I’m not of the opinion that all software will be open source software. There is certain software that fits a niche that is only useful to a particular company or person: for example, the software immediately behind a web site’s user interface. But the vast majority of software is actually pretty generic.
I always look for genuineness. If I feel I can connect with the audience, I will try to develop it. For example, the genesis of ‘Kannathil Muthamittal’ was an article published in a magazine.
I always look for a story that hasn’t been told in the same way. I don’t care about a lot of the usual elements people use for a quick drama boost. I want to know, for example, what happens when a man who was victimized by his father tries to be a father to a woman sixty years his senior.
I think there’s something about wanting to stand in the spotlight. I think the ball is a spotlight, for example, and I think they want to stand in that. I a lot of times see – LeBron is a guy that vacillates between wanting to do that and then wanting to get somebody else involved.
I work with brands that I personally connect with or personally use. For example, I was already driving the Suzuki Hayabusa long before I started endorsing Suzuki.
No matter what I do, I can’t help but feel that I’m under a microscope. Some of it is completely silly, and some of it is meant to be hurtful. For example, a website accumulated all of my music videos to point out perceived Illuminati images. I loved that one. Of course, it was all ridiculous but funny.
Working with franchises can be challenging, but at the same time I really did enjoy working on ‘Star Wars,’ for example, and I have done a lot of ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ games, but I still enjoy it very much.
If there is something that needs to be done on my behalf back home, for example, my brothers take care of it for me. I share everything with my family; all my happiness and success is theirs.
It’s hardly even noticeable that so many artists, designers and architects live here. It isn’t reflected in the cityscape or in the museums. Many of the artists, for example, exhibit around the world, just not in Berlin.
I do feel it’s tougher to make a comic scene work than performing an intense scene, for example.
I did have fun, for example, in The Black Hole which was very popular among youngsters.
Social systems have values – arguments baked into their design. For example, Twitter’s core argument seems to be, ‘Everything should be public, and messages should find the largest audience possible.’ Snapchat’s might be, ‘Communication should be private and ephemeral.’
I feel sorry sometimes for these sportsmen and women who put in just as much effort as the footballers. For example, athletes train at least as hard as footballers but have to be happy if they can earn enough to finance a decent education.
The commitment to put an end to illegal deforestation and develop sustainable alternatives for commodities like palm oil and soy, for example, is an inspiring illustration of what can be achieved when governments and industry partners come together determined to bring about transformational market-wide changes.
I think that football has changed, it has become more complex. For example, it’s faster, you have less free space, and you have to play from such small spaces.
A conventional truth can be important – it’s essential to learn elementary mathematics, for example – but it won’t give you an edge. It’s not a secret.
For example, computer defends well, but for humans its is harder to defend than attack, particularly with the modern time control.
In Mesopotamia or Egypt, for example, the monarch had a god-like religious status. But this is not the case in Judaism. So that notion that religion can go on, when all the markers of power and trappings of monarchy disappear, ultimately serves the endurance of Judaism very well.
Every time I come to the States, I wish people would react to war like they react to tobacco, for example. Because war really kills in a second lots of people, thousands of people.
For example, lead paint in old houses can be a greater threat to children’s health than lead that may be under some industrial site where there are no children.
I love games like ‘Flower,’ for example – I thought this was amazing. It’s great, it’s new, it’s different, and it’s invented something that didn’t exist before.
You can take things that Jimi Hendrix took, from Curtis Mayfield or from Buddy Guy for example, because we are all children of everything, even Picasso. But if you want to stand out, you have to learn to crystallize your existence and create your own fingerprints.
I have a book coming out in September, for example, where the plot concerns counterfeiting, and I had to do a lot of research on that. Or on any legal matters, for example, I have to do a lot of research online.
And I always read the English translation and always have conversations with my translator, for example about the names. I always have to approve it.
I know some of my memories are made up and they are far more powerful than the things that actually happened. For example, I always remember my brother posting me a copy of ‘Dubliners’ from Africa, but he says he never did.
As an East Asian looking at America, I find attractive and unattractive features. I like, for example, the free, easy and open relations between people regardless of social status, ethnicity or religion.
I make sure that I am active all time. For example I make it a point not to use the lift or escalator. If there is a staircase then I will climb it, even if it is 10 floors.
For example, I was a White House intern the summer before I dropped out of law school. Everybody knew about it. I’d come home and go to church and everybody would say, ‘Oh, my God. Demetri, you’re working at the White House.’
I think we need to rethink a lot of business skills. In finance, for example, social impact bonds are potentially a way of providing capital for investments that save the public money in a context in which government often doesn’t invest in things that would save it money.
Every Pixar movie has its own rules that viewers have to accept, understand, and enjoy understanding. The voices of the toys in the ‘Toy Story’ films, for example, are never audible to humans.
It is curious to reflect, for example, upon the remarkable legend of the Philosopher’s Stone, one of the oldest and most universal beliefs, the origin of which, however far back we penetrate into the records of the past, we do not probably trace its real source.
Pre-poll surveys receive different reaction in the media among voters and political parties. For example, the more undecided voters are, the greater the role and effect of pre-poll surveys. Similarly, greater the decline of the party system, the more influential their role.
A word, for example, that is negative, pejorative, and has caused more pain and suffering is ‘illegitimate.’ But every person has a mother and father. It is another way we let society hurt others.
I never really felt free to talk a lot about my family life because I don’t want to sacrifice anybody else’s privacy. If you look through the archives, you will see, for example, no pictures of my children. That is not because I don’t love them. I think I’ve been a really good dad; at least, I try to be.
I have always been an animal lover. I had a hard time disassociating the animals I cuddled with – dogs and cats, for example – from the animals on my plate, and I never really cared for the taste of meat. I always loved my Brussels sprouts.
‘Cyberspace’ is a metaphorical idea which is supposed to be the space where your consciousness is located when you’re using computer technology on the Internet, for example, and I’m not entirely sure it’s such a useful term, but I think that’s what most people mean by it.
Ever since taking office, the Obama administration has sought to accommodate Islamist demands that freedom of expression be curbed, lest it offend Muslims and stoke violence. For example, in 2009, the administration co-sponsored a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution along those lines.
Take the crocodile, for example, my favorite animal. There are 23 species. Seventeen of those species are rare or endangered. They’re on the way out, no matter what anyone does or says, you know.
I like things that are funny and have a lot else in them besides that – ideas, for example.
For example, Michael Jordan earns $100million a year but continues to play basketball and remains a modest human being.
The mainstream media showed, for example, no blood and guts resulting from the 9/11 attacks.
I don’t join the New Atheists. So, for example, I wouldn’t have the arrogance to lecture some mother who hopes to see her dying child in Heaven – that’s none of my business, ultimately. I won’t lecture her on the philosophy of science.
I’m fond of science fiction. But not all science fiction. I like science fiction where there’s a scientific lesson, for example – when the science fiction book changes one thing but leaves the rest of science intact and explores the consequences of that. That’s actually very valuable.
I like work, I like song writing, and I like the history of Atlantic Records. They’ve sat in the studio with so many artists – like Ray Charles, for example – and created something amazing. As a label, they seem to be great at growing bands rather than telling you how to do it.
