Jan. 20
Barney Frank
Former congressman
They’re going to make it easier for people to ignore our rights by saying religion trumps our rights. That’s what they are going to do.
Feb. 10
John Lewis
Congressman from Georgia
My hope for the future is very simple: that we can leave this little planet a little greener and a little cleaner and a little more peaceful for the generation yet unborn. But if that is going to happen, we’ve got to stop spending our limited resources on more wars, more bombs, more missiles and more guns. Spend it on the people: food, health care, clean air, clean water. We’ve got to stop the madness.
Feb. 24
Neil Gaiman
Novelist
There are friends I thought would be around forever who just went. Douglas Adams. I loved Douglas. He was big and complicated and irritating and wonderful in equal measure. So many people who were part of your life and your landscape – I wish I could go back and encourage myself to spend more time with those people, learn more from them. Whenever somebody dies, I feel I’m kicked up the arse by the universe.
March 10
Pope Francis
There are many ways to justify one’s actions when not giving alms. “But why should I? If I give him money, he’ll just spend it on a glass of wine.” If a glass of wine is his only happiness in life, then so be it. Ask yourself instead what you do, when you’re alone. What secret “happiness” do you pursue?
March 17
Al Sharpton
Minister and activist
I think that the only way movements succeed is if there is a sustained indignation.
June 9
Elyn Saks
Lawyer who lives with schizophrenia; Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law; founding director of the Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy and Ethics
Some people think that I’m unique. They say there aren’t people like me who are as high functioning. That’s not true. It’s just that the stigma is so great that people (with illness) don’t come forward. I think it’s a mistake when doctors tell patients with schizophrenia to lower their expectations. I was told to get a job as cashier at a store.
June 23
Naomi Klein
Author
On the two men who were killed after confronting a violent racist on the Max in Portland’s Hollywood District:
I do believe there has been a process of metabolizing some of the lessons of 9/11, and one of them has been about the need to show up for one another. We saw that very movingly with the response to the travel ban, and frankly, what happened in this city. The fact that people witnessed a hate crime and harassment, and stepped up to intervene, I think, reflects that. They paid the ultimate price for that. But that’s why they’re being held up as heroes, because that embodies what we all need to do.
June 30
Johnny Marr
Former Smiths guitarist
This culture of intense competition is really very convenient for the authorities, and it’s convenient that they overlook the arts and culture almost to the point where it is seen as irresponsible or a bit of a cop-out to actually want a life in the arts.
Aug. 18
Peter Buck
Member of the band Filthy Friends
Y’know, I told my daughter, we watched the election together, and she was dumbfounded, and I said, “You know what? When I was 13, my main fear was that Richard Nixon was going to kidnap me, shave my head, and send me off to Vietnam to die. This shit’s been going on forever.
Sept. 22
Franklin Foer
Author, “World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech”
One of the dangers is that if machines become so deeply implanted in our mental activities, there’s an extent to which we as humans cease to have control over our own thought processes, and you don’t even have to believe in an extreme sci-fi version of this to be freaking right now.
Sept. 29
Ursula K. Le Guin
Author
People who believe that they have a corner on God, the Truth and Power don’t change (even though the Gods and the Truths may change). For the us/them people, there is only one book: “our” holy book; the Bible, the Koran, the Thoughts of Chairman Mao. All other writings are dangerous, evil. Information is a threat. Education is an enemy. The sciences are all fakes. Arts and humanities that don’t directly preach God are against God. The men in power speak for God – nobody else can. Nothing should be printed for years.
Nov. 24
Russell Brand
Actor and comedian
On his experience with 12-step programs:
I don’t know anyone who isn’t in some type of pain unless they’re successfully distracting themselves, if not chemically then perhaps through behavior or some other form of illusion. My belief is this program can be used by anybody in any situation, because what it is talking about is the human condition – the odd habit we have of attaching our happiness to external things. I do it still.
Dec. 15
Ai Weiwei
Artist and dissident
There will always be borders as long as there are rich and poor and as long as there are fast-developing nations and those that are less motivated. Borders are like physical mountains and rivers. They will not disappear anytime soon. However, there are even more severe borders in people’s hearts and minds, which can stop humanity’s ability to come together as one.
This article appears in 2017-12-29.