Hunter S. Thompson
Journalist, author of 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'
Thompson: "I was never idle long enough to do much thinking, but I felt somehow that my instincts were right."
Thompson: "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
Thompson: "I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours."
Thompson: "[Nixon was] a man with no soul, no inner convictions, with the integrity of a hyena and the style of a poison toad. ... [He was] absolutely humorless."
Frank Kelly Rich: "There was always a powerful comfort in knowing he was out there somewhere ... guzzling high-octane whiskey and railing against a world amok with complacency and hypocrisy."
Frank Kelly Rich: "Hunter didn't have to seek out adventure, he was adventure."
Mark Twain
Journalist and author
Twain: "I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week sometimes to make it up."
Twain: "I have been told that Wagner's music is better than it sounds."
Twain: "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."
Twain: "Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. ... I've done it thousands of times."
Twain: "Who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?"
Andrew Carnegie: "The public only knows one side of [Mark Twain] - the amusing part. Little does it suspect that he was a man of strong convictions upon political and social questions and a moralist of no mean order."
Oscar Wilde
Playwright
Wilde: "I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best."
Wilde: "America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up."
Wilde: "Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative."
Wilde: "Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious."
Wilde: "A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world."
Wilde: "I can resist everything except temptation."
Aldous Huxley
Author of 'Brave New World'
Huxley: "[I am not] the captain of my soul; I am only its noisiest passenger."
Huxley: "Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life."
Huxley: "Genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm."
Huxley: "A child-like man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves."
The Guardian: "[He is the] prophet of our present. ... Even his casual asides have a surprising relevance."
Umberto Eco
Semiotician and author of 'The Name of the Rose'
Eco: "[In my writing] I know that I have made a caricature out of [others' academic] theories [but] I think that caricatures are frequently good portraits."
Eco: "[I am fascinated by stupidity] because normal intelligence is boring. Two plus two makes four - finished. You have no possibilities! Stupidity is infinite. Two plus two can make billions of different numbers."
Eco: "Socrates ... did not write. It seems academically obvious that he perished because he did not publish!"
Nassim Taleb: "Umberto Eco is the owner of a large personal library of almost 30,000 books that he has not read. [To him] read books are far less valuable than unread ones."
Salman Rushdie
Author of 'The Satanic Verses', condemned to death by Ayatollah Khomeini
Rushdie: "'The Satanic Verses' celebrates hybridity, impurity, intermingling, the transformation that comes of new and unexpected combinations of human beings, cultures, ideas, politics, movies, songs."
Rushdie: "[In literature] I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale, of the imagination of the heart."
Rushdie: "[My work] is a love song to our mongrel selves."
Rushdie: "Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself."
Julian Assange
Founder of WikiLeaks
Assange: "Every time we witness an act that we feel to be unjust and do not act, we become a party to injustice."
Assange: "Those who are repeatedly passive in the face of injustice soon find their character corroded."
Assange: "I enjoy helping people who are vulnerable."
Ralph Nader
Leader of the U.S. Green Party and author
Nader: "The only true aging is the erosion of one's ideals."
Nader: "Every time I see something terrible, it's like I see it at age 19. I keep a freshness that way."
Nader: "[As a child] I was very interested in books that detailed injustice and how people who are underdogs were mistreated throughout history."
Nader: "The only difference between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party is the velocity with which their knees hit the floor when the big corporations come asking."
Anne Frank
Author of 'The Diary of a Young Girl' and Holocaust victim
Frank: "It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart."
Frank: "During the third class [my teacher had] finally had enough. 'Anne Frank, as punishment for talking [so much] you will write an essay entitled, 'Quack, Quack, Quack, Said Miss Chatterback.''"
Nelson Mandela: "[I] read Anne Frank's diary [while imprisoned] on Robben Island and derived much encouragement from it."
Arianna Huffington
Editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post
Huffington: "I'm passionate. I find if I really believe something, I want to put my entire being behind it."
Huffington: "I don't like the idea of [having] a thick skin. I think we [should] be more childlike."
[On why she left the right wing:]
Huffington: "[I] realized that corporate America was never going to step up to the plate and help society's disadvantaged by itself. Other people had to force [them to do] it."
