Women Born In The 1980s

"Because I had covered Silicon Valley since 2004, the year Google went public and when Facebook was started, I was able to meet and interview many young technology CEOs. For my novel, I decided to create the character King Rao, have him grow up on a coconut farm in South India in the 1950s, move to the states in the 1970s and ultimately open an Apple-like tech company.”"

"I had a kind of Trump-like character, who was very much based on Trump, who I wrote into the book as part of the explanation of the process by which the new world order emerges. I wrote this character before Trump was at all a credible candidate. I think I wrote it in 2014 when there were rumbles that he wanted to run but nobody thought that he was really going to do it and be taken seriously. So, in my attempt at world-building, I thought, okay, there’s no way Trump is going to win now, but I could totally imagine a world in which somebody like him comes along and wins in a decade, or something. Then, later on, when he became President, friends would read that version of the book and be like, "I don’t understand why Trump is here when it’s supposed to be many years in the future." So, I had to change that character and turn the screw a little bit more to make it not as realistic."

"I started working right away as a reporter at the Wall Street Journal. They put me in the San Francisco bureau of the Journal, which was the bureau that covered technology, and my first beat was writing about Oracle, which was this big business software company, and about Larry Ellison, the CEO at the time of that company."

"I was a rhythmic and athletic gymnast for a little while. Then, when I quit gymnastics, I fell in love with yoga. So sometimes I think I’d like to open up a yoga studio."

"I think it’s amazing that there’s this new media that allows you to be more connected with the people that support you. Without their support I couldn’t exist."

"There are toxic people who have come into my life before. I feel like when you’re younger, you kind of don’t really realize it. But I surround myself with people who are very blunt and honest and real. And when somebody comes in who doesn’t share that authenticity, you can smell it from a mile away. And so, I trust my friends to tell me if I’m not seeing something or if someone’s not being genuine or doesn’t really want to be my friend for the right reasons."

"I think when I hit 27, my priorities shifted. It was one of those things that I’d been warned about. People told me that when you’re younger, you don’t really have a concept of time. You think the world is your oyster, but after a certain amount of time, you realize that it is finite, and what have you done up until this point? Was it something important to you? What have you achieved? What do you want to achieve? Where are you in that path to achieving it? Once my priorities shifted, I realized that I didn’t have as much time. I started to realize, what was I doing? Was it making me happy? If it wasn’t making me happy, then I don’t need to do it. No one’s forcing me to be here. I should be spending my time with things that make me smile, make me laugh, make me fulfilled. And so as soon as I realized that staying out a little bit later would make me feel not so great in the morning, I’d rather go to bed. I’d rather hang out with my dog and watch a movie and do things that I want to do instead of waste my life and my time."

"I do feel like changing your aesthetic can be therapeutic in a weird way. I mean, it’s odd to even say that out loud because your aesthetic is superficial in so many ways, but it can also affect the way you feel. I mean, I know for a fact that when I cut my hair shorter two years ago, it was almost like I was cutting off old energy."

"I’ve been producing behind the scenes for a little while now, so that has always been part of my brain and process. If I can add value and be integral in a project or an experience, I definitely love producing. But now that I’ve directed, I look forward to new opportunities to get to do it again. We’ll see what comes next. I definitely look forward to doing it again, for sure."

"When you’re directing something, you have to look at the bigger picture and what the goal is, what the story is that you’re trying to tell, and the emotion that you want to convey. When you change the lens that you’re looking from, it changes the type of performance or the take you might choose. I think I’m more forgiving now because I understand that a little bit better."

"I really want to immerse myself in the world. In terms of dialogue and writing characters and visuals, it needed to come from me, especially for the first one. I’m not closed off to the idea in the future. I’ve been writing a lot of other things as well. None of them have gotten set yet, but I’ve sold a couple of projects, as a writer. Writing has always been an interest of mine as well. It really just helps you, when you’re the one who wrote it, bringing it to life feels much more colorful and multi-faceted. You really understand that story, you know what you wanna get across, and your vision just feels more full, in my opinion, but mind you, I’ve only ever had this one experience. I can only judge it from this one time."

"Let the universe bring what is meant to bring to you. Don’t hold on to things that aren’t meant to be with you. If you’re on a dating app and you’re putting yourself out there, put yourself out there, but any kind of desperate energy can be felt on either side — especially if you’re trying to do [it] just for the holidays. That doesn’t feel very genuine. If you’re looking for someone for the holidays, specifically, then that probably means you need to call your therapist and do some work on yourself. That’s another thing that I’ve personally been working on for a long time: trying to bring the focus back to myself and be whole in myself, with or without a partner. In order to be with someone else, you need to be there for yourself, first, and be content with who you are. You have to be complete in yourself."

