The densest band in the archive, and the age at which the question about what everyone in your field gets wrong tends to get its bluntest answer.
45 people · 1,452 answers
Architect; Pritzker Prize laureate, 1995
Recorded · The Hyatt Foundation / The Pritzker Architecture Prize · 1995
The modern architecture that I have been weaned on also espouses (clear) function, (exposed) structure, and (raw) material as principles—characteristics that tend to be accessed only from…
Lawyer and consumer advocate; author of Unsafe at Any Speed
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1991
Too many people who go to the best schools, and get great grades, are confronted with a choice of trivial work that is very high paid, and has some sort of surface status, like senior…
Developmental biologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 1995
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 1995
I continued the work on dorsal, discovered the recessive phenotype and interpreted the phenotype postulating a gradient determining the dorsoventral axis.
Co-founder and co-chairman of Oaktree Capital Management
Recorded · Oaktree Capital Management (client memo) · 2001
In my opinion, the key to dealing with the future lies in knowing where you are, even if you can't know precisely where you're going.
Economist; Nobel laureate in economic sciences for work on institutions and prosperity
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 2026
It is simplistic in the following sense that you cannot institute democracy from above. It’s a very difficult process.
Condensed matter physicist; Nobel laureate in Physics, 2010
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 2010
Instant information about everything and everyone often allows an individual opinion to compete with consensus and paranoia with evidence.
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1940–1945 and 1951–1955; Member of Parliament 1900–1964
Recorded · Winston S. Churchill, My Early Life (Thornton Butterworth, 1930), Project Gutenberg Canada · 1930
Prisoner of War! That is the least unfortunate kind of prisoner to be, but it is nevertheless a melancholy state. You are in the power of your enemy.
Playwright, director and actor
Recorded · The Paris Review, Issue 111, Summer 1989 · 1985
I don’t think I could. Of course I’m saying this on American soil. I’m facing a few more months of work in this city, but at the end of it, I will be returning to South Africa.
44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
Recorded · The White House (Obama administration archive) · 2013
I was raised by a heroic single mom, wonderful grandparents -- made incredible sacrifices for me. … But I sure wish I had had a father who was not only present, but involved.
Atmospheric chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1995
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1996
It’s easy to try to exaggerate the problems just to get more attention.
Playwright and screenwriter
Recorded · The Paris Review, Issue 109, Winter 1988 · 1988
I don’t think of it as research. I read for interest and enjoyment, and when I cease to enjoy it I stop.
44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2012
There are some things about being president that I still have difficulty doing. … For example, faking emotion. Because I feel it is an insult to the people I'm dealing with.
Film director and screenwriter
Recorded · Polygon · 2019
There were times when I thought I wanted to be a cartoonist. If I weren’t a film director, I think cartoons would have been a good alternative.
Alison Moyet, Andrew O’Hagan, Barack Obama, Bear Grylls, Billy Crudup, Bryn Terfel, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Cybill Shepherd, Daphne Guinness, David Guetta, David Hasselhoff, Dervla Kirwan, Ed Harris, Gregory Porter, Indira Varma, Jack Davenport, Jason Donovan, Kate Humble, Lemn Sissay, Maggie O'Farrell, Marcus Brigstocke, Mario Molina, Mark Bonnar, Mellody Hobson, Michelle Visage, Monica Dolan, Naga Munchetty, Natalie Imbruglia, Neil Gaiman, Nick Frost, Nuala McGovern, Penny Lancaster, Peter Sarsgaard, Richard Feynman, Rory Stewart, Sarah Hadland, Sharleen Spiteri, Shinya Yamanaka, Shirley Manson, Shobna Gulati, Sofia Coppola, Stephen K Amos, Steve Jobs, Suzanne Vega, Winston Churchill