Inspirational Talks Quotes

I do a lot of inspirational talks for kids, to motivate them to change their lives and give them hope.

Speeches are for the younger men who are going places. And I'm not going anyplace except six feet under the floor of that little chapel adjoining the museum and library at Abilene.

I never thought that I would co-host something at TED. I've been attending TED conferences since 2009, so I've been in the audience for many, many years, enjoying the very hard work of the TEDsters.

A couple of my favorite podcasts are 'Still Processing' from 'The New York Times,' Oprah's 'Super Soul Conversations,' RuPaul's 'What's the Tee?'

I ain't a rapper; I'm a motivational speaker. I don't do shows; I do seminars. I really talk to people.

The question I have is out of all these commencement speeches that are happening, what's the really worthwhile advice that a 21, 22 year old person will walk away from the speech and say, I can apply this maybe five years, 10 years later. How many speeches actually push the button like that, other than yours?

When I came back from my first TED, very few people knew what it was. But around the time I was sitting down to write 'Where'd You Go, Bernadette,' in 2010, TED was exploding.

Didier Drogba has been an inspiration to all of us in the Ivory Coast national team. He is a great motivator for all of us - and some of the talks he gives are like a president trying to motivate his country. It is not just what he does on the field - but also all he does for all of our people off the field.

I do a lot of conferences, a lot of leadership training. For about six or seven years I've been making this statement - every time I make it, I can see people just kind of - it's just one of those light bulb moments.

They classify my motivational speeches as rants...

I was inspired by, when I was in college, seeing some incredible speakers come to my school: Michael Eric Dyson, Spike Lee, Nikki Giovanni, and other poets and writers. I always loved that experience: going and sitting in an auditorium and listening to their opinions.

In case you're unfamiliar with TED, it is a series of short lectures on a variety of subjects that stream on the Internet for free.

For most of the millions of people who watch TED videos at the office, it's a middlebrow diversion and a source of factoids to use on your friends. Except TED thinks it's changing the world, like if 'This American Life' suddenly mistook itself for Doctors Without Borders.

Every year, I come to TED prepared to roll my eyes a lot at the beginning, but knowing that at some point in the intellectual marathon, my brain will buckle to the cascade of ideas and bend to the painstakingly rehearsed presentations.

I've got a lot of other people who do a lot of things for me, so I've gotten to a part in my career where I'm doing a lot of talks because I want to get kids turned on. I want to see these kids, these geeky nerdy kids, go out there and do something.

I love documentaries and TED talks.