"How do you choose? You choose because of who your heart and your soul connects with more, not the physical appearance that’s gonna fade eventually. It’s all about the person who is going to make you laugh until you cry for the rest of your life, the person you can be your most authentic self with. That’s key, in my opinion."

"Obviously everyone has flaws, but, more than anything, it’s not about finding the perfect person — it’s about finding the perfect person for you."

"Unending jahaalat in this country! Vote for jaahils, make every institution as jaahil as you are, produce more jaahils… it’s an endless cycle! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽"

"I am an unapologetic feminist. But I think it’s a misunderstood term. My question to those who say that they are not feminists, frankly, would be ‘why not?"

"I know a lot of aesthetically beautiful women who are not nice people, and they do not come across as beautiful to me. I think the number one thing for beauty is a smile. I love a woman with a beautiful smile."

"That being said, you can have all of the resources and open doors in the world, but if you know don't know what to do with them, they're useless. And we know plenty of kids who grew up with privilege, who grew up wealthy — way more privilege than [us] — and they do nothing with their lives."

"We weren't really raised in the public eye because our dad was a behind-the-scenes person. But I will say being raised with privilege, I think that there's a lot of judgment that comes with it and we would never be so presumptuous to pretend like we haven't had a leg up on someone who has no resources and no help in the world and no one to open a door for them and no opportunities."

"I have no words. SF [San Francisco] is a complete s—hole. I am a registered Democrat and feel confident saying liberal politicians are ruining cities."

"I think that everybody would love to play the bad girl, ‘cause for most of us, it’s a stretch."

"Grew up in the sticks where there ain't no light But the stars were big and bright If they told me no I would always wonder why But I tried to be good And keep my head down But there was too much sky around And my daddy said Keep lookin' up"

"My parents were my first major influences. They ran a literary magazine called Imagine, which had stories about Accra; articles on art, science, film, books; cartoons—which I especially loved. They were (and still are) my heroes. I discovered Toni Morrison when I was thirteen, and I was hooked. I devoured everything she wrote. I remember reading Paradise, and while its meaning completely evaded me then, I was left feeling like it was the most amazing book written and that one day I wanted to write a world full of strong female characters, just like Ms. Morrison had done."

"Bursting with empathy I'm feeling everything The weight of the world on my shoulders Hope my tears don't freak you out They're just kinda coming out It's the music in me and all of the colors"

"There is a light at the end of the tunnel There is a light inside of me Tried not to show it To make you feel good Pretended I couldn't"

"If you can't lose the weight, then you're just fat But if you lose too much, then you're on crack You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't So, you might as well just do whatever you want So, make lots of noise (Hey), kiss lots of boys (Yeah)"

"Get a little drunk, get a little loud Stupid me and my rebel mouth Ain't all wrong but I ain't alright Don't see the world in black and white And I ain't good at being careful I just say what's on my mind Like my idea of heaven Is to burn one with John Prine"

"Anti-black racism rightly gets a lot of attention. But perhaps it's time to figure out where Jews fit into the picture because, as the Tuck report makes clear, our struggles are just as real as those facing other minorities."

"[T]he Farage approach, much like that of Boris, is not only fun for the man, it seems to be just as fun for the woman."

"Despite this near-impossible battlefield, the IDF seems to have managed to keep its ratio of civilians to combatants killed lower than almost any other army ever has. The world eats up Hamas figures for the numbers who have been killed, naturally refusing to distinguish between Hamas fighters and civilians. But according to one analysis earlier this year, even if we accept the terror group's statistics, for every Hamas combatant eliminated, approximately 1.5 civilians have been tragically killed. Given that the UN says that civilians usually make up a shocking 90 per cent of casualties in war (a 1:9 ratio), this is impressive. Unlike most, Israel drops leaflets and sends texts to people before any attacks so they can evacuate; in this war, it has sacrificed some of its objectives in order to limit civilian deaths."

"Everyone has the right to say or do what they like within the law, but that doesn't change my conviction – which is considered as extreme as it is obvious to me – that anti-Israel Jews are worse than antisemitic: they are traitors. If their lives were at stake, and Israel was the one place in the world they might be safe, Israel's duty would be to take them in because they are Jews. But to me, now, whatever rituals they perform, they are useless Jews. Superfluous. In the enemy camp, working against all who believe "never again"."

