Quotes

About ten years ago, Masashi Kishimoto created the manga series Naruto, about a young ninja with a dark secret. The series has been monumentally successful, selling tens of millions of books and spawning its own media empire. In an LA Times interview, Kashimoto explains the appeal of this less-than-perfect lead character:“Perfect heroes are cool, but no one can […]

“Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.”— Warren Buffett, NYT 10/17/08

“In science, the most exciting expression isn’t ‘Eureka!’ It’s ‘Huh?’”— Michael Hawley, a computer scientist and director of SiOnyx, quoted in the NY Times, 10/12/08 

If you’re a frequent traveler, you should read Michelle Higgins’s firsthand account in today’s NY Times of what it’s like to be flight attendant. On the difference between air travel in the glamour days of the 1960s and air travel today, one three-decade flight attendant veteran says:“Who would have thought, after 30 years, that we’d be a […]

At a conference yesterday, I got a chance to hear business guru John Maxwell talk about leadership and geopolitical rock star Tom Friedman talk about his new book. Both presentations were excellent. Here’s a quote of note from each.Maxwell described the many leaders in business and government who lament how lonely it is at the top. Then he […]

“RISD is MIT for the right brain.”— John Maeda, incoming president of the Rhode Island School of DesignThe quote is from a great WSJ profile of the super-innovative Maeda. Check out the WSJ writer’s description of what Maeda is doing for his presidential inauguration:“On the day I visit, an assistant in his office is folding hundreds of 15-inch squares […]

“Comics are a low-cost laboratory, with instant feedback, for what’s happening in pop culture.”— Milton Griepp, publisher of ICv2 (via USA Today)“Today critical consensus is that anyone who categorically does not read comics will miss great literature.”— Jeremy Smith, writing in The Chicago Tribune 

“You know, sometimes I’ll go to an eighth-grade graduation and there’s all that pomp and circumstance and gowns and flowers.  And I’ll think to myself, it’s just eighth grade. . . . Let’s just give them a handshake and tell them to get their butts back in the library!”— Barack Obama, Father’s Day Speech, 6/15/08 

When I arrived in Heathrow tonight, one of the first emails I noticed on my phone was a news alert from the New York Times:  “Robert Rauschenberg, Titan of American Art, Is Dead at 82.”  A sad day. I’m a huge Rauschenberg fan — as much for the way he lived his life as for the […]

“Female fruit flies sometimes choose males who win fights, sometimes choose males who do not fight, and sometimes choose males for no obvious reason.” (Source:  PLoS via Eureka Alert)