|
|
|
|
|
|
Wynton Marsalis
Pulitzer Prize for Music
I think that fame is like a fake nobility. Like royalty used to be, where you were just born, you didn't have to achieve anything. You were just born into a position above other people. It's like this one passage in the Bible where God is talking to the people, and he says, "What would you rather have? Would you rather deal directly with me, or would you rather deal with a king? Now if you get a king, he is going to tax you, he is going to want to take your women." And the people say, "Give us the king." So it's like that whole syndrome. Somebody has got to be famous. It doesn't have to be merited, and in a democracy actually it's better for those who are famous to not be famous for achievement because then if they're just famous for no reason it gives everybody this illusion that they too can be touched by the hand of fate, and they will become famous, too.
View Interview with Wynton Marsalis
View Biography of Wynton Marsalis
View Profile of Wynton Marsalis
View Photo Gallery of Wynton Marsalis
|
|
Craig McCaw
Pioneer of Telecommunications
The extraordinary achievements in the future on the Internet, in my opinion, will be driven, just as Netscape was, by people in their 20s. Perhaps the next great entrepreneurs will be teenagers. It's amazing to think that people will be wildly rich perhaps, or at least wildly creative beyond anyone's dreams, at very young ages. It's almost like returning to the Old West, when Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were very young and that age is not a barrier. Now we have to decide how rich you ought to be perhaps at 18, but I don't know that that's something that society needs to decide for us.
View Interview with Craig McCaw
View Biography of Craig McCaw
View Profile of Craig McCaw
View Photo Gallery of Craig McCaw
|
|
Craig McCaw
Pioneer of Telecommunications
The American Dream is all about what people will do if you allow them the open opportunity. And that's why an extraordinary number of people come from other countries and achieve greatness here. It's because they have the desire, the toughness, the willingness to work, and the education, and then they do something with it, and it is extraordinary to see. Other countries are beginning to determine the fact that they can't succeed against us if they don't provide more freedom. And that's why we see a growing global revolution in decontrolling telecommunications. Because without that, their societies can't compete with ours. Because ideas, and the nurturing of those ideas is what is making America great.
View Interview with Craig McCaw
View Biography of Craig McCaw
View Profile of Craig McCaw
View Photo Gallery of Craig McCaw
|
|
Frank McCourt
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
We didn't want to look like we came from the lane, but you could spot us a mile away. The urchins from the lanes. We had that look. You see kids roaming the big cities, in New York, in America, the inner cities as they say. You see bands of kids and you know. You know where they came from. You can spot them. They're roaming around. And you look at some of them, they don't want to be there, they want to be someplace else. They want to be a part of what they're walking through, the fine streets and the broad avenues. And that's the way I felt. I didn't want to be detected as a slum kid, but there was no choice. We had no clothes. We didn't have clothes. So when I came to New York I tried to pass myself off as middle class. I even tried to affect an American accent. It didn't work. I tried some days. Even nowadays my wife falls on the floor laughing at my attempt at an American accent. So we all wanted to sound like James Cagney.
View Interview with Frank McCourt
View Biography of Frank McCourt
View Profile of Frank McCourt
View Photo Gallery of Frank McCourt
|
|
Frank McCourt
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
I wanted to be something else but I didn't know what. There was no clear cut dream. I thought I'd like to have a job, a decent job in an office. I'd like to be in an office sitting behind a desk, pushing papers around, making little decisions about pushing papers, get out at 5:00 o'clock, meet this gorgeous girl and we'd probably get married and have two-and-a-half kids and live out in Long Island or someplace like that, and I'd go to mass every Sunday morning, be nice and warm and clean, and I'd be accepted, and I'd lose my Irish accent, and I'd sound like James Cagney. I didn't know what to do. I read a lot. I discovered the 42nd Street Library. That's what I did. I read and read and read voraciously and widely. Then I was liberated from this menial job I had in a hotel. I was the man with the dust pan and the broom in the lobby. I was liberated by the Chinese who attacked Korea and America drafted me and sent me to Germany for two years. I don't know what I would have done if the Chinese hadn't attacked Korea. I'm a victim of history in Ireland and I'm a beneficiary of history in America.
View Interview with Frank McCourt
View Biography of Frank McCourt
View Profile of Frank McCourt
View Photo Gallery of Frank McCourt
|
|
Frank McCourt
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
I had to show what happened to this young man, me, who I hope would be a prototype for all immigrants. What happened to me. How I made my way through New York, which is a fearful place to get through, and how accidentally certain things happened, and how I made certain things happen. That's kind of a balance. Some things happen to you. I made certain decisions. I made a decision that I wasn't going to be a cop, that I wasn't going to be a bartender. That I wasn't going to stay in some menial job for the rest of my -- because of my anger. I'm better than this. And most people know they're better than that.
View Interview with Frank McCourt
View Biography of Frank McCourt
View Profile of Frank McCourt
View Photo Gallery of Frank McCourt
|
|
Frank McCourt
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
The day I retired from teaching, again, was one of the most satisfying days of my life and it was sad, but when I -- the day I retired, I went home and I was by myself and I was having a glass of wine. I was thinking about the lunch the teachers gave me that day. The retirement lunch. And I was able to look back on that life, that 30 years in the classroom, and say -- I was able to congratulate myself. I'm glad I did that. That was good. I felt useful, that I don't think I would have felt if I had gone into business or something like that. So that was -- that was that deep satisfaction that I had, that I had followed some kind of a deity -- what would you call it?-- Discipline. And I was dealing with kids, and I hope that I had been of some use, of some help. You never know. But they've told me. I meet the kids, former students, and they tell me that I was of help.
View Interview with Frank McCourt
View Biography of Frank McCourt
View Profile of Frank McCourt
View Photo Gallery of Frank McCourt
|
| |
|
