NYU Alumni Magazine Spring 2011

“I kind of like democracy, so I think we should start practicing it in the U.K. Because at the moment we’ve got an electoral system [that] gives thumping majorities…to parties, even though only a minority of people have voted for them.”

—Nick Clegg, deputy prime minister and Liberal Democrat Party leader in the United Kingdom, answering questions at an event sponsored by the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service

“If anyone wants inspiration, be inspired by the fact that there was never any sign in me of any kind of excellence…. What I think I do have is a desire to work incredibly hard. Take it from a kid who didn’t pass one math or science class in high school. You can do anything you want if you’re willing to work hard for it.”

—Pulitzer Prize−winning author and NYU faculty member Junot Díaz at the Creative Writing Program’s Fall 2010 Reading Series

“Music used to come out of the community. Now you’ve got Walmart and you don’t even have to talk to anybody anymore. Today, the music is a reflection of that.”

—Acclaimed jazz musician and producer Delfeayo Marsalis delivering the Fall 2010 Albert Gallatin Lecture, titled “New Orleans Jazz: Old School to Modern,” at gallatin’s jerry H. Labowitz theatre for the performing arts

“Don’t accept what everyone knows. If there’s one thing we learned these past three years in economics, it’s that what everybody knows can be totally wrong.”

—Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist and Nobel laureate, giving the keynote address at the New York Press Club Foundation’s Journalism Conference at NYU’s Kimmel Center for University Life