Novelist, poet and critic
I would so much like to have a daily writing schedule. If I had one, I'd probably start about 9.30, write for 2 hours, have lunch, write another 2, then goof off.
Recorded · Reddit · 2014
One question · 6 of 29 answers to it
What does the first sixty minutes of your day look like?
Novelist
Usually, my irrational bargaining goes something like this: I start working at around 10 if I’m feeling motivated, 11 if I’m not.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2017
Co-founder and chief executive of Nubank
Apenas me despierto, a las 5:00 a. m., cuando voy a hacer deporte. Es lo primero que cojo cuando me despierto. No es la mejor práctica, pero sí desde tempranito.
Recorded · Semana · 2022
British Paralympic swimmer, 2008–2021
I love swimming and I'll still be found in the pool, but now I'll be able to do without the 04:30 alarm!
Recorded · ParalympicsGB · 2021
Film director, screenwriter and painter
On October 13, 2020, David Lynch rose and did what he had typically been doing each morning when he awoke during a long-term Covid isolation in his house and work studio just off Mulholland…
Recorded · GQ · 2025
Co-founder, president and chief executive of NVIDIA
I begin each morning, I do every single morning exactly the same way, I begin each morning by doing my highest priority work first.
Recorded · The Singju Post · 2024
Answers marked Recorded were said elsewhere and are quoted with the publication and date they came from. Those people have not joined — nobody here answers on anyone else's behalf.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
British Paralympic swimmer, 2008–2021
When I was in Beijing, London, and also in Rio I was still a kid really, I didn't feel pressure. Now I'm a 26 year old woman. Being a lot older I feel those expectations.
Recorded · The Telegraph · 2021
Kenyan marathon runner
You run, eat, sleep, walk around - that's how life is. You don't get complicated. The moment you get complicated it distracts your mind.
Recorded · BBC Sport · 2019
Writer and facilitator; author of Emergent Strategy and Pleasure Activism
I’m taking more baths and showers to allow the water to help cleanse me and shift me.
Recorded · Colorlines · 2016
What small daily thing do you do that most people would consider a waste of time?
Novelist, dramatist and screenwriter
Do, occasionally, give in to temptation. Wash the kitchen floor, hang out the washing. It’s research.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2010
Composer, pianist and record producer
It’s wasting time to listen to music when you go outside because there are so many interesting noises. For example, every time it rains, I open the window and put the recorder outside.
Recorded · Kinfolk · 2018
Kenyan marathon runner
When you become a boss, you don't think straight. It's better to be a leader than a boss. That is why I do my share of the cleaning. That is how to show the way to young people.
Recorded · BBC Sport · 2020
What is the worst advice you received that you followed anyway?
Senator and comedian
Some of the worst advice I've been given doesn't sort of sound like terrible advice. And maybe it's the way I've internalized the advice.
Recorded · Fresh Air Archive · 2002
Atmospheric chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1995
I did. As a kid, I liked music. I still like it a lot of course. I used to play the violin. I did contemplate, well, maybe that’s an option. I could become a musician.
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 2014
Novelist and screenwriter; author of The School for Good and Evil
This professor was obviously on the jury, and I wanted to stay the faculty’s blessed son, and so I trusted external validation at this point in my life more than my own creative compass.
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2018
People, by what they do
- Science and medicine 105
- Arts and letters 1211
- Politics and public life 132
- Business and finance 70
- Technology 47
- Sport 109
Recorded for public figures, from the source their answers were taken from. Browse by era too.
Questions, by subject
- Identity & self 14
- Values & belief 13
- Change of mind 1
- Failure & regret 9
- Craft & work 36
- Money & investment 4
- Taste & recommendation 6
- Relationships 5
- Time & hindsight 8
- Death & what remains 13
- Daily life 9
- Attention & the world 8
Every question the bank can deal, in the order it was written. See all 126.
Some of the people here · A–Z
Find someone →Agnès Varda, Akio Toyoda, Alan Shepard, Arine Aprahamian, Arlene Phillips, Cal Ripken Jr., Charlotte Rampling, Chris Bonington, Chrissie Hynde, Daniel Mays, David Jason, Diane Keaton, Donovan, Edmund Hillary, Frank Owen, Gina McKee, Greg Mendez, Guy Raz, Harry Enfield, Heidi Klum, Jeremy Deller, Joan Bakewell, John Malkovich, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Martha Nussbaum, Morgan Parker, Nicola Adams, Olivia de Havilland, Phyllis Bramson, Reinhold Messner, Rhys Ifans, Rupert Graves, Sam Mendes, Sandy Powell, Sarah Brown, Satya Nadella, Shakin' Stevens, Simone Giertz, Sophia Loren, Tamsin Greig
Answers that stay at one address
You are dealt a few questions at a time and answer the ones you want to. What you write gets a permanent address and keeps it. Rewrite it whenever you like and say why — the new version goes up beside the old one rather than over it, so changing your mind reads as thinking rather than as a reversal.
You write before you read. Other members' answers to a question stay shut until you have answered it or passed on it, because reading first changes what you would have said. Passing is free and it is permanent.
- People
- 1,679
- Answers
- 8,159
- Questions
- 126
- First said
- 1910–2026
Most of what is here so far was said somewhere else and recorded with its source — a named person, a publication and a date, on every line. Nothing has been deleted.