Novelist, short-story writer and translator
When I’m in writing mode for a novel, I get up at four a.m. and work for five to six hours.
Recorded · The Paris Review · 2004
One question · 6 of 16 answers to it
What does the first sixty minutes of your day look like?
Novelist, essayist and journalist
When I’m working on a novel I type the initial draft first thing in the morning. Really: first thing.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2016
Novelist and critic
I used to be a late starter, but now I get up in the dark like a medieval monk, commit unmediated scribble to a notebook, and go back to bed about six, hoping to sleep for another two hours…
Recorded · The Guardian · 2016
Kenyan marathon runner
Our life here is simple, very simple. Get up in the morning, go for a run, come back. If it is a day for cleaning, we do the cleaning, or we just relax.
Recorded · BBC Sport · 2020
British Paralympic swimmer, 2008–2021
I love swimming and I'll still be found in the pool, but now I'll be able to do without the 04:30 alarm!
Recorded · ParalympicsGB · 2021
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1979–1990; Leader of the Conservative Party 1975–1990; MP for Finchley 1959–1992
I'm not up at 6 am. I start listening to the incoming news at 6 am. I'm not up until 7. By then I've heard the agricultural news, the news and financial news and listening to radio.
Recorded · Margaret Thatcher Foundation, from Thatcher MSS (Churchill Archive Centre) · 1989
Answers marked Recorded were said elsewhere and are quoted with the publication and date they came from. Those people have not joined — nobody here answers on anyone else's behalf.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
British track cyclist, 1994–2013
The real problem is that the pain actually gets worse. You have created massive acidosis in your muscles so there is a huge quantity of hydrogen ions and the pH in your blood changes.
Recorded · Cyclist · 2018
President of Czechoslovakia 1989–1992; President of the Czech Republic 1993–2003; playwright and dissident
The kind of hope I often think about (especially in situations that are particularly hopeless, such as prison) I understand above all as a state of mind, not a state of the world.
Recorded · Václav Havel Library Foundation (havelcenter.org) · 1986
Composer, record producer and visual artist
My favorite method is stopping everything for a moment. It’s amazing how difficult I find it these days to simply sit quietly.
Recorded · Telekom Electronic Beats · 2011
What small daily thing do you do that most people would consider a waste of time?
Composer, pianist and record producer
It’s wasting time to listen to music when you go outside because there are so many interesting noises. For example, every time it rains, I open the window and put the recorder outside.
Recorded · Kinfolk · 2018
Kenyan marathon runner
When you become a boss, you don't think straight. It's better to be a leader than a boss. That is why I do my share of the cleaning. That is how to show the way to young people.
Recorded · BBC Sport · 2020
Broadcaster; host of Larry King Live on CNN, 1985–2010
I have a habit of – thought habits. I try to total up words in a phrase or a sentence and then divide it to see if I get an even number. Like true love divided by two is four.
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2018
What is your favourite documentary, and what did it change for you?
Screenwriter and showrunner; co-writer of Rounders, co-creator of Billions
There are three. The documentary about Apocalypse Now that Francis Ford Coppola’s wife made is amazing.
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2020
Performance psychologist; host of the Finding Mastery podcast
I love documentaries. I really do. I think documentaries – I’m much more interested in non-fiction than fiction; just the way that I think about things.
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2018
Broadcast journalist; author of 10% Happier
I love—I’m a sucker for a rock doc. So I will watch pretty much any rockumentary that comes out.
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2020
People, by what they do
- Science and medicine 104
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Recorded for public figures, from the source their answers were taken from. Browse by era too.
Questions, by subject
- Identity & self 14
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- Time & hindsight 8
- Death & what remains 13
- Daily life 9
- Attention & the world 8
Every question the bank can deal, in the order it was written. See all 126.
Some of the people here · A–Z
Find someone →Abby Wambach, Bells Larsen, Billie Piper, Black Francis, Brandon Sanderson, Brendan Rodgers, Celeste Ng, Colm Tóibín, Dan Pallotta, Ephraim Asili, Harry Sidebottom, Imelda Staunton, Jack Whitehall, Jensen Huang, Jhulan Goswami, Johannes Radebe, Julia Stiles, Kofi Annan, Layli Long Soldier, Mathew Horne, Maurice Sendak, Munroe Bergdorf, Neel Patel, Norman Borlaug, Norman Lear, Paul Farmer, Ray Mears, Richard White, Richard Wilson, Rita Ora, Rita Wilson, Robert B. Wilson, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Shimon Peres, Siya Kolisi, Sofie Gråbøl, Sundar Pichai, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Warwick Davis, Zack Polanski
Answers that stay at one address
You are dealt a few questions at a time and answer the ones you want to. What you write gets a permanent address and keeps it. Rewrite it whenever you like and say why — the new version goes up beside the old one rather than over it, so changing your mind reads as thinking rather than as a reversal.
You write before you read. Other members' answers to a question stay shut until you have answered it or passed on it, because reading first changes what you would have said. Passing is free and it is permanent.
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- 126
- First said
- 1910–2026
Most of what is here so far was said somewhere else and recorded with its source — a named person, a publication and a date, on every line. Nothing has been deleted.