What is the thing you are best at that nobody watching can see?

I have followed that advice - with, I confess, occasional lapses not only at home, but in the places I have worked, even in relating to my colleagues at the Supreme Court. It is important to be a good listener if you are to work with others effectively, but it also pays, sometimes, to be a little deaf - for example, in my current position, when a colleague, academic commentator, or journalist writes that an opinion on which I labored endless hours, worrying over every word, is "sloppy," "smug," "strange," or "profoundly misguided." I am making none of those up.

Recorded · New York Law School Law Review dinner, 12 February 1999 · source

I want my readers to laugh sometimes. Many readers in Japan read my books on the train while commuting. The average salaryman spends two hours a day commuting and he spends those hours reading. That’s why my big books are printed in two volumes: They would be too heavy in one. Some people write me letters, complaining that they laugh when they read my books on the train! It’s very embarrassing for them. Those are the letters I like most. I know they are laughing, reading my books; that’s good. I like to make people laugh every ten pages.

Recorded · John Wray, The Paris Review, issue 170, Summer 2004, 1 January 2004 · source

Perhaps one character trait which does help is the ability to focus, and perhaps to be a little stubborn. If I learned something in class that I only partly understood, I wasn't satisfied until I was able to work the whole thing out; it would bother me that the explanation wasn't clicking together like it should. So I'd often spend a lot of time on very simple things until I could understand them backwards and forwards, which really helps when one then moves on to more advanced parts of the subject.

Recorded · International Mathematical Union, Interview conducted by the International Mathematical Union on the award of the Fields Medal, 1 September 2006 · source

For me, to be a writer is to acknowledge the secret wounds that we carry inside us, the wounds so secret that we ourselves are barely aware of them, and to patiently explore them, know them, illuminate them, to own these pains and wounds, and to make them a conscious part of our spirits and our writing. A writer talks of things that everyone knows but does not know they know.

Recorded · Swedish Academy, Stockholm, 7 December 2006, 7 December 2006 · source

I just like to get to the start line knowing there was nothing else I could have done, that there wasn't a single session I didn't give 100 per cent. The physical certainty means you can relax mentally and let the performance come.

Recorded · 1 January 2008 · source

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: if it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

Recorded · The Guardian Review, 20 February 2010 · source

I love training. It's not just about the competing. I had an amount of natural talent – you need that to go so far – but, actually, what I had, I think, is an ability to make myself work hard, to do the things I didn't like doing, to do the things that I wasn't so good at.

Recorded · Oral history interview, 1 January 2015 · source

And finally, change requires more than just speaking out -- it requires listening, as well. In particular, it requires listening to those with whom you disagree, and being prepared to compromise. When I was a state senator, I helped pass Illinois's first racial profiling law, and one of the first laws in the nation requiring the videotaping of confessions in capital cases. And we were successful because, early on, I engaged law enforcement.

Recorded · Howard University, Washington, D.C., 7 May 2016 · source

I find that you’re a completely different person as a maker than you are as a listener. That’s one of the reasons I so often leave the studio to listen to things. A lot of people never leave the studio when they’re making something, so they’re always in that maker mode, screwdriving things in - adding, adding, adding. Because it seems like the right thing to be doing in that room. But it’s when you come out that you start to hear what you like.

Recorded · Pitchfork, Eno's London studio, February 2017, 1 February 2017 · source

What kind of talent I had when I was really young was that I was able to concentrate on something for a really long time. My interest didn't really wane...That's been my main advantage. I've never been the one to grasp things the quickest, but I never stopped learning as soon as I became interested in a subject.

Recorded · On-stage interview, Milken Institute Global Conference, Los Angeles, 5 May 2017 · source

When I have a lot of pain, I try to confuse my mind to forget about the pain and think about the distance. I don't want pain to be in my mind, because I'd really lose focus on running. After winning, you won't have that pain, but it comes later. The marathon is hard; the second day, you don't go up or down stairs.

Recorded · Address and Q&A at the Oxford Union Society, November 2017, 10 February 2018 · source

I was very, very thorough, making sure I really understood how that telescope worked, and that it was working properly. I was quite convinced that I wasn't clever enough to be in Cambridge and would be thrown out at some stage. My policy was to work as hard as I could so that I'd know I'd done my best. We now label this as impostor syndrome, but we didn't recognise, and certainly didn't name it, back then.

Recorded · Louise Walsh, University of Cambridge 'Journeys of Discovery' interview series, 1 January 2020 · source

Well, yes, no, I certainly visualise … it was really … I had to have a very good idea of the geometry – that was crucial. Spacetime geometry so it's not three dimensions, you have to think of the whole four dimensional spacetime, and I get sort of used to thinking about four dimensions and using various tricks to get the picture properly. I do most of my thinking in visual terms, and I'm a very visual thinker rather than writing down equations.

Recorded · Adam Smith, Telephone interview recorded shortly after the prize announcement, 6 October 2020 · source

I wanted to be an Olympic champion and I didn't care about the goings-on around me. In my heart and with all of my soul I was ready, willing and I was very able. I had a deadly sense of self-belief. I'd go to another level and say I had a deadly sense of self-conviction where you can say whatever you want, you can do whatever you want but you're not going to touch me.

Recorded · 1 January 2021 · source

Literally can not tell up from down. It's the craziest feeling ever. Not having an inch of control over your body. What's even scarier is since I have no idea where I am in the air, I also have NO idea how I am going to land. Or what I am going to land on. Head/hands/feet back…

Recorded · Instagram Stories, 30 July 2021 · source

Of all of the things that I value most about my abilities, intelligence is not top of that list. My ability to endure pain and suffering, my ability to work on something for a very, very long period of time, my ability to handle setbacks and see the opportunity just around the corner I consider to be my superpowers, and I hope they're yours.

Recorded · California Institute of Technology 130th Annual Commencement, 14 June 2024 · source

Being a scientist is about resilience because science is exploring the unknown, just as an immigrant is exploring the unknown. In both, you are on an uncertain journey and you have to find your own North Star.

Recorded · Stanford HAI interview marking publication of The Worlds I See · source

Curiosity is a form of humility — acknowledging that you don't know everything. Responding to curiosity allows other people to speak freely. Facts and details matter and inform a deeper and deeper analysis that allows you to continually revise and update your plans. This, of course, also means that you are constantly admitting prior mistakes. You need to shed sacred cows, seek out blind spots and challenge the status quo.

Recorded · JPMorgan Chase annual report, 2024 · source