The Observer: "Hurricane Arianna never stops blowing. ... She has been called the most upwardly mobile Greek since Icarus."
Walt Disney
Founder of The Walt Disney Company
Disney: "I do not make films primarily for children. I make them for the child in all of us, whether we be six or sixty."
Disney: "The worst of us is not without innocence. ... In my work I try to reach and speak to that innocence."
Disney: "[In my work I show] the fun and joy of living ... that laughter is healthy [and] that the human species ... is still reaching for the stars."
Cory Doctorow: "Disney is a delight, someone who ... sweeps those around him along on his dream."
Kurt Vonnegut
Author of 'Slaughterhouse-Five'
Vonnegut: "[I write] intuitively, reflexively, as if skiing down a steep mountain slope with no time to think."
Vonnegut: "I don't know about you, but I practice a dis-organized religion. I belong to an un-holy disorder. We call ourselves 'Our Lady of Perpetual Astonishment.'"
Vonnegut: "The only difference between Bush and Hitler is that Hitler was elected."
Philip Trent: "Vonnegut was much like Mark Twain [in] outlook. He loved life and had high ideals which often caused him disappointment."
Osho
Mystic
Osho: "It is beautiful that there are three hundred religions in the world; more are needed. ... Each person should have his own religion - there should be as many religions as there are people!"
Osho: "Mohammedans say there is only one God and only one prophet of God, that is Muhammad. Then God seems to be very poor - just ONE prophet?"
Osho: "Ordinary society is like a paperweight on you: It won't allow you to fly."
Osho: "In the West, if the husband is dead, the widow goes back to being 'miss' again. [Under Indian law] this is impossible. Once you have missed, you cannot miss again!"
Naomi Klein
Author of 'The Shock Doctrine'
Klein: "Anybody who claims that they know where this whole thing is all going is just lying."
Klein: "Communication is my thing."
Klein: "We are looking to [corporate] brands for poetry and for spirituality, because we're not getting those things from our communities or from each other."
[Her husband:] "Naomi is a pattern recognizer. ... Her great strength is helping people recognize patterns in the world, because that's the fundamental first step toward changing things."
Rachel Maddow: "['The Shock Doctrine' is] the only book of the last few years in American publishing that I would describe as a mandatory must-read."
Michio Kaku
Physicist
Kaku: "To become a theoretical physicist ... you need to have a passionate love affair with the universe."
Kaku: "Scientists are embarrassed by science fiction; they want to distance themselves as much as possible. ... I think there's nothing to be ashamed of [and that] we should take science fiction seriously."
Beth Starbuck: "He has an almost child-like enthusiasm for science."
Colin Blundell: "He has a poetic sensibility.
Brian Cox
Physicist
Cox: "What [I'm] attached to are journeys into the unknown and discovering things that are completely unexpected and baffling and surprising."
Cox: "I don't need answers to everything. I want to have answers to find."
Cox: "I enjoy [being on] television because there is an artistic side to my character."
Cox: "Ideas make me emotional."
Jane Fryer: "There's something about his ... poetic descriptions [and] bubbling emotions ... that
demystifies science and makes it fascinating."
Jacques Derrida
Post-structuralist philosopher
Derrida: "I love language as I love life itself!"
Derrida: "I say things that contradict each other, that are in real tension with each other, that compose me, that make me live, and that will make me die."
Mark Lilla: "He is more performance artist than logician. [He has a] flamboyant style - using free association, rhymes and near-rhymes, puns, and maddening digressions."
Barry Smith: "His work consists in no small part of elaborate jokes and puns [like] 'logical phalluses.'"
Julia Wells: "To Derrida, writing is the orphaned 'son' of living speech."
Alan Watts
Writer and speaker on Buddhism
Watts: "Being brought up and 'educated' is a form of hypnosis, brainwashing, and indoctrination that is extremely difficult to survive with one's senses intact."
Watts: "For me, being literate and articulate is a form of judo, of overcoming the [system] by its own method."
Watts: "I made to myself the solemn vow that I would never be an employee or put up with a 'regular job.' ... [And in my life] I have been a free lance, a rolling stone."
Watts: "I want ... to consort with people whose emotions are not ... cold and standoffish."
