What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore?
Recorded Annie Proulx said elsewhere, not written here
Write slowly and by hand only about subjects that interest you. […] Develop craftsmanship through years of wide reading.

The Guardian Review, 20 February 2010 source ↗

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Wole Soyinka Playwright, poet and novelist; Nobel laureate in Literature, 1986
I just say, “Follow your instincts.” Don’t feel you have to follow the paths of others, because you may not be temperamentally fitted for it. And so you’ll just harm yourself and your cause and others. But just follow your instinct, and don’t ever pretend to be what you’re not.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, 3 July 2009 source ↗
Mellody Hobson 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. And so I would suggest to her that she speak her truth with her life, with her own sense of purpose and pursue her dreams.
Recorded Farai Chideya, News & Notes, Leading Ladies series, NPR, 22 March 2007 source ↗
Denton Cooley Cardiothoracic surgeon; founder of the Texas Heart Institute
You have to be intelligent, and be able to cope with stress. It is a stressful life, both mentally and physically. Those are the qualities to succeed as a surgeon.
Recorded Academy of Achievement recorded interview, American Academy of Achievement, 11 April 1991 source ↗
Winston Churchill Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1940–1945 and 1951–1955; Member of Parliament 1900–1964
Come on now all you young men, all over the world. You are needed more than ever now to fill the gap of a generation shorn by the War. You have not an hour to lose. You must take your places in life's fighting line. Twenty to twenty-five! These are the years! Don't be content with things as they are. 'The earth is yours and the fulness thereof'. Enter upon your inheritance, accept your responsibilities. Raise the glorious flags again, advance them upon the new enemies, who constantly gather upon the front of the human army, and have only to be assaulted to be overthrown. Don't take No for an answer. Never submit to failure.
Recorded Chapter of his autobiography, written at Chartwell in 1930, Winston S. Churchill, My Early Life (Thornton Butterworth, 1930), Project Gutenberg Canada, October 1930 source ↗

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jenny Diski, Amy Tan, Nora Ephron, Werner Herzog, Wole Soyinka

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