“My undergraduate work was in computer science and economics. It just happened to be at that time when 34 percent of computer-science majors were women. We didn’t realize it was at the peak at the time.”

Bill and I both firmly believe that even the most difficult global health problems can be solved.

I went to business school, and I went straight from that to a nine-year career at Microsoft. Eventually, I ran a big chunk of the consumer products division for Microsoft.Then I left with the birth of our first daughter because Bill and I both wanted to have a few kids.

As a parent, the responsible thing to do – if you love your child – is to vaccinate your child.

Abortion has become a very politicised issue that I think countries have to work out themselves. In a lot of countries, people can’t even yet agree on what their laws should be.

If we don’t empower women, we don’t allow them to unlock the potential of themselves and their children.

Our economies are built on the backs of all this unpaid labor that women do.

Sometimes it’s the people you can’t help who inspire you the most.

If you can’t travel to the developing world, look at helping to fund a woman with a small loan and follow her. Learn her story. Learn about the difference that you’re making.

In different places you run into myths around vaccination or around family planning. In the United States, one of the myths that existed for a long time, that has been completely debunked, was that autism was linked to a vaccine.

I felt suicidal. I couldn’t stop crying. I remember thinking, wouldn’t it be great if the car crashed and I died?

Birth control has almost completely and totally disappeared from the global health agenda, and the victims of this paralysis are the people of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

We have to be careful in how we use this light shined on us.

Take time to learn about the lives of women around the world-and try to play a small part in their fight to create the future they deserve.

Connect deeply with others. Our humanity is the one thing that we all have in common.

Our desire to bring every good thing to our children is a force for good throughout the world. It’s what propels societies forward.

Poverty disproportionately affects women around the world.

I spent many years of my life as an economist and demographer. I was finally distracted by writing my novels and poetry. I’m enormously happy that was the case. I feel that with writing I have found my metier.

Religion and art spring from the same root and are close kin. Economics and art are strangers.

When I’m shooting on location, you get ideas on the spot – new angles. You make not major changes but important modifications, that you can’t do on a set. I do that because you have to be economical.

Socialism, when the last word is said, is merely a new economic and political system whereby more men can get food to eat.

In commodities, when prices go up, demand goes down. In stocks, when prices go up, demand goes up.

We educated, privileged lawyers have a professional and moral duty to represent the underrepresented in our society, to ensure that justice exists for all, both legal and economic justice.

Any time there is an economic downturn or political strife, lipstick sales skyrocket. If you have a hard day, it’s this $14 thing that lifts your day. I think drag has that same lipstick effect.

To survive, our global economy must work with nature, not against it. Time to reset.