“I started writing fiction because I was lonely. I was an only child, a solitary child, raised by a single working mother, which was very unusual at the time in Turkey. Literature gave me a sense of continuity, coherence; it kept my pieces together. It helped me to connect even when I felt like I didn't quite belong.”— Elif Shafak
The quote archive
A growing archive of 3,000+ moments, drawn from every interview.
The purpose of intelligence is to improve the quality of decision making by reducing ignorance. The more you know the more likely it is that a sound decision will be taken. That applies to all of us in our day-to-day decisions.
— Professor Sir David OmandFormer UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator & National Security Adviser
We wouldn't want to live in a world of full transparency. That is a world where I can see into your brain, and you into mine. We all need privacy for our thoughts, and inside government we need politicians and advisers to be able to explore ideas in private.
— Professor Sir David OmandFormer UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator & National Security Adviser
Our knowledge of the world is always fragmentary and incomplete and our explanations of how the world works have therefore to be considered as provisional. This means we have to accept that sometimes we will turn out afterwards to have been wrong.
— Professor Sir David OmandFormer UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator & National Security Adviser
In comparing alternative explanations, it is not necessarily the one with the most evidence apparently in its favour that we should choose but the one with least evidence against it. One solid piece of evidence can demolish a hypothesis.
— Professor Sir David OmandFormer UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator & National Security Adviser
Today's consumer cares about what you stand for, and so having values and purpose are central to building that trust with your customer.
— Jacqueline GoldFounder and former CEO of Ann Summers lingerie and party plan business
We need to give women the freedom and confidence to believe and be whatever they want to. This isn't just about business, but about social conditioning in all cultures.
— Jacqueline GoldFounder and former CEO of Ann Summers lingerie and party plan business
As a nation, we're missing out by not being more flexible, accommodating and encouraging and I think lockdown has- at least- brought about that one piece of positive change.
— Jacqueline GoldFounder and former CEO of Ann Summers lingerie and party plan business
Women need to be their own cheerleaders and remind themselves of the amazing things they've achieved.
— Jacqueline GoldFounder and former CEO of Ann Summers lingerie and party plan business
I'm extremely proud of the fact that we have driven social and cultural change. I have always wanted women to be empowered, and we've given them that opportunity.
— Jacqueline GoldFounder and former CEO of Ann Summers lingerie and party plan business
If you view the world from a moral perspective, you have no option but to address climate change in a timely fashion. The good news is that the moral imperative is backed-up by economics, technological advance and capital shifts.
— Christiana FigueresFormer UN Climate Change Executive Secretary & Global Climate Action Leader
It's sad that we don't immediately see the profound injustices embedded in climate change. It is precisely those people who have no responsibility for having caused climate change who are the most vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate.
— Christiana FigueresFormer UN Climate Change Executive Secretary & Global Climate Action Leader
If you don't believe in climate change, it is like telling me you don't believe in gravity. I don't care if you don't believe in gravity and I don't care if you don't believe in climate change… both are affecting you, and there's nothing you can do to deny or neutralize either of them.
— Christiana FigueresFormer UN Climate Change Executive Secretary & Global Climate Action Leader
I was a young mother with 2 small daughters and saw that the planet I was bringing my children into was one that was already severely diminished compared to the planet I received from my parents. How can any parent want their children to inherit a planet that's worse than the one they received?
— Christiana FigueresFormer UN Climate Change Executive Secretary & Global Climate Action Leader
I got out of the Navy because I stopped getting adrenaline in gunfights. That's when it gets dangerous. You don't want to get killed because you get bored. A bullet only needs to be right once.
— Robert J. O’NeillFormer SEAL Team Six member who shot Osama bin Laden
If you want to do something well you do it 1,000 times, if you want to do something great you do it 10,000 times.
— Robert J. O’NeillFormer SEAL Team Six member who shot Osama bin Laden
As a leader, you also realise that calm is contagious. It doesn't matter how you feel inside, if you can portray calm- your people will be calm.
— Robert J. O’NeillFormer SEAL Team Six member who shot Osama bin Laden