Wisdom in fragments

People think these founders are all brilliant and can't make mistakes, we've found that; there's a sense that they can fix everything or have the answers for everything… they don't, and they can't.

Tech Journalist & Co-Founder of Recode Media

We have to constantly evolve how we make an impact, and make sure that we're doing what the communities we work in want us to support rather than enforcing some kind of model. Our work has to be led by the leaders of communities telling us what will work.

British Film Director & Screenwriter of Romantic Comedies

The moment you send Billy Connolly, Lenny Henry and Victoria Wood out somewhere to make an appeal – they are representatives of 'normal people' perhaps in some ways more than pop stars.... Comedians are a kind of humdrum kind of celebrity, and as such I think they're very good at evoking empathy.

British Film Director & Screenwriter of Romantic Comedies

I flew home with this profound sense of the simultaneity of human suffering; I've never been able to get over that sense that even as I'm talking to you right now, there are people who are living unbearable lives.

British Film Director & Screenwriter of Romantic Comedies

It's always been the job of comedy to point out hypocrisies and problems – it's a long historical tradition that goes all the way back to Aristotle and Jonathan Swift.

British Film Director & Screenwriter of Romantic Comedies

He was playing it and people were dancing. They didn't need to know who the band was, they didn't know what Nile Rodgers… didn't mean anything. They were just going crazy.

Legendary Guitarist & Producer: Chic Founder, Producer for David Bowie, Madonna

I walked into a club that I didn't even know had my record – thought it was a demo – the engineer who recorded it also happened to be a DJ, he'd been playing it for 2 weeks and it'd become the biggest song in the club, this unknown group called Chick or Cheek or whatever, he didn't even know what to call it.

Legendary Guitarist & Producer: Chic Founder, Producer for David Bowie, Madonna

I was talking to some kids last night and they were asking me 'do you remember that first moment that you knew you'd made it', and I said, 'of course I remember that moment, I'd been chasing it all my life'.

Legendary Guitarist & Producer: Chic Founder, Producer for David Bowie, Madonna

When you don't know your self-worth, you're more docile and easier to control by the 'machine.' That's the cult-like structure society is built around.

Actress & #MeToo activist who exposed Harvey Weinstein harassment

We are all creative beings, but we're brought up being told not to colour outside the lines – but why? It's OK to be different…. It's more than OK to be different, and we need to encourage that.

Actress & #MeToo activist who exposed Harvey Weinstein harassment

The key component of bravery is integrity. What I saw growing up was the reality that people would often give their integrity to make life more comfortable in the short term; but guess what, that leads to your integrity being chipped away until you are left with nothing.

Actress & #MeToo activist who exposed Harvey Weinstein harassment

Individuality is my biggest fight, not #MeToo. People need to realise their own power, their own freedom, and their own ability to be better.

Actress & #MeToo activist who exposed Harvey Weinstein harassment

People in power live in fear of their power being taken away, and they fight like bears in a cage that are being backed into a corner. I had no idea how hard those in power would fight me, and it's an extraordinarily difficult thing to be on the receiving end of.

Actress & #MeToo activist who exposed Harvey Weinstein harassment

In postmodernism, there are no absolute truths; everything is relative, of course other than the one absolute truth that there are no absolute truths. This is a form of intellectual terrorism, nihilism.

Evolutionary Psychologist & Author Known for Consumer Behavior Research

Our mate choices are the ultimate form of consumer choice. I can pretty much fit most of our purposeful behaviours under the umbrella of consumption.

Evolutionary Psychologist & Author Known for Consumer Behavior Research

I argue that the ecosystem where idea pathogens originate from is the university; it takes intellectuals to come up with some of the most moronic ideas possible.

Evolutionary Psychologist & Author Known for Consumer Behavior Research