Novelist; author of The Joy Luck Club
I didn’t fear failure. I expected failure. I think I’ve always been somebody, since the deaths of my father and brother, who was afraid to hope.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1996
One question · 6 of 82 answers to it
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure?
26th President of the United States, 1901–1909; Governor of New York 1899–1900; Assistant Secretary of the Navy 1897–1898
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
Recorded · The American Presidency Project, University of California Santa Barbara · 1910
Co-founder, president and chief executive of NVIDIA
One setback after another, we shook it off and skated to the next opportunity. Each time, we gain skills and strengthen our character.
Recorded · NVIDIA Blog · 2024
Basketball player and author
I had self doubts when I was a freshman in high school. I was 14 years old and not very mature, and there were a few incidents in my freshman year.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1989
Veterinary surgeon and immunologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 1996
I tried for a Ph.D. scholarship to work with Cedric Mims, but was told to apply again later because he already had a "scholar" and would take only one student at a time.
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 1996
Dog musher; four-time winner of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race
I feel that because I challenge myself so often, sometimes I will fail. This is, to me, the essence of competition — that there will be both winners and losers.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1991
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.
If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere, what would it say and why?
United States international footballer, 2001–2015
GIVE ME THE RESPECT I'VE EARNED AND GIVE IT TO MY WOLF PACK TOO.
Recorded · Speakola · 2018
Chancellor of Germany, 2005–2021; Leader of the Christian Democratic Union 2000–2018
Tear down walls of ignorance and narrow-mindedness, for nothing has to stay as it is.
Recorded · The Harvard Gazette, Harvard University · 2019
Secretary-General of the United Nations, 1997–2006
In this new century, we must start from the understanding that peace belongs not only to states or peoples, but to each and every member of those communities.
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation · 2001
What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you have ever made — of money, time, or energy?
42nd President of the United States, 1993–2001
My job was basically to be a delivery boy for all kinds of things, but they also — because I was at Georgetown and studying international affairs, I was assigned to read six newspapers a…
Recorded · Academy of Achievement
Abolitionist, orator, newspaper editor and U.S. diplomat; U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia 1877–1881; U.S. Minister Resident to Haiti 1889–1891
From these remarks it will be evident that, allowing only ordinary ability and opportunity, we may explain success mainly by one word and that word is WORK! WORK!! WORK!!! WORK!!!!
Recorded · Teaching American History, reproducing Frederick Douglass Papers, Library of Congress Manuscript Division
Founder of the Green Belt Movement; Member of Parliament for Tetu, Kenya, 2002–2007; Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources 2003–2005
Tree planting became a natural choice to address some of the initial basic needs identified by women.
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation · 2004
What is an unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love?
Novelist and editor; Nobel laureate in Literature, 1993
I, at first, thought I didn’t have a ritual, but then I remembered that I always get up and make a cup of coffee while it is still dark—it must be dark—and then I drink the coffee and watch…
Recorded · The Paris Review · 1993
Theoretical physicist; Nobel laureate in Physics, 1965
one of my diseases, one of my things in life, is that anything that is secret I try to undo. And so the locks to those filing cabinets represented a challenge to me.
Recorded · Engineering and Science / Caltech Magazine · 1976
United States professional tennis player, 1995–2022
I love to entertain. I'm not sure every player sees it that way, but I love the performance aspect of it—to be able to entertain people week after week.
Recorded · Vogue · 2022
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 →Adrian Scarborough, Alexis Ohanian, Alfred Molina, Angus Deayton, Brendan Rodgers, Brett Anderson, Cakes da Killa, Cecile Richards, Clare Smyth, Cuba Gooding Jr, David Macklovitch, Gina McKee, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Howard Marks, Jessica Hynes, Jim Kerr, Joan Bakewell, Jodie Whittaker, Joely Richardson, John Waters, Julie Taymor, Kate Nash, Katherine Parkinson, Kelly Macdonald, Laurel Halo, Malcolm Gladwell, Marcus Brigstocke, Marissa Nadler, Meghan Trainor, Naomi Campbell, Nina Katchadourian, Nobu Matsuhisa, Ralf Little, Rosie Stockton, Rupert Graves, Siobhán McSweeney, Siri Hustvedt, Suzi Quatro, Vicky McClure, Viswanathan Anand
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
- 8,157
- 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.