In the Bubble with President Clinton
‘I’ve come to believe that one of the most important things is to see people. The person who opens the door for you, the person who pours your coffee. Acknowledge them. Show them respect. The traditional greeting of the Zulu people of South Africa is “Sawubona”. It means “I see you”. I try and do that.’
Marina Abramović is Present
‘Today 100 per cent is not enough. Give 100 per cent, and then go over this border into what is more than you can do. You have to take the unknown journey to where nobody has ever been, because that is how civilisation moves forwards. 100 per cent is not enough. 150 per cent is just good enough.’
Terry Waite, A Patient Man
‘It’s the same lesson I learnt in that cell. What you have to do is live for the day, you have to say, now is life, this very moment. It’s not tomorrow, it’s not yesterday, it’s now, so you have to live it as fully as you can. Invest in every day.’
Absolutely Lumley
‘The secret, darling, is to love everyone you meet. From the moment you meet them. Give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Start from a position that they are lovely and that you will love them. Most people will respond to that and be lovely and love you back and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and you can then achieve the most wonderful things.’
The Eloquent Mr Fry
‘It is never right to look at someone successful and think “That person’s got money, that person’s got looks, that person’s good at cricket … so it’s easier for them.” Chances are, 90 per cent of the time you’re wrong. But even if it is somehow true, thinking that is a very self-destructive thing. It leads only to resentment, which is corrosive and destroys everything but itself.
The Erotic Intelligence of Esther Perel
‘The quality of your life ultimately depends on the quality of your relationships. Not on your achievements, not on how smart you are, not on how rich you are, but on the quality of your relationships, which are basically a reflection of your sense of decency, your ability to think of others, your generosity. Ultimately at the end of your life, if people commend you, they will say what a wonderful human being you were, and when they talk about the human being that you were, it won’t be the fact that you had a big bank account, it really won’t. It will be about how you treated the people around you and how you made them feel.’
The Two Voices of Annie Lennox
There will be “Ah ha!” moments in life when a light might go on, when you think to yourself, “I MUST do that” – whatever it is. It’s not because someone says you should do it, but it’s because you feel absolutely compelled to and there would be something wrong with the world if you didn’t. If you find that light – acknowledge it. Find other people who share that passion. Cultivate it. Find that deeper purpose in your life.’
On Holiday with Simon Cowell
‘My best advice is listen, listen rather than talk. I was never bright in school, but I was a very good listener, and I still am. I have a better life because of it. When I meet people, I’m curious about their story, about how they did what they did. Along the way you meet people smarter than you and they teach you what you don’t already know. So I listen to them, take away my little titbits, and off I go …’
Harry Belafonte, Kingsman
Discover the joy of embracing diversity. When people become more open to the strange, to the unusual, to the radical, to the “other”, we become more nourished as a species. Currently our ability to do that is being manipulated, diversity is being looked upon as a source of evil rather than as a source of joy and development. We must recapture the profound benefits of seeing the joy in our collective diversity, not the fear.’
The Lesser Spotted Sir David Attenborough
‘I have never met a child that is not fascinated by our natural world, the animal kingdom and the wonders within it. It is only as we get older that we sometimes lose that sense of wonderment. But I think we would all be better off if we kept it. So my advice is to never lose that, do what you can to always keep that sense of magic with our natural world alive.’
Sir Richard Branson, Island Man
‘People talk about work and play as if they are separate things, with one being there to compensate for the other, but all of it is life, all of it is precious. Don’t waste any of it doing something you don’t want to do. And do all of it with the people you love.’
Mike Bloomberg, New York’s Finest
‘Well, to get anywhere, you’ve got to work hard, so that means you’ve got to do something that you love. Who wants a life where you turn up each day to do something you don’t like? But most importantly, make sure you actually then get up and do it. There is always someone else who can do what you can do, so you’ve got to make sure you do it first, before the other guy does. You have to get up early every morning and get to it.’
Jony Ive Just Says No
‘You have to really focus. Just do one thing. And aim to become best in the world at it.’
Lord Waheed Alli, Champion of Gentlemen
‘Well, it starts with the usual stuff that you hear: work hard, be lucky. No one is successful without those two things. But the most important thing of all is maintenance of aim. If I could pass on one thing, it is that. My business success came from maintenance of aim. I said to myself, no matter what else I will make the best programmes I can. My political life: maintenance of aim again – get equality for gay rights, no matter what else was going on in my life. And that’s what it’s about, fight the distractions, keep coming back to your thing, the thing that’s most important to you.’
Olivia Colman Cleans Up
‘If you’re ever lucky enough to be successful in what you choose to do, don’t ever believe your own hype, and remember it could all stop tomorrow. Do whatever you do to the best of your ability. Take the job seriously, but not yourself. And most of all, be nice to work with.’
The Enduring James Rhodes
‘Well, you can say all the normal things like talk to people, look after yourself, ask for help. But none of that makes any difference. It makes no difference at all. I guess my advice is, and it’s not really advice, it’s more a wish: I wish that you’re lucky enough to survive when you don’t want to, because things can get better. Just survive. Just survive any way you can.’*
Ruby Wax’s Funny Mind
‘Don’t get depressed about the depression. Depression can bring with it a sense of shame, that we beat ourselves up for having it, that we’re ashamed to have this vulnerability. But you have to forgive yourself and allow yourself to feel it. It’s normal and it’s natural and a basic human foible that affects one in four of us. Take strength and solidarity from those numbers.’
Margaret Busby, Daughter of Africa
‘A society grows great when old men plant trees under which they know they will never sit.’
James Corden, Man of the World
‘There is an inner steel that comes from knowing you’re good at something. It might be plumbing or building tables or driving a cab or whatever, but being able to say “When it comes to this, I know what I’m doing” is good for one’s confidence. So my advice to someone younger is search for the thing you’re good at and don’t stop.’