Milo Yiannopoulos
Journalist and provocateur
Yiannopoulos: "I'm an entertainer; I'm a performer. ... [What I do is] part lecture, part stand-up."
Yiannopoulos: "[I have a] natural instinct for mischief."
Yiannopoulos: "[I want to see] the wicked suffer ... it's the reason I went into journalism. ... [I see myself as a] crusader for truth and justice."
[His grandmother]: "[He] can be a catty little queen at times. ... But [his] heart's in the right place."
National Post: "[He is a] fascinating, outrageous and irrepressible enfant terrible."
Anais Nin
Diarist and author
Nin: "In [me] there's always movement, renewal, surprises. I have never known stagnation."
Nin: "[For me] not even introspection has been a still experience."
Nin: "The poet is the one who is able to keep the fresh vision of the child alive."
Nin: "Reality doesn't impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls."
Nin: "I am an excitable person ... in whom feelings are much stronger [than] reason."
Che Guevara
Marxist revolutionary
Guevara: "If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine."
Guevara: "At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality."
Guevara: "We should not go to the [poor countries] and say: 'We come to ... teach you our science, to show you your errors.' ... We should go instead with an inquiring mind and a humble spirit to learn [from] these people."
Guevara: "[I have] mourned comrade Stalin."
Jon Lee Anderson: "Che stands up as the perennial Icarus, a self-immolating figure who represents the romantic tragedy of youth."
Jon Lee Anderson: "Che is not just a potent figure of protest, but the idealistic, questioning kid who exists in every society and every time."
Fidel Castro
Dictator of Cuba
Castro: "Revolutionaries must proclaim their ideas courageously ... and express their intentions so that no one is deceived."
Castro: "What heart is not set aflame by the promise of freedom?"
Ignacio Ramonet: "He is ... anti-dogmatic ... subversive [and] anti-authoritarian."
Ignacio Ramonet: "Brilliant and baroque, Castro has a visceral need to communicate."
Ignacio Ramonet: "The pursuit of a subject leads him, through an association of ideas ... to call up a parallel subject, and another, and another, and another..."
Tim Berry: "He [is] a showman, a performer, extremely charismatic. ... He [is] side-splittingly funny [and] always warm, always sincere."
David Sandison: "To observers it seemed as if Fidel Castro and Che Guevara'recognized' each other as kindred spirits - even long-lost soul brothers - from the moment they were introduced."
Muammar Gaddafi
Dictator of Libya
Gaddafi: "Boxing and wrestling are evidence that mankind has not rid itself of all savage behavior."
Gaddafi: "[The] type of education now prevailing all over the world is directed against human freedom. State-controlled education ... deprives people of their free choice, creativity and brilliance."
Gaddafi: "To force a human being to learn according to a set curriculum is a dictatorial act."
[On Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize after less than one year in office:]
Gaddafi: "I do believe that he deserves it, but [for it to be given] right now ... is sycophancy and premature."
Gaddafi: "I do not support Arafat. He is a stupid, incompetent fool!"
BBC: "In the early days, Gaddafi was seen by some as an 'African Che Guevara.'"
Hugo Chavez
President of Venezuela
Chavez: "I didn't plan to become president. I am here because of a hurricane. I am the son of a revolution."
Chavez: "[I have] a passion, a fire burning inside myself."
Chavez: "The United States should be less concerned with being an empire and more concerned with their people who don't have health insurance."
Chavez: "Capitalism is ... injustice. A tyranny of the richest against the poorest, [as] Rousseau said."
Chavez: "[In Venezuela] neoliberalism had to face the anger of the people. ... [We're the] only country where an alternative project is in process."
Chavez: "Fox News ... [their news] is artificious [and their] minds have many confusions."
Stephen Sackur: "Many people have likened [Chavez] to Fidel Castro."
Ulrike Meinhof
Terrorist and founder of Rote Armee Fraktion
Meinhof: "[I provoke] the system [to] show its true face ... so that through its own acts of terrorism ... the masses will rise against it."
Meinhof: "I can be a subversive element."
Meinhof: "Protest is when I say, 'I don't like this.' Resistance is when I put an end to what I don't like. Protest is when I say, 'I refuse to go along with this anymore.' Resistance is when I make sure everybody else stops going along too."