"[From an article on Kanye West's admiration for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.] It's hard to believe that this is all happening in the country of my childhood — a place where light antisemitism sometimes marred small Waspy towns like the one I grew up in, or circulated within certain communities, but didn’t dominate the ether. On the contrary. Crucially, there was a sense, an awareness, that Jews were an indispensable addition to American showbiz — and America was lucky to have them. The idea that celebrities, from comedy to music and sport (the NBA's Kyrie Irving recently promoted a terrifying book called Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America) might weekly spew some new Goebbels-grade sentiment would have seemed dystopian."

"I'm petrified of driving, but what about flying? It’s now cheaper and more reliable than taking the train to Manchester or Newcastle."

"But increasingly "gender critical feminist" is simply becoming another term for members of the public who are not willing to put up with this madness."

"The America of my childhood was not a place where Jews had to brace themselves for constant invocations of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, where Jewish excellence in entertainment triggered public mockery laced with canards about Jewish control, as in Dave Chappelle's monologue. And, on the left, it was not a place where being pro-Israel was seen to be a position of "white supremacy" — a crime, in the new American progressive universe, deemed far worse than antisemitism."

"Keep your ambition alive and your eyes on the goal. The journey won’t be easy, but never lose sight of where you’re going."

"As the Indian sages pondered on the problem of good and evil, they were confronted with the apparent injustices and cruelties of the world around them, and this state of affairs was finally reconciled with their idea of Brahman by the conception of a universal ethical law applymg to all life. This law as proclaimed as the law of karma. In the words of the Upanishads, "As is a man's desire so is his will, and 1\S is his will so is his deed, and whatever deed he does that he will reap." "India held a strange and irresistible attraction for the whole of Asia in the first millennium. People in the most primitive stage of development as well as the Chinese with a civilization as ancient and illustrious as India's own, acknowledged India as first in the supreme realm of spiritual perception. Yet the civilization of India, transplanted abroad, did not have a deadening effect of suppressing or stifling native genius, as the imposition of a foreign culture often does. On the contrary, it called out the best that others had to give.As a result of India's fertilizing influence, new and distinctive types of culture everywhere arose, and each new colony was able to create and contribute fresh treasure, to be added to the great Asiatic heritage. How Indian religions and Indian culture blossomed anew in foreign environments and endured for many centuries is a fascinating and little appreciated chapter of Indian history." ... "The Indian colonies which began to grow up all along the periphery of the motherland were essentially cultural and religious, rather than political or racial. Yet they were subject to strong Indian influences. These swept outward like tidal waves. They passed south to Sri Lanka and beyond to the remote islands of the Pacific. They inundated Burma, Malaya, Siam and Indo-China. They overwhelmed Nepal and Tibet. From Afghanistan, they passed along to central Asia and China. They lapped at the far shores of Korea and Japan. Indian religious ideas and literature, Indian conventions of art and architecture, Indian legal codes and social practices ... all took root in these outer territories." "For a long time Indians seem to have held the monopoly of maritime commerce in both the southern and eastern seas of Asia. They possessed large ocean-going vessels, in which they first ventured to Sri Lanka, Burma, Malaya and gradually they extended their journeys to Java and Sumatra and then to southern China."

"Keep calm and yes, I’m a feminist"

"“When time comes for leaders to leave power, they get excuses to stay and then say that it is the people who are asking them to continue to lead. This is a bad habit across the continent.”"

"“I know that you are powerless to deliver a fair verdict and to give me bail. You are trying my case but the real power and decisions will come from the President’s Office, not from you.”"

"“I am innocent and the charges are fabricated because I opposed the ruling party.”"

"“Some of the statistics on Rwanda’s development appear to be cooked.”"

"“I am very happy with the court decision. I am continuing with my political journey … everything I talked about in the past has not been resolved. There are still many political prisoners in the country.”"

"“This is the second time you cheat me out of my right to campaign.”"

"“@PaulKagame why won’t you let me run?”"

"“After all the time, work and effort I put in, I am very disappointed to hear that I am not on the list of presidential candidates.”"

"“I know that you are powerless to deliver a fair verdict and to give me bail. You are trying my case but the real power and decisions will come from the President’s Office, not from you.” “But I urge you to try the best you can and be fair.”"

"I request the president release me and my family.” “I am being victimised … because I have political ambitions.”"

"“I speak the truth, that the system is built on a lie. They simply do not want to be exposed. The lie is that everything is well in Rwanda and I just talk about [the reality] which is the high level of unemployment, the high level of poverty, the disappearances, the killings, all that, and they are not ready for that to be exposed.”"

"“I was not surprised by my arrest. I was kind of expecting it because of what I was doing in the country: if you dare criticise the government that is what happens, you get arrested, imprisoned or lose your life. I expected some form of retaliation.”"