21st Century American Women

"So they laundered money. They kept it abroad, first for the CPSU and then for themselves."

"In the book I detail the many cases that I investigated in Saint Petersburg of Putin's involvement with illicit activities, illicit groups."

"My basic argument is... Putin, as deputy mayor of Saint Petersburg worked with the mafia to make their activities legal. He was in a position within the government to provide license and registrations... for items going out... and coming into the country. He sent, over his signature, Tambov mafia leaders as members of cultural delegations to Germany. ...[I]n Saint Petersburg ...White Nights was a mafia front ...[F]rom the very beginning there were people involved with cultural exchanges... gambling [etc.,]... very close to Putin who were using their position for [cross-border exchanges of] goods and services... [E]ven in 1991-92 that border wasn't open for people who had a criminal record. So he verified for their applications for visas that they had no criminal record."

"[D]elivers precisely the kind of meticulously researched evidence one would hope for in a work preceded by such controversy... [A]n important and valuable work because it provides the most exhaustive investigation into the patterns of Russian government corruption to date."

"Dawisha offers an account of Putin's rise... beginning with his stint with the ... in the 1980s. ...[S]he found that Russia's current struggles are... a product of careful planning by Putin's close-knit inner circle... that placed... individual economic interests above all else."

"Her 2014 book, Putin’s Kleptocracy – Who Owns Russia?, is a definitive account of how Russia’s president and his friends grabbed and consolidated power. Along the way they became among the richest people on the planet, and the beneficiaries of what Dawisha called "a kleptocratic system". Putin... knowingly took Russia down an autocratic path... head of a -like cabal... [that] looted the state and its natural resources. ...Karen was born in Colorado Springs in 1949. Her mother, Paula... was a school teacher and her father... a jazz musician. ...[H]er later work on Putin ...was written with clarity, moral passion and bravery, at a time when critics of Russia’s president were dying in murky ways. ...Dawisha initially believed Putin was stumbling towards democracy... until her research turned up ...multiple connections to organised crime. ...Putin’s Kleptocracy became a sort of bible for... investigative journalists looking at Putin’s money."

"When Karen Dawisha, Miami University political science professor and Director of the Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies, compiled five years of research into a... book, she had no idea it would become a bestseller and land her... on the acclaimed TV program Frontline. ...Putin's Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia? ...according to Dawisha, "reads like a legal brief." ...Dawisha ...appeared on PBS's Frontline in ..."Putin's Way" ..."a complete hour on the subject of my book" ...[she said]."

"we exist because of all the other living creatures the came before us"

"when making art, it doesn’t exist in a vacuum—you need at least one audience member, and that’s sort of an extension of life itself too. You need at least two people. The quote I always go back to—I think Tony Kushner said this in the introduction to Angels in America—is “The smallest indivisible human unit is two people, not one.” That’s a quote that has always reverberated with me."

"I never want my stories to be just sad or just happy. I always feel like the stories that I love, they’re never completely resolved. All the loose ends aren’t tied, but it’s that tension that makes me keep thinking about it. One ending that keeps coming to mind is the ending for Spirited Away, the Ghibli movie, where it’s a happy ending but also a sad ending, but there’s also this possibility of more things to come. I just feel like that’s the most accurate representation of life. Even if it’s an ending, new things are on the way. Or even if it is a happy ending, it might pass one day. I feel like ultimately, with characters, I want them to go through a journey or go through some sort of transformation of epiphany. So it’s more a matter of that than whether it’s happy or sad."

"That way of visualizing emotions, I feel like that came from that book I read that helped me meditate, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle...And one thing he emphasizes over and over, which is also something that’s explored a lot in Buddhist philosophy, is that your true essence is completely separate from your thought process. So whatever verbal chatter is in your mind, you can be immersed in it, or you can actually see it as a third-person observer and sort of step back from the chaos of your thoughts and just think to yourself, “Oh, that’s an interesting response I’m having,” or “Oh, how interesting that I’m going through that mental battle again. I’m triggered to think these thoughts again.” And it’s, of course, easier said than done, but I feel like making these comics is a way of reminding myself that if I’m feeling sad or if I’m feeling anxious, I’m not the sadness, I’m not the anxiousness. I can step back from this bad energy or see it as a rainstorm or a bad streak of weather that will eventually go away."

"With comics, it’s always this interesting tug of war between what you can convey with words that can’t be conveyed with just image, and what you can convey with image that words can’t do justice to. So it’s always a combination of both when I come up with the stories because the two things are inseparable to me."

"A lot of people ask me — I get this all the time — 'Are you Buddhist? Are you Zen?' And my answer is always, 'I don't always necessarily identify myself with Buddhism, but the philosophy is something I'm always interested in and am very curious about learning more about.' So I am very influenced by Buddhist philosophies, Buddhist schools of thought. So much of it deals with being mindful, being fully aware of just a very subjective nature of reality, the illusion of reality, sort of the dichotomy of samsara or nirvana ... those are things that I do think about a lot, and I think it definitely, that interest reflects itself in the comics. (2014)"

"I feel like being a second-generation person of color born to immigrant parents, I really do think that sort of — however subconsciously — [does] play into my creative perspective on juggling dual realities, barriers in connecting with other people, just sort of having dual perspectives on reality. (2014)"

"When you feel like you have autonomy in everything in your life — what outfit you want to wear, or what flowers you want to buy for yourself, or what color area rug you want to put in your home — I feel like when you exercise making these choices for yourself, you just have more ownership of your life; and when you have more ownership of your life, you just make bolder choices for yourself that are going to improve the quality of your life in this really wonderful and intuitive way. I think when it comes down to it I want people to have joyful autonomy. (2017)"

"I think it’s this intention to pay attention to what you’re doing in your day-to-day life to take care of your home and body and health and really taking — not taking pride, but like how Marie Kondo says to thank your clothes when you’re giving them away, that spirit. I just like the idea of honoring these very mundane activities, whether it’s washing your dishes or decorating your office; because I think when you put care and intention into these activities, it infuses everything you do with this mindful sense of care, where things just feel more meaningful because you’re doing them for yourself. (2017)"

"there are no separate waves in this ocean of energy"

"What if instead of drowning in your self- hating thoughts, you spread them apart like cotton candy..."

