Kristen Bell, Rajdeep Sardesai on a Fast-Changing Nation, Michael Moore on Fascism and more
I’ve noticed a parallel between adult tantrums and child tantrums ... I desperately want to walk up to certain people ... and say, “Talk to your body. Just use your words.”
Kristen Bell, actress, in Redbook
[Spam] may mutate but it’s not going to stop. Spam is where evil meets advertising and no one has ever gotten rid of either of them.
Elizabeth Zwicky, Yahoo anti-spam architect, in The New York Times
The truth is that the nation is changing. It is changing with sharp divisions along various lines of beliefs. Those who don’t agree with a particular idea or ideology are being called names and labelled as anti-nationals … This narrative of nationalism is dangerous. This is not the language of India.
Rajdeep Sardesai, senior journalist, at the literary festival, Sahitya Aaj Tak
You have to make what you want to see in the world. That is basically your obligation if you’re an artist. For that matter even if you’re a plumber.
Carrie Mae Weems, photographer, in Lenny
Someone once told me that the secret to success is being the person who other people want to see succeed. It’s more important than talent, brains or luck. Dick Parsons, former Time Warner CEO, in Vanity Fair
To all of the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams.
Hillary Clinton, in her presidential concession speech
You cannot create art, of any kind whatsoever, without rigour and poetry. Just as the ability to click photographs doesn’t make you an artist by the same logic, the ability to paint doesn’t turn you into a painter.
Sudarshan Shetty, artist
Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.
Brené Brown, scholar and author, in her book Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
It’s 21st century fascism ... The definition of fascism is when you combine state power with the power of business and capital and you use the special ingredient of racism and fear of the outsider, fear of the other, fear of the Mexican, the Muslim and, in Trump’s case, fear of women.
Michael Moore, filmmaker, on the US elections
We are guilty of normalizing the invasion of a woman’s space, the woman’s body. Those watching our movies think it is ‘normal’ to harass a college or a village girl even when the girl is saying she’s not interested … Stalking, unfortunately, has become a mutated form of cinematic romance.
Farhan Akhtar, actor and director, in an open letter to his daughter
Indians are increasingly touchy, thin-skinned, intolerant, and, I must add, humourless. The rise of humourlessness is the other side of the rise of identity politics. And without humour, there cannot be great literature.
Ramachandra Guha, historian and writer, in his book Democrats and Dissenters
People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people. Strength through unity, unity through faith!
From the movie V for Vendetta
To ban a professional from their trade, based on identity, is out of step with a cinema industry loved across the world. Artists must be mirrors and windows to the world and its large heart—not narrow-minded channels for local conflicts.
An editorial in The Indian Express
