David Brooks
David Brooks
Conservative political columnist for the New York Times. He also wrote for the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times and provided political commentary for National Public Radio (NPR) and the PBS NewsHour.
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth11 August 1961
CityToronto, Canada
CountryUnited States of America
buying furniture looks
If you do something really cognitively demanding, like buying furniture, it turns out buying furniture is one of the most difficult things we do. Go into a furniture store and look at a sofa.
media culture jackals
I'm thankful that we live in a crassly commercial, polarized culture, so media jackals like me have a lot of work to do.
writing brain levels
The brain writes the autobiography of our species at the conscious level.
art emotional giving
We don't have the choice to control our emotions, but we do have the power to educate our emotions. And we do that through literature and through art and music to give ourselves a repertoire of emotional experiences.
gps littles way
Our emotions tell us what to value. They're like a little GPS system: Go that way. Don't go that way.
talking views world
I came to the conclusion is that we have a very shallow view of human nature in the policy world. We're really good at talking about material things, really bad at talking about emotions, really good at stuff we can count, really bad at the deeper stuff that actually drives behavior.
distance humility thinking-about-you
Some people think humility is thinking lowly of yourself. Some people think it's not thinking about yourself. But, to me, the best definition of humility is radical self-awareness from a distance, seeing themselves from a distance and saying, what's my problem?
country drug growing
The drugs are just growing all around the country, and so, it all feeds into problems that are not just urban, but are just spread throughout the country.
thinking law office
It's just a lot safer to be an incumbent. So I think they have used the campaign finance reforms. They have passed laws that will help themselves stay in office. And I think that's one of the flaws that we do have in the system.
want limits donors
I want to limit the effects of the power of donors, no question about it.
narcissistic cameras blowhards
I'm a pundit. I'm, like, paid to be a narcissistic blowhard and be in front of the camera.
order two ego
Putin's an egomaniac, so there are two ways he can process his ego mania. He can say, "Oh, I stood up to the U.S.," or, "Hey, I'm essential to the world order."
technology people want
The technology's going to change, but what people want to read is going to be basically the same.
thinking anxiety economic
I do think economic and social anxiety is the number one issue. And I'm pretty confident Hillary Clinton will be really riding that train pretty hard.