Points to Ponder

“EVERYBODY YOU EVER meet knows something you don’t.” A cab driver told me that 30 years ago, and I’m reminded of it every single day.

BILL NYE, science educator, in Men’s Journal

WITH 26 SHAPES arranged in varying patterns, we can tell every story known to mankind and make up all the new ones … If you can give language to experiences previously starved for it, you can make the world a better place.

ANDREW SOLOMON, wri ter, in a speech at the Whiting Awards

J.K. ROWLING saved a lot of lives because the kids that dealt with all the Harry Potter books became competent readers, and could make it through high school and could make it through college. Then they could get a job.

JAMES PATTERSON, bestselling author, on why reading and literacy is a “survival skill” for life, in Vulture

[HIGHGROVE] represents one very small attempt to heal the appallingly shortsighted damage done to the soil, the landscape and to our own souls.

PRINCE CHARLES

on his organic garden

Bloody good rows. And then no secrets. Just say it like it is and clear the air. Some of the times, it’s dreadful and shocking and hurtful but, the way we are, we always end up laughing. It’s just a screaming fit and leading into hysterical laughter. How absurd a row could be. Actually, how enjoyable and refreshing. That rage and anger can be very useful tools. That pent-up anger and aggression and a wallowing in misdemeanours – that’s the road to ruin.

JOHN LYDON, aka former Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten on nearly 40 years of

marriage to Nora Forster,

There’s a tremendous amount of power that comes from not having to say yes.

JODIE FOSTER, actress, in Esquire

ETIQUETTE HAS an evolutionary basis … Humans question how to find mates, raise kids, get their fair share to eat, and resolve conflicts. If you’re a chimpanzee or a wolf, your biology gives you the answers. If you’re a human, you write to an advice columnist.

ROBIN ABRAHAMS, etiquette columnist, in Boston Globe Magazine

WHAT I LIKE to do is do – not the fact that I did. It doesn’t excite me. When people start to think that what they did in the past is perhaps even better than what they do now, they should stop.

KARL LAGERFELD, fashion designer, in the New York Times

WHEN WE WERE YOUNG … we knew basic history, even as it related to fashion. Now when something reappears, an 18‑year‑old has no clue that it’s a revival. I think that’s part of why visual things are becoming so derivative.

FRAN LEBOWITZ, wri ter and cri tic, in Elle

THEY TREAT YOU very differently from other women [when you’re seen as beautiful] … You have to make people comfortable with you. Of course, I’m grateful beyond words that I had it, but beauty’s very often the elephant in the room, and you’re the elephant handler.

CANDICE BERGEN, actress, in Time

WE HAVE a tendency to define ourselves in opposition to stuff … But try to also express your passion for things you love. Be demonstrative and generous in your praise of those you admire. Send thank-you cards, and give standing ovations. Be pro-stuff, not just anti-stuff.

TIM MINCHIN, comedian, in a commencement speech at the University of Western Australia

SOME OF THE BEST IDEAS come in the shower because, thank God, no-one has invented a waterproof smartphone yet.

ARIANNA HUFFINGTON, cofounder of the Huffington Post, in a speech