Aha! Moments
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Every Monday, we're rounding up the things, small and big, that make us stop and think. Today, we're inspired by..."The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading
about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case, the
same neurological regions are stimulated." -Annie Murphy Paul, on how reading fiction improves the brain."If you take that away, it's one more notch against that experience. It's
one more big societal minimizing, or sort of, negating, of the full
extent of terror that comes with bullying."
-Filmmaker Lee Hirsch, on pressure to edit the "F" word out of his documentary on teen bullies."All of us have the ability to speak our minds. We are essentially language animals and are nothing without it." -The often-banned writer Salman Rushdie.
Every Monday, we're rounding up the things, small and big, that make us stop and think. Today, we're inspired by...
"There’s a certain point where you’re doing so much you can’t stop. It’s
usually because you’re fulfilling something you need to, creatively ...
Embrace your stress." -Joss Whedon, talking at SXSW about stress and the creative process."I kept feeling like I'd wake up with absolute clarity, and I haven't." - Writer, director, and actress Jennifer Westfeldt, on why she and long-time love John Hamm haven't had children.
Every Monday, we're rounding up the things, small and big, that make us stop and think. Today, we're inspired by..."It's easier being a grandparent because you're at a distance. You're also older, and you haven't given birth, so you're
less exhausted. And they leave." -Anne Lamott, author of the influential bestseller "Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year," who has just published a sequel called "Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Son.""The ubiquity of such behavior suggests that kindness is not a losing life strategy." -Jonah Lehrer, writing in the New Yorker about vampire bats, Charles Darwin, and the genetics of altruism."Like most teachers I know, I’m
a bit of a perfectionist. I have to be. Dozens and dozens of teenagers
scrutinize my language, clothing and posture all day long, all week
long." -William Johnson, a high school teacher in the Bronx."Life is too short and we cannot spoil it. I don't have 300 years in
front of me. So I just do the things that I really want to do at the
moment because that's the only way you will do them well." -Author and film director Marjane Satrapi.
Every Monday, we're rounding up the things, small and big, that make us stop and think. Today, we're inspired by... "At a time of tug of war, intimidation and
aggressions exchanged between politicians, the name of their county,
Iran, is spoken here through her glorious culture, a rich and ancient
culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics."
-Asghar Farhadi, director of Iranian film "The Separation," which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film. "As long as you were
open and playful and answered all their questions, it was only a big deal
for about an hour or two."
-Vietnam vet Ron Cushman, on teaching young children about his prosthetic limb. "Because re-experiencing offers a way to look at oneself through the same lens but with different eyes, it offers many therapeutic benefits."
-Consumer behavior researcher Cristel Russell, on why we love to reread our favorite books and rewatch our favorite movies. "We behold them as they are when we are not there. We see life as it is when we have no part in it."
-Virginia Woolf, in a 1926 essay about the cinema.
Every Monday, we're rounding up the things, small and big, that make us stop and think. Today, we're inspired by... “You wait for a voice like that for a lifetime.”
—Music producer Clive Davis, speaking at Whitney Houston's funeral.
“Marriage is about two flawed people making each other better...And with us a lot of the time, we make ourselves better by fighting.”
—Cupcake baker and small business owner Allison Robicelli, on working (and arguing) with her husband. "I knew that I was going to continue to cartoon and write no matter what happened, no matter what lousy job I had to have. But there was no indication that it was going to work, that it was going to pay off."
—Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, which just aired its 500th episode. "Are you apprehensive about the situation you're in? Yeah, but you
volunteered, you want to do this thing, it's important for the country,
and you're glad to have been selected for it, and you're going to do the
best job you can possibly do."
--John Glenn, on being the first American astronaut to go into orbit, 50 years ago today.
Every Monday, we're rounding up the things, small and big, that make us stop and think. Today, we're inspired by...
"Once you put it out there, you can’t take it back, so think carefully
before you use the Internet to broadcast your thoughts and feelings."
-Tommy Jordan, the dad who shot his teenage daughter's laptop in a video that immediately went viral.
Every Monday, we're rounding up the things, small and big, that make us stop and think. Today, we're inspired by...
"When you're 50, the best thing to do is dance the Argentinean tango." - Performance artist Marina Abramović, discussing parties, silence, and her unconditional love for strangers, in Interview Magazine."Be fully awake to everything
about you & the more you learn the more you can appreciate & get
a full measure of joy & happiness out of life.” -Jackson Pollock's father, LeRoy, in a 1928 letter to his son."Let me break it down for you: she’s writing herself into existence.
She’s giving herself a part to play because, God knows, no one else will
and she wants to matter in this life." -Liz Phair on the self-creation of Lana Del Ray.“She'd wake up like we do, look out the window just like us, rummage
through her days, but somehow what caught her attention — a
grasshopper's hop, an infant's fingernails, plankton, a snowflake — when
Wislawa Szymborska noticed something, she noticed it so well, her gaze
reshaped the thing she saw, gave it a dignity, a vividness.” -NPR’s Robert Krulwich’s tribute to the Nobel-Prize-winning Polish poet who died last week.
Every Monday, we're rounding up the things, small and big, that make us stop and think. Today, we're inspired by...“What we have to do, folks, is create great schools for kids, no matter where they are.” -Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard at the Chicago New School Expo.
"Taboos? There aren't any taboos anymore." -Mary Tyler Moore, recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, on the new slew of female-centric sitcoms.
"I always tell people go work in a lot of different places and get different experiences. Find out where you want to be later." -Landmarc chef and Chopped judge Marc Murphy, on what he would tell himself when he was just starting out.
"I just quit. I stopped grass then, I mean pretty much, and decided to get off the couch." -Brad Pitt, on how seeing poor children in Morocco in the late '90s changed his life.
Every Monday, we're rounding up the things, small and big, that make us stop and think. Today, we're inspired by...
"We can do so much more by working together." -Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords, in her resignation announcement, one year after suffering a gunshot wound to the head."But here I am having almost circumnavigated the whole world. Yes, that idea is slowly sinking in... " -16-year-old Laura Dekker, the youngest sailor to ever circumnavigate the globe solo, writing on her blog."You get more lonely when you're older, more sensitive and sentimental.
When you're young you are more aggressive. But a good thing is I have
the company of 25-year old interns. They fill up my loneliness and I can
share my philosophy with them." -Ginny Garcia, a 61-year-old pediatrician who moved to Sierra Leone to start a health clinic.
Every Monday, we're rounding up the things, small and big, that make us stop and think. Today, we're inspired by..."I haven't seen myself naked in the mirror for probably a decade. I'm very prudish." -Actress Casey Mulligan, on playing an exhibitionist in the new film Shame."There are many of you out there—and I was one of them—but it doesn't have to define you." -The new Miss America, Laura Kaeppeler, on being the child of an incarcerated adult."I consider myself a mother first, and an actress second. The person I most want to thank is my daughter, my little girl whose bravery and exuberance is the example that I take with me in my work and in my life." -Michelle Williams, accepting her Golden Globe for Best Actress.
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