O Magazine interview
The Dalai Lama discusses what readers should gain from his book The Art of Happiness:
When a person is in a miserable situation, then, yes, it is difficult to develop genuine compassion toward others. That’s why I find it difficult to say to poor people, Please have compassion toward millionaires. That’s not easy. And yet even the rich have their own kind of suffering, anxiety, doubt, and fear. So in many cases, wealthy people aren’t happy! And once those with material wealth encounter small difficulties, their amount of mental suffering is sometimes bigger than it is for those who have faced such difficulties every day.
O Magazine interview
Bush talks about being compared to Clinton:
I am going to be Laura Bush. Every first lady has been different, and she has used her passion for the benefit of our nation. For example, Lady Bird Johnson made a huge contribution to our country through her love of nature—the Highway Beautification Act was really the start of the environmental movement. That’s pretty radical.
O Magazine interview
Mandela speaks about being in prison for 27 years and how it shaped him as a person:
But in a single cell in prison, I had time to think. I had a clear view of my past and present, and I found that my past left much to be desired, both in regard to my relations with other humans and in developing personal worth.
O Magazine interview
Angelou talks about the impact of her book, Caged Bird:
Because of the rape. And yet I just read someplace that after a woman had read Caged Bird, she realized she wasn’t alone. I think in some cases Caged Bird has saved some lives—not just the quality of life, which is very important, but life itself. I get letters from young women and men, and I am able to say to them, “You can survive rape. You never forget it—don’t even think that. But you can survive it and go on.
O Magazine interview
Wiesel talks about hie memoir Night:
I wrote that, but I didn’t hate. I just felt terribly angry and humiliated. At that point, our disappointment was not with the Germans but with the Hungarians. They had been our neighbors [before they joined forces with the Nazis and captured us]. The moment we left our homes, they became vultures. They came into our house and robbed us of everything. And I was terribly disappointed. I used the word hate because that was the strongest feeling I could imagine having. But when I think about it now, there was no hate in me. I grew up learning that hate destroys the hater as much as its victim. I didn’t hate the Germans, so how can I hate the Hungarians?
O Magazine interview
Pontier speaks about becoming a film producer:
I decided that I must learn everything I could about the production of motion pictures. In a way, I had always been doing that by watching directors, but I decided I wanted to make films. I entered an agreement with Paul Newman, Steve McQueen and Barbra Streisand. We started a film production company called First Artists. I did four movies with them. I did Uptown Saturday Night, Let’s Do It Again and A Piece of the Action. I did A Warm December as well.
O Magazine interview
Fonda talks about her former husband Turner:
In some ways, he’s like my father, but he’s not dour. He’s full of life and funny, in fact, he’s a riot. And I tend to be overly serious, because I’m my father’s daughter. So it was wonderful for me to be with somebody lighthearted, well, Ted’s not really lighthearted, he’s deep, someone who gets that much of a kick out of life.
O Magazine interview
Cosby discusses the death of her son Ennis in an interview with Esquire Magazine.
It was a fog in the sense that it was surreal. I couldn’t comprehend this. It was horror, and I couldn’t understand why this had happened. I had always taken great pride in protecting my children. I spoke to Ennis the night before he was killed and asked him to be careful about driving on the freeway in Los Angeles. So it was almost intuitive for me that something was about to happen. So then I felt bad that I didn’t stop him in some way, but I couldn’t. I was here; he was out there.