British professional tennis player, 2005–2024
I've never set out to be a spokesperson for women's equality.
Recorded · BBC News · 2017
One question · 6 of 23 answers to it
In the last five years, what new belief, behaviour, or habit has most improved your life?
Chief executive of Alphabet and Google
It took me a while to realize that the internet would be the single best way to make technology accessible to more people.
Recorded · Google (The Keyword) · 2020
Former chief operating officer of Facebook; founder of LeanIn.org
Finding gratitude and appreciation is key to resilience. People who take the time to list things they are grateful for are happier and healthier.
Recorded · Los Angeles Times · 2016
Co-founder and chief executive of Nubank
Moving closer to work. I live in São Paulo, Brazil, and I used to spend an hour or more in traffic every day, just sitting in the car getting frustrated and anxious.
Recorded · Sequoia Capital · 2018
44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
You'll see I wear only gray or blue suits. … I'm trying to pare down decisions. I don't want to make decisions about what I'm eating or wearing.
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2012
Serbian professional tennis player
It was hard at first. I craved the soft, chewy, comforting feel of bread.
Recorded · Men's Journal · 2013
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.
What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore?
Founder of Patagonia
Invent your own game and that way you can always be a winner.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2019
Co-chief executive and president of Ariel Investments
I'd say be just like you. I once had someone tell me that I don't remind them of anyone that they ever met. And I took that as a huge compliment, which meant I was original.
Recorded · NPR · 2007
Physician and inventor; builder of the first practical artificial kidney
By the way, the guys with very high grades are not necessarily the people that are the most successful in later life.
Recorded · American Academy of Achievement
What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?
President of the Philippines, 1986–1992
I held out for participation in the 1984 election the dictatorship called, even if I knew it would be rigged.
Recorded · AmericanRhetoric.com · 1986
Engineer and designer; led the iPod and iPhone teams at Apple, founder of Nest Labs
every time I heard the word “smart” attached to anything, it means it’s pretty dumb, because no one knows what it really does.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2016
U.S. Representative from Georgia, 1987–2020; Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 1963–1966
I would come home and ask my mother, my father, my grandparents, my great-grandparents, 'Why?'. And they would say, 'That's the way it is. Don't get in the way, don't get in trouble!'
Recorded · Speakola (speech transcript archive) · 2014
In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to?
Novelist and essayist
Take no notice of anyone you don’t respect. […] Take no notice of anyone with a gender agenda. A lot of men still think that women lack imagination of the fiery kind.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2010
Novelist and essayist
To get this prize, I was required to talk about how important a particular European feminist woman writer had been to me.
Recorded · Wellesley College · 2015
Co-founder and chief executive of Apple; co-founder of NeXT; chief executive of Pixar
We tend to focus much more. People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all.
Recorded · Fortune · 2008
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 →Adam Zagajewski, Anne Enright, Anthony Kennedy, Aretha Franklin, Barbara McClintock, Brian Cox, Chris McCausland, David Hyde Pierce, Donatella Versace, Ed Harris, Eleanor Tomlinson, EL James, Francis Collins, Georgia Harmer, Hanna Tetteh, Helen Cammock, Henry R. Kravis, Jade Catta-Preta, Jenna Coleman, Jim Kerr, Jimmy Akingbola, Keith Richards, Kirsty Wark, Larry Ellison, Lee Berger, Lena Headey, Marc Guéhi, Michael Flatley, Michelle Dockery, Milton Jones, Nicola Roberts, Olly Alexander, Omid Safi, Patti LuPone, Raf Simons, Rita Ora, Russell Mael, Shinya Yamanaka, Steve Jones, Tom Ellis
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
- 8,158
- 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.