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?
Founder of Bridgewater Associates
I gained a humility that I needed in order to balance my audacity.
Recorded · TED · 2017
Novelist and screenwriter; Nobel laureate in Literature, 2017
The reason why so many vivid, undeniably convincing characters in novels, films and plays so often failed to touch me was because these characters didn’t connect to any of the other…
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation (nobelprize.org) · 2017
Co-founder and chief executive of Zerodha
Sleeping by 9 pm & getting a workout at 5 am has been helpful. Sleeping early reduces the chances of bingeing when we are drained and have low self-control at the end of the day.
Recorded · Nithin Kamath's blog · 2022
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
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
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?
Performance artist
Spend your time on something meaningful. Not on parties, and not on taking it easy. That’s not good enough.
Recorded · University Post (uniavisen.dk), University of Copenhagen
Co-founder of Microsoft; co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
My last piece of advice is the one I could have used the most. It took me a long time to learn. And it is this: You are not a slacker if you cut yourself some slack.
Recorded · Gates Notes · 2023
Filmmaker, Educator, and DJ
I would say start off small, build from there.
Recorded · ArtReview · 2024
What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?
Mathematician; Fields Medallist, 2006
AI without validation is too unreliable to be of use in any serious application.
Recorded · Quanta Magazine · 2026
Founder of Pallotta TeamWorks; founder of the Charity Defense Council
This is what happens when we confuse morality with frugality.
Recorded · TED · 2013
Naval aviator and astronaut; the first American in space and the fifth person to walk on the Moon
Those are important, but there is still a need for any youngster who has any scientific interest at all to continue the lead that we have on technology in the world today, if we are…
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1991
In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to?
Novelist, dramatist and screenwriter
Do restrict your browsing to a few websites a day. Don’t go near the online bookies – unless it’s research. […] Do not search amazon.co.uk for the book you haven’t written yet.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2010
British swimmer; Olympic champion 2016 and 2021
I'm tired, I'm not myself and I'm not enjoying the sport as I have done for the last decade.
Recorded · The Independent · 2023
Novelist, short story writer and essayist
I’ve turned down opportunities constantly. I turn down invitations to do things for money. I have almost no interest in making money.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1997
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 →Agathe Snow, Andrea Bocelli, Anita Rani, Antonio Villaraigosa, Bella Freud, Bernadine Evaristo, Buck Meek, Carlos Acosta, Charles Dance, Charlie Higson, Clare Bailey Mosley, Daniel Ek, Donatella Versace, Enrique Iglesias, Frederick W. Smith, Hanif Abdurraqib, Howard Schultz, Jackie Chan, Jess Phillips, John Grisham, John McCain, Laurence Fox, Layli Long Soldier, Lynn Fainchtein, Magnus Carlsen, Marc Guéhi, Michael Ball, Michael Rosbash, Nadine Gordimer, Natalie Diaz, Nicholas Kristof, Ralph Nader, Siobhán McSweeney, Suzanne Vega, Tenley Albright, Tiler Peck, Toni Morrison, Tony Elumelu, Trevor McDonald, Viggo Mortensen
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
- 8,252
- 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.