From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
For me, etiquette transcends mere formalities; it's fundamentally about ensuring others feel at ease in your presence, regardless of their background or demeanour. It's this universal language of respect and inclusion that truly enriches our interactions.
I've described celebrities as being 'double agents of the patriarchy,' and whilst things are getting better- and language is changing, we are still not always calling out those who fat shame or age shame women.
Fashion is either one of the crowning achievements of western civilization or it is incontrovertible evidence of consumer culture's witless obsession with the trivial and the unreal.
When you bring communities together to talk- these central themes, and things we have in common, come to the fore. When you break bread together, and you find common ground, before you know it you stop thinking about your differences, or you appreciate them.
There's something intrinsically sensual about jewellery, you wear it on your skin, it's a part of you and it embodies and imbues the personality and lustre of the wearer. There's something about gold and stones in particular which- for me- have a magical element.
So many of the things our culture pushes us to pursue for happiness don't actually work the way we think they will. Material possessions, more money—if you're on social media, you get this strong sense that you should go after more of everything and then you'll feel better.
In my case, and for many people I know, a European identity is something that was denied to us for 50 years. For 50 years, Estonia was occupied by the Soviets, and so- for us- for our people, who were under communist domination, we were comfortable and happy to take on a European identity when we gained independence.
To me literature was, and still is, an existential need. Books and stories have been that gateway for me. I wanted to find a gate to an 'elsewhere', to another land, a Storyland.
We have been interested in celebrities since the dawn of time. Jesus was the first celebrity, then the royal families. Celebrity culture exists even at a micro-level... It's human nature to be interested in the captain of the football team, the head cheerleader or who is doing what with who.
I feel it's such a wonderful thing to be able to leave the tyranny of gravity to leave the ground and fly wherever you will.
Freedom of expression, the right to explore, the right to have the adventure of intellectual discovery is a deep personal right precisely because it is a deep personal pleasure.
The need to express abstract registers of time and deep space, and something of the life of the body, has never altered. Art is not a luxury, an object of exchange, a profession or a career; it is an intrinsic part of being human.