“My education was dominated by modernist thinkers and artists who taugh...” — Ellen Willis Quote

My education was dominated by modernist thinkers and artists who taught me that the supreme imperative was courage to face the awful truth, to scorn the soft-minded optimism of religious and secular romantics as well as the corrupt optimism of governments, advertisers, and mechanistic or manipulative revolutionaries.

I was a 'Big Brother' fan. I thought they were better musicians than their detractors claimed, but more to the point, technical accomplishment was not something I cared about.

The struggle of democratic secularism, religious tolerance, individual freedom and feminism against authoritarian patriarchal religion, culture and morality is going on all over the world - including the Islamic world, where dissidents are regularly jailed, killed, exiled or merely intimidated and silenced.

I can't keep myself from playing roles. The emotionless decadent, looking for diversion from boredom, is a favorite.

When you love someone deeply, you give strength, and when you are loved deeply, you gain courage.

I learned that sometimes our struggles are a little bit bigger than us and talking about them and coming through and having the courage to get out of them. I learned how many I touched and inspired through the journey of 'Idol' because I was just singing on the show. I wasn't really being an advocate for anything.

It is up to African leaders to show their will and political courage in order to assure that this new pan-African institution becomes an efficient instrument and not a place for endless discussions.

I'm told Jodha was someone whose eyes conveyed humility, simplicity, courage, and conviction. Paridhi embodies everything I had in mind for Jodha.