"Lesson 1: You are a part of the universe, the universe is a part of you"

"How can we possibly feel oneness with the universe, if we aren't creating any inner space to really listen to what the universe is trying to tell us?"

"Let us get reacquainted with the miracle that is your breath: all the trees, flowers, and plants on this earth make it possible for you to breathe. All living things on this earth are breathing in and breathing out the same air that you are."

"There are no divisions in the universe, the universe is oneness, the universe just is"

"when we realize and truly embrace everything the is within us...that is when we can truly feel healed and whole again"

"“I want them to understand that success in politics is not about a well-ordered, linear series of successes … Nobody succeeds in politics that way,”"

"“People succeed in politics by taking risks, having failures, recovering from those failures, working really, really hard, being a good person, helping others and, over the years, collecting a real community of people … who will help you out when you’re struggling, and people you need to help out when they’re struggling,”"

"“Harvard students need to understand it’s OK to fail. That’s really a sign that you’re challenging yourself and growing.”"

"“I’m so interested and curious as to why you skipped over Donald Trump’s 298 trips to Mar-a-Lago that cost taxpayers $3.4m, and it all went back to his golf course,”"

"“My reaction is what a disappointment it is for the Trump campaign that they have to completely re-think about what their strategy has to be going into the final weeks of this,”"

"“Covid isn’t something that is inevitable for everyone, this a behavior-based, response for people taking necessary precautions, and the Biden campaign has done that, so had all the Democrats and everyone who’s volunteering so they just don’t have to navigate this particular obstacle like the Trump campaign does because they were negligent in how they were treating this very very deadly, very scary virus.”"

"“What I will say is that this is an obstacle that many people aren’t having to navigate because they are taking necessary precautions and I’m not sure that was necessarily reflected by the current administration and what a disappointment when we could be talking about the issues,”"

"“I knew I wanted to work in politics somehow, but I had no idea where,” she said. “It’s hard to know what these jobs actually entail when you’re just a student.”"

"“Writing for Harkin — I just didn’t really know how to write a speech. I was sort of freelancing, just doing my best. But by the end of the year, I think they were really happy that I decided to go to law school,”"

"“He really helped me understand what makes a good speech,” said Hurwitz. “He really taught me the art of writing to be heard, as opposed to read, which I don’t think I quite understood.”"

"“I was so incredibly proud to work for Hillary. I love her. She’s been one of my heroes since I was a kid. But I also came to really respect and admire Obama, and so when she conceded I was really thrilled to be able to go work for him.”"

"“The speech always starts with her — sitting down with her and having her articulate what she wants to say, how she wants to say it, what her tone will be, what her message will be,” said Hurwitz. “That’s the heart of the speech.”"

"“I think a great speech is something that says something profoundly true, period. So often, people ask the wrong questions when they’re thinking about delivering a speech. They ask, ‘What will make me sound smart,’ ‘What will make me sound powerful,’ ‘What will make me sound funny,’ ‘What will make the audience like me?’”"

"“But I sat back and really started to think about it and realized that if … my real passion was government and politics, then I’d better do this,”"

"“For me, speechwriting is about telling the stories that too often just don’t get told,” Hurwitz said. “There’s a lot of quiet daily heroism in this country—people who get up every day and build lives driven by love, courage, and self-sacrifice.”"

"“I’m not sure what comes next,” she said. “For now, I’m just trying to enjoy every minute of this once-in-a-lifetime experience.”"

"There isn't really a university major in speech writing,"

"A lot of the time you are spending alone in your office, sitting at a computer, just trying to come up with the right words for the moment,"

"The line, 'When they go low, we go high.' That was her line. That was not my line. That was Mrs. Obama's line entirely,"

"I just typed it into the speech. That's one I'm very proud of.""

"If you wouldn't say something to one person don't say it to many people."

"A good rule of thumb is if you wouldn't say something to one person don't say it to many people. It actually doesn't get better,"

"In the political world it's all these slogans like, 'We need to put hard-working, middle-class-family values first,' or in business you get a lot of, 'We need to catalyze our platform to leverage transformational change.' You know, you never speak to your friend, your spouse, like this. That's not how normal people speak."

"“Mrs. Obama is … a fundamentally authentic, honest person. She doesn’t say something unless she truly believes it, and people respond to that,”"

"“Every transition had to be perfect,” she said of her experience working with the former First Lady. “A lot of the flow with a brilliant lawyer in mind had to be asking her, because she would just hone in on whatever was weak.”"

"it’s been “devastating” having to repeat throughout the day “that kidnapping toddlers and killing babies and raping women is not resistance" and to have to "again and again" condemn "the celebration of the death of civilians on any side of any conflict.""

"“So many Jews in America have so many friends and family members in Israel, and it is really devastating and wrenching,”"