Justin Trudeau

(source - Montreal Gazette 15.1.16)
Justin Trudeau
Born: December 25th, 1971 - Ottawa, Canada


writer
Published Common Ground - October 2014
teacher
Prime Minister of Canada (2015- )


My idea of freedom is that we should protect the rights of people to believe what their conscience dictates, but fight equally hard to protect people from having the beliefs of others imposed upon them.
- Common Ground

I would agree that encyclopedia’s could teach me facts, but only a great story could transport me into the mind of another person. These stories taught me about empathy, about good and evil, about love and sorrow. My tastes covered many different genres, but the books I loved most proposed the idea that ordinary people (not to mention hobbits) are born with the capability to do extraordinary, even heroic things. The realization came as a sort of code to all the lessons my parents had taught me about looking beyond wealth and appearances, and appreciating the worth of everyone I met. It’s a lesson that sticks with me to this day. No real leader can see the people around them as static creatures. If you cannot see the potential in the people around you, it’s impossible to rouse them to great things.
- Common Ground

For me, to represent people who represent the future of Canada and the great challenges we will face over the coming decades — this is where I wanted to start. … I'm a teacher; I'm a convenor; I'm a gatherer; I'm someone who reaches out to people and is deeply interested in what they have to say. And people see that I'm not faking it. I'm actually genuinely committed to this dialogue that we're opening up, and this understanding that needs to happen in order to be an effective MP. 
- speech on winning his riding nomination in Quebec, 2007


I am a feminist. I’m proud to be a feminist.
Justin Trudeau's Tweet 22.9.15


Facts may fuel a leader’s intellect. But literature fuels the soul.
- Common Ground

Kiran Desai...

Kiran Desai
(daughter of writer Anita Desai)
Born: September 3rd 1971 - New Delhi, India


novelist


You can catch more flies with honey than with sour milk.
- Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard

But Sampath sat in the guava tree, encased in absolute stillness like a forest captured within a quiet moment of amber. 
- Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard

Yes, he was in the right place at last. Tiredness rolled over him like a wave, and closing his eyes, he fell into a deep slumber, lodged in a fork in the guava tree.
- Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard

All day, the colors had been those of dusk, mist moving like a water creature across the great flanks of mountains possessed of ocean shadows and depths.
- The Inheritance of Loss 

Why couldn't she be part of that family? rent a room in someone else's life.
- The Inheritance of Loss 

Never again could she think there was but one narrative and that this narrative belonged only to herself, that she might create her own tiny happiness and live safely within it. 
- The Inheritance of Loss