"You can't play basketball by just watching a video in theory about passing and shooting—you have to do it. Learning these critical human skills is very similar. You have to do it in a simulated, experiential way that will truly translate to your ability in the moment when it matters."

"I’ve learned so much about leadership and how I show up as a leader. My most important work is to build stronger self-skills – to manage my emotions, be adaptive, and take accountability."

"We have to connect at a real, personal level, beyond the transactional trust that I think we so often find in workplaces. We are so divided, and yet we have to learn to work with people who think differently than us and believe in different things than us, to achieve outcomes that hopefully better all of us."

"I believe luck shouldn’t be the main contributing factor in one’s outcomes. I also believe that learning and development can be a tool to help everyone lead more inclusively, support more equitable outcomes, and drive more value for us all."

"It’s incredibly hard to be a people leader right now. The expectations of what leaders must navigate are higher–from navigating the socio-political conversations entering the workplace to the technological advances transforming how we work–it can feel like the goalposts keep changing and there are fewer resources to achieve more aggressive goals."

"It’s how do we use technology to help us become even better humans, to help us be able to give feedback across differences, to navigate difficult conversations, to provide performance feedback and expectations with accountability and care in a way that actually serves us all better, that creates more value for everyone, doesn’t cause harm."

"My hope is that our work counteracts the drive to centralize power and disenfranchise human beings."

"AI tools that actually help people and not try to replace them."

"We focus on where AI tools are being experimented with before they get to the rest of the society and uncover what happens to the people."

"That was the scariest thing."

"I was being attacked by a bunch of guys, and nobody helped me at all."

"We aim to expose the harms of the current AI system, serving as an early warning system to stop their spread."

"The primary motivation with all of these AI technologies is either to have more warfare or to have more profit."

"I think it made it really clear that unless there is external pressure to do something different, companies are not just going to self regulate."

"We need regulation and we need something better than just a profit motive."

"You don’t want someone like me who’s going to get in your way."

"Impacts people all over the world and they don’t get to have a say on how they should shape it."

"Overrepresent hegemonic viewpoints and encode biases potentially damaging to marginalised populations."

"I’ve met so many people like you who think that they can just come here from other countries and take the hardest classes."

"I want a different kind of root motivation for technology that puts human welfare first."

"Feels like a gold rush."

"A lot of the people who are making money are not the people actually in the midst of it."

"It’s humans who decide whether all this should be done or not."

"What I’ve realized is that we can talk about the ethics and fairness of AI all we want, but if our institutions don’t allow for this kind of work to take place, then it won’t.”"

"“Even at places like Stanford, we have too much concentrated power that is impacting the world, and yet the world has no opportunity to affect how technology is being developed.""

"Generative AI is not just about creating something new, but about capturing what was once impossible to express.”"

"I want to live in a world where we’re not trying to disenfranchise humans or devalue labor."

"Iwant to live in a world where instead of there being one company in one place in the world with one dominant model."

"That’s not the world I want to live in."

"We have many people who are each working to support their communities in some way and sharing profits back."

"We should remember that we have the agency to do that."

"Why did I ever pick up a pen?! It’s hard! It’s hard because you’re not doing it for anyone else. You’re doing it for yourself and you have to be the boss and the taskmaster and if you’re tired or struggling or have writer’s block, it’s very hard to stay on top of your schedule to meet your goals."

"Most generally, it’s the idea that we should live in a fair, equal society that doesn’t oppress, degrade, silence, ignore, or disempower women. Nobody is free until everybody is free. Most importantly, any true feminism theory must be intersectional."

"Humor is so important! Life is absurd. It truly is. And in The Perfect Find, the characters find themselves in some dramatic situations that call for some levity – a quip, a witticism, a bit of banter. It’s very much a Black thing to use humor to cope with outrageous circumstances!"

"I think the thing that I’ve learned the most is that I don’t always have to write exactly about what I know."

"To me, love is like listening to an album. Some people skip to their favorite songs and ignore the rest. Other people listen to the entire album over and over until it's familiar and cherished and they know every note by heart."

"I believe in love at first sight, all of that. I’m a very romantic person. I romanticize life. How grim and sad is your life if you can’t mythologize it? Because life is hard. So I’ve always just tried to make a story out of everything. I don’t want things to be run of the mill. I want everything to be high stakes, more vivid than average: The most interesting people you’ve ever met, the funniest dialogue, the best sex, like ever. Because ultimately, this is a gift from me, to Black women."

"I’ve seen beautiful things and terrible things. Until you, I didn’t know that they’re two sides of the same feeling. I want you, Ricki. Actually, it’s not a want. It’s an uncompromising, inconvenient need. But it’ll ruin us both."

"You don’t get to dictate the terms under which the work you put out there is received. “Mlle Bourgeoise Noire” is an extremely directed body of work. This trilogy that I did, [it was all about] what’s wrong with the art world, and what we need to do to remedy it. That work became so popular that it just took over. It’s been a bit of a struggle to get the other work—which is more what I consider the core of what I’m about, the anti-binary argument and all that—that’s a little bit harder to establish, I’ve found. "Lorraine O'Grady Has Always Been a Rebel" The New Yorker (interview by Doreen St. Felix published on September 29, 2022)"

"Preparation is key. You can’t wait until the door opens first and then get prepared. You have to be prepared so when the door opens, whatever opportunity presents itself, you’re ready to take advantage of it."

"Good and evil comes in all shades and colors... evil is not prejudiced.... evil just needs an opportunity to work through you.... All of us, no matter what we look like, we all have a common enemy, and that is evil. If we don't understand that and come together, then evil will win."

"You cannot look at a person and tell whether they're good or bad."

"Racism is a grown-up disease, and we must stop using our children to spread it."

"writing is an art but it’s work. If you don’t value your work, who will? (2021)"