Society

For the most part, there are more average celebrities than superstars. When most people think of celebrities, they think of A-listers, but there's also B-list, C-list, D-list, F-list and even Z-list. The vast majority of people couldn't name who they are, but they're living the dream!

Celebrity gossip blogger and media personality known for celebrity news website

The world of celebrity offers an escape from the real world, and offers different things to different people. To many, the celebrity world is aspirational, they imagine themselves living that lifestyle and dream of how it would be to go to that premiere, have that fancy house, or that expensive vacation. For others, the world of celebrity is like watching a car-wreck.

Celebrity gossip blogger and media personality known for celebrity news website

What Silicon Valley needs right now is some realism. It needs people who are watching-out and identifying what's real and what's myth. There's a lot of genius and brilliance here, but also a lot of salesmanship.

Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine & Cybersecurity Expert

Capital has poured into San Francisco and the Bay Area but the growth hasn't distributed itself beyond the top percentile of the community. If you are in one of these companies, you may have a stable and survivable life in the Bay Area, but if you're not? You're going to have to make some incredible trade-offs.

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

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

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

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

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 can't advertise chewing gum to my children because it's unethical, but I can feed them all sorts of narratives that will have a profound impact on their personal trajectories. It's quite an extraordinarily hypocritical position.

Evolutionary Psychologist & Author Known for Consumer Behavior Research

We are first generation entrepreneurs, with middle class values, coming from middle class backgrounds, we never expected to be so wealthy! Our first reaction therefore is to share.

Co-Founder and Former CEO of Infosys, Indian IT Pioneer

We cannot use the existing models of development, because those existing models have brought us pollution, disparity of income, and significant challenge. Consumption-led economic development has been the narrative of the 20th century.

Co-Founder and Former CEO of Infosys, Indian IT Pioneer

I have way too often felt like 'the other.' Even in my motherland, I did not quite fit in. I never did. This is partly because I was born in France, Strasbourg. After my parents separated, my father stayed in France and remarried.

Turkish-British novelist and author of "The Forty Rules of Love

I am a nomad—intellectually, physically, spiritually. A commuter, in the words of James Baldwin. This state of continuous exile is one that I find difficult to explain to other people but it's who I am.

Turkish-British novelist and author of "The Forty Rules of Love

I don't think there is anything about putting your country first that requires you to turn your back on the rest of the world. If anything, the opposite is true.

Co-Founder of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Global Health Advocate