The Brooklyn Rail: "What Meinhof does so well in [her] columns is remind us that it is possible to discuss the complex and profound injustices around us in ways that are both clear and direct."
ENFPs in popular culture
Salvador Dali
Surrealist painter
Dali: "[I am a] contradictory and paradoxical man."
Dali: "[My art is] capable of liberating man from the tyranny of the 'practical, rational world.'"
Dali: "It is not necessary for the public to know whether I am joking or whether I am serious, just as it is not necessary for me to know it myself."
New York Times: "He wanted ... to systematize confusion and to discredit the world of everyday reality. He did this in his paintings, but also in life."
George Carlin
Stand-up comedian
Carlin: "Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist."
Carlin: "I have a lot of things [in me] that are childlike and innocent and sweet."
Carlin: "What counted to me [was being] true to myself. ... I just had to be who I felt like I was."
Carlin: "I definitely have a gift for language that is rhythmic and attractive to the ear, and I have interesting [verbal] imagery which I guess is a poetic touch."
Oliver Stone
Filmmaker
Stone: "[When making movies I] set out to be authentic to [myself] and to put it down the way [I] feel it and know it and interpret it. And then others sometimes key into it and get it."
Stone: "Reagan and Thatcher [came] into office ... and they kicked off an international deterioration ... of values."
Stone: "Nixon was psychologically disturbed."
Stone: "[Fidel Castro] has a very good [human rights] record."
Stone: "What Chavez has done [in Venezuela] is that he has brought extreme poverty to an end."
Stone: "I couldn't despise a man more than George W. Bush."
Katie Couric
Journalist
Couric: "I knew I had to be a journalist because I'm deeply curious about the world."
Couric: "[I am enthusiastic about journalism because] it's a craft that can ... galvanize an often complacent citizenry, and make a difference."
[On criticism of her reporting style:]
Couric: "Some said I lacked gravitas, which I've since decided is Latin for 'testicles.'"
Rachel Maddow
Talk show host
Maddow: "I'm all about bringing the bad guy into sharper relief."
Maddow: "Nothing about me wants to write. I reject it like a transplanted organ. ... I find it hard to commit to a sentence."
[On Republican opposition to Obama:]
Maddow: "Congressional Republicans had a collective war-gasm trying to make the president's budget seem scary."
Ellen DeGeneres
Talk show host
DeGeneres: "There's nothing I know for sure, because I know for sure that things change."
DeGeneres: "I like to try new things because I get bored so easily."
DeGeneres: "I want people to like me - but not at my expense."
DeGeneres: "You're not supposed to shove your feelings under the rug."
DeGeneres: "I care passionately about equal rights [and] animal rights."
Ricky Gervais
Comedian and actor
Gervais: "I never had a plan. I just sort of ambled along, doing exactly what I wanted every day of my life."
Gervais: "With 'The Office' and 'Extras' I've always snuck in a little bit of heart and pathos - and drama, which is fun."
Gervais: "I've got the attention span of a child."
Gervais: "I remember the first check I got for 'The Office,' and it made me feel sad. It ruined it. ... Because there was sort of a nobility in poverty."
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Actress
Gellar: "Being outspoken has always gotten me into trouble. I'm just this little thing and then all of a sudden it comes out."
Gellar: "You need to keep your creative juices flowing and keep [your] character interesting."
Gellar: "[My character] Buffy is very similar to me. ... A child in an adult world, sort of trapped between the two."
Daniel Radcliffe
Actor
Radcliffe: "I have described myself as being 'gently eccentric.'"
Radcliffe: "I might like to be an actor, but there are loads of other things I'm interested in as well, like music and writing. ... I want to keep my options open."
Radcliffe: "[I] take inspiration from kids. ... They're very honest in how they act and how they are in the world."
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Actor
Gordon-Levitt: "Being willing to change what you think you know can introduce entirely new possibilities."
Gordon-Levitt: "[People get] treated like objects on a shelf sometimes. ... You can tell they have already decided what you are and put you in a box with a label on it."
Gordon-Levitt: "No category ever really describes a person because every person is unique."
Gordon-Levitt: "Young actors can be the best actors! They are closer to the days when you can [be] completely uninhibited."
Out Magazine: "[He is on a] restless quest for authenticity and connection."
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