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Wole Soyinka
Nobel Prize for Literature
Wole Soyinka: It was very simple. I belong to the West, the Yorùbá part of the federation. And in a war, when a war is being fought, it is being fought on behalf of people. And this war committed me, as a Nigerian, it committed me, and I felt that war was wrong and I refused to accept that, to be committed in that way. The Biafrans had been violated. They had been massacred. It was more than one massacre, it was like a wave of massacres. And they were being hunted everywhere. In other words, the conduct of the Federal side, at least that portion to which I belong, indicated -- said, in plain language, even though it was not articulated as such, "You, the Igbo, are no longer part of the federation." There was no way, nothing was done to make them feel secure, at least not enough was done to make them feel secure in the rest of the nation. And then, after they had seceded, which I considered, by the way, a tactical mistake -- not a political crime, not a moral crime, no, no, no, no, no. It was a tactical error. But then, to go after them, to declare war against them on this banal basis of unity above anything else! Unity of what? I mean, who committed the act of disuniting the nation in the first place? Those who made the Igbo feel they were not part of the full entity. So for me it was an unjust war of which I could not be a part. And if I'd not gone to the East, I would have gone into exile, because I would refuse to be part of that entity which waged war against a people who had been so dehumanized. So in effect, it was for my own peace of mind, to try and do everything possible to make sure the war did not take place.
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Martha Stewart
Multi-Media Lifestyle Entrepreneur
I live in the same house I've lived in for 25 years. I haven't gone off and bought mansions. Even though my subject is living, living in a mansion wouldn't do for my readers. I have to keep my credibility alive with my readers, so we're in the same place. I just make that place nicer and nicer. And that's a secret. People don't know that. People think, oh, she lives in this fabulous place, but it's the same old place. It started out like a farm, it got to be a farmette, then it got to be an estatelet. I built a wall; it helped a lot. But it's the same place, the same grounded nature.
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Robert Strauss
Presidential Medal of Freedom
I vividly remember that he asked me when he got elected Governor -- well, the Governor has no power, but he has appointments, he can appoint you to different things -- and he asked me what I wanted, and I said, "Well, I don't want anything, Governor. I know you don't want to appoint me to the Board of Regents because you have been speaking on the fact that we've got to get rid of cronyism on that board, and I couldn't agree with you more. I think you ought to appoint some people not like me who would be considered your voice there. I share your view, and that's the only thing I would want. I love the University of Texas, and I'd like to be a Regent, but this would be the wrong time," and he wouldn't do it if I had wanted it.
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Robert Strauss
Presidential Medal of Freedom
Robert Strauss: Carter insisted on doing things in the first term that he shouldn't do. For example, we never should have tried to pass the Panama Canal bill the first term. That's a second term thing, because you take a lot of scars on that. We leaned on everybody terribly hard to get those votes and get that done and did it by one vote, and we pushed people and pushed them in ways they didn't want to be and made them vote for it, the Democrats. Carter felt strongly that he had committed to do it and he was going to do it, and even though Hamilton and Jody and I also encouraged him to let that sit for the second term. But he did things like that, and Jimmy Carter didn't want to do the political things that he needed to do. He wanted to do substantive things that are worthwhile, the same way he is right now. He has never changed and is never going to. I have given up trying to change him. I talk to him with some regularity and am very close to him and very proud of it.
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