Latest Malcolm Gladwell Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• When people reflexively write checks to institutions that have billions of dollars in the bank, they are essentially committing a moral crime. Your money could do good in this world and you're choosing instead to waste it. People have to do a better job of that. You've got to find places where your money's going to do some good and direct your dollars towards that institution.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Writing, People, World

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

• There is nothing more common than critics of journalists accusing them of practicing journalism. It is our function in the world to take things that are complicated and render them in a form that non-experts can follow and make sense of.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  World, Common, Journalism

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

• There are some people, who I'll charitably call snobs, who are dismissive of any conversation that doesn't begin with the full level of complexity. That's just not how the world works.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  People, World, Snob

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

• And my advice for college graduates is don't reflexively give money to your alma mater, something particular to Americans that I find extraordinary. Take Princeton, for example - it has more money on a per capita basis than any educational institution in the history of educational institutions. There is no scenario where it can spend all the money its endowment generates every year. If there is anyone who gives a single dollar to Princeton, they have completely lost their mind. I will say that without reservation.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Educational, College, Giving

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

• Do I think that American democracy ends if Trump is president? No! I think, there are plenty of checks and balances in place. I think he would do some damage to the country but we would recover. The office of the presidency and American democratic institutions are a lot stronger than one person. So if he wins, our job is just to keep the office strong, right? And hope he'll be replaced by something better!

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Country, Strong, Winning

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

• I would say first of all, anyone who wants to challenge the status quo always gets that response. Ninety percent of the time, that's just bull. That's just the way in which people choose to prop up their own privilege or their own particular position. So mostly I shrug it off.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  People, Challenges, Status Quo

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

• You may hate Hillary Clinton and you may have good reason for hating Hillary Clinton, but Hillary Clinton is one person who even if she's elected will be gone one day and you still have the task of keeping American democracy going.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Hate, Democracy, One Day

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

• Every cop will tell you that their real job is being a social worker. That's what they do all day. The large majority of police officers in this country never even draw their gun, let alone fire it. They do conflict resolution, right? And if that's their job, why do they need to look like they're an occupying force?

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Country, Real, Gun

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

• Trump is an innovator who has shown how out of step the political establishment was. Which I think, probably, in the long term will be healthy. We have to figure out how to reinvigorate our political institutions and he's demonstrating to us the urgency of that task.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Thinking, Long, Political

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

• One of the things I think the police have to do is to stop behaving like armies.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Army, Thinking, Police

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

• Since becoming a journalist, each time I engage with subjects I become more radicalized.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Journalist

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

• So the first task of a police force is not to fight crime and enforce the law. It is to establish legitimacy with the law-abiding citizenry and then fight crime and enforce the law.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Fighting, Police, Crime

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

• There are lots of issues more important than where billionaires donate their money.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Important, Billionaire, Donate

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

• I don't want to be like the angry old guy in the corner who is always ranting and raving about the same things - but I don't mind doing that just a little bit!

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Guy, Mind

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

• The religious paradigm and the science fiction paradigm are different. Apologies to science fiction fans, but the paradigm there is to create a new world and describe it with a kind of specificity that we describe the world we inhabit. Religiosity, on the other hand, does none of that.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Religious, Apology, Hands

  "Brit Marling". Interview with Malcolm Gladwell, www.interviewmagazine.com. February 24, 2017.

• Science fiction annoyed me because it was like, "Why is the world as it is not enough for you?"

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Annoyed, World, Fiction

  Interview with Malcolm Gladwell, www.interviewmagazine.com. March 13, 2017.

• Now I basically just read spy stories because they're about solving a puzzle within the constraints of history. It's the tick tock, the clockwork that I'm interested in.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Spy, Stories, Tick

  Interview with Malcolm Gladwell, www.interviewmagazine.com. March 13, 2017.

• What interests me about fiction is plot. And what interests me about plot is whether someone tells a story that moves me within the constraints of storytelling. And I have narrowly defined storytelling.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Moving, Fiction, Stories

  Interview with Malcolm Gladwell, www.interviewmagazine.com. March 13, 2017.

• When writing, you can't break physical rules. You can't have people come back from the dead. That's cheating. I am a kind of narrative fundamentalist in many ways.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Cheating, Writing, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• My point is that the great challenge of an artist is to balance those two things: to be strong enough to have your own personal vision that you will put on the page or the canvas or the screen, no matter what people say, but it requires a radical sensitivity. You have to be completely open to what the world is telling you, to what your audience tells you. And balancing those two things is nearly impossible.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Strong, Artist, Two

  Interview with Malcolm Gladwell, www.interviewmagazine.com. March 13, 2017.

• I don't like things that aren't true.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Interview with Malcolm Gladwell, www.interviewmagazine.com. March 13, 2017.

• As a writer, I know that - you write a first draft and then put it in a drawer. The longer I can put it in a drawer, the better off I am. So I structure my writing so that things can sit.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Writing, Firsts, Drawers

  Interview with Malcolm Gladwell, www.interviewmagazine.com. March 13, 2017.

• All artists have to do that at a certain point. This shift that has to happen between the initial moment of creation and then the consideration of what has been created.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Artist, Moments, Creation

  Interview with Malcolm Gladwell, www.interviewmagazine.com. March 13, 2017.

• Television allows the audience to argue with the creator in a way you don't in a movie.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Way, Television, Arguing

  Interview with Malcolm Gladwell, www.interviewmagazine.com. March 13, 2017.

• The first person who throws the rock is a lot more radical than a hundredth person.By the time the riot has attracted a hundred people, you don't have to be nearly as much of a daredevil or a hothead or committed or any of those things to want to engage in a riot.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Rocks, People, Want

  "How Riots May Help Us Understand School Shooters". "Morning Edition" with David Greene, www.npr.org. October 13, 2015.