my life long love of MAD Magazine, it's probably my first and greatest influence in terms of my comic sensibilities. I've known John [Ficarra] for many years, and we've been friends. About four or five months ago, at a dinner in New York, John made the very nice offer of my being guest editor for an issue of MAD and I thought about it for about half a nanosecond and decided that was a pretty good idea.” YearsFirstsWellsLongMadeIdeasTermSecretHalfKnownIssuesFiveFourNiceInfluenceNew YorkMonthsOffersDecidedMadDinnerMagazinesComicEditorsGood IdeasGuestsSensibilityLong LifeVery NiceLong Love Author:Al Yankovic
“Lyndon Johnson (with Abraham Lincoln close behind). Johnson was able to get things done, to read other people, and to adjust his own approach accordingly. One of the reasons he has so fascinated biographer Robert Caro over the years is Johnson's consummate skill in acquiring and using influence.” PeopleYearsReasonDoneAbleBehindsInfluenceSkillsApproachFascinatedJohnsonAbrahamThings DoneBiographers Author:Jeffrey Pfeffer
“Cultures, when they meet, influence one another, whether people like it or not. But Americans don't have any way of describing this secret that has been going on for more than two hundred years. The intermarriage of the Indian and the African in America, for example, has been constant and thorough. Colin Powell tells us in his autobiography that he is Scotch, Irish, African, Indian, and British, but all we hear is that he is African.” PeopleWayYearsHas BeensTwoAmericaCultureSecretInfluenceExampleHundredConstantBritishIndianAutobiographyDescribingThoroughScotchIntermarriage Author:Richard Rodriguez
“Really, more than anything, The 2000 Year Old Man is a huge influence on all of our comedy, but specifically the live version of Oh, Hello.” MenYearsComedyInfluenceHugeVersionsOld ManHello Author:Nick Kroll
“I always lived in a multilingual society (Polish-Ukrainian, German-Ukrainian, English-Ukrainian), and was open to outside linguistic influences. I think it was within three years of coming to the US that I started writing in English, although purely for myself, not trying to get it published. Living in America, I was constantly in touch with English, and Ukrainian was for me a private language.” ThinkingWritingTryingYearsAmericaThreeLanguageInfluenceThree YearsPolishUkrainian Author:Yuriy Tarnawsky
“Why do people like America? They say, well, you have the largest military in the world. Because you have more people, et cetera. They like America for what we stand for. And one of the things, and I feel proud to be, what this president's for, the last seven years, is we have once again aligned our basic fundamental beliefs and principles with our conduct. And it matters. It matters in terms of our security. It matters in terms of our ability to influence the world. It matters in our ability to succeed.” PeopleWorldFeelsYearsWellsMatterLastsAmericaBeliefPresidentTermAbilityPrinciplesInfluenceSecurityMilitaryProudSucceedFundamentalsSevenSeven YearsAbility To Succeed Author:Joe Biden
“My first encounter with yoga was in 1969 with my older brother Doug. I was thirteen years old, and he was eighteen. He'd learned about yoga in California on a surfing trip, and when he came back to Houston, Texas, he introduced me to this new stuff he'd learned. I'll always be grateful for that positive influence at an early age.” YearsFirstsAgeStuffInfluenceBrotherYogaGratefulCaliforniaEncountersTexasBe GratefulSurfingEighteenThirteenHoustonOlder BrotherNew StuffPositive InfluenceThirteen Year Olds Author:David F. Swensen
“June [Hillary] is a very strong influence in my life and particularly now in my ancient years there is no doubt at all: if there's a decision to be made, quite often June is the one who makes it.” IfsYearsMadeStrongDecisionDoubtInfluenceAncientNo DoubtVery StrongJune Author:Edmund Hillary
“Life is a building. It rises slowly, day by day throughout the years. Every new lesson we learn lays a block on the edifice, which is rising silently within us. Every experience, every touch of another life on ours, every influence that impresses us, every book we read, every conversation we hear, every act of our commonest days, adds something to the invisible building.” LifeYearsBookLife IsInfluenceBuildingLessonsConversationLaysAddInvisibleBlockRisingImpressAnother LifeEdifice Author:J.R. Miller
“When you look at Harlem - and I lived there almost five years - most of the people who live in Harlem are transplants. They migrate to Harlem from another place. A lot of them are from the south, so they bring those southern influences with them.” PeopleYearsLooksFiveInfluenceSouthFive YearsSouthernHarlemTransplantsMigrate Author:Mike Colter
“My clinical psychologist wife of 40 years has always had a close intellectual influence on me. When I was beginning to talk openly in the economics profession about irrationality in decision-making, I received a lot of criticism. Ginny would support my views and remind me that a whole other profession - psychology - studies people's irrational sides.” PeopleYearsWholeSidesDecisionViewsSupportStudyPsychologyWifeInfluenceIntellectualEconomicsCriticismProfessionDecision MakingIrrationalPsychologistIrrationalityClinicalsClinical Psychologists Author:Robert J. Shiller
“If you stay in the mainstream of life, in other words, you let in the suffering of the world that invariably enters all of our lives by the time we're in our middle years, when we've experienced a few deaths and read a few headlines. Famine, poverty, abuse, you can't keep that all blocked out. If you let those things teach you, influence you, change you, those are the events that transition you without you even knowing it to become more compassionate. In other words, you hold onto your values, but you do it much more inclusively, humbly and in an open ended way. Suffering takes you there.” IfsWorldWayYearsSufferingValuesPovertyTeachKnowingOur LivesInfluenceMiddleEventsAbuseLive ByTransitionCompassionateMainstreamWithout YouFamineHeadlinesBlocked Author:Richard Rohr