SHARP Quotes: Highlights From 15 Years of Celebrity Interviews
For 15 years, it’s been a point of pride that SHARP has been home to plenty of wide-ranging conversations with the world’s brightest, funniest, and most inquisitive men. Nearly all of them — no matter their area of expertise, whether it be on the screen, stage, ice, or page — have had something insightful or just downright funny to share. To celebrate our 15th anniversary, we combed through our archive, teasing out a few of our favourite anecdotes, ideas, opinions, and bits of wisdom ever shared in the pages of SHARP.
Trevor Noah (on dialogue):
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“You may not see eye to eye with some people, but you still have to communicate and negotiate with [them]. Nelson Mandela was a perfect example of that. I mean, everyone would have said he’d have been justified in starting a civil war in South Africa and just taking over the country. But he negotiated. Why did he do that? Why did he talk to the people who had oppressed him? Because he realized that, in conversation, you can get further — you can get closer to understanding how you’ve gotten to where you are.”
Iggy Pop (on what advice he’d give to struggling millennials):
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“Well, I would say to keep the dream. And to try to preserve the dream in a nice, pure state, but then also develop a nasty little crooked side. [Laughs.] Get in there and do some dirty work to get your shit across, but try to balance the two, and when you have to give in a little, know when that is. Just listen to the little angel inside, but also listen to the little rat inside.”
Peter Mansbridge (on interviewing prime ministers):
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“I used to say to some of the junior reporters, ‘You know, the odds are that you’re going to be around a lot longer than they are, so don’t get too consumed by the office.’ It’s important and you should respect it, but a prime minister is not going to be there forever. [But] I have a lot of respect for politicians, because of their dedication to some form of public service. Our job is to hold them accountable for the decisions that they take [and] those of us in the media are always looking for the edge or the angle — which is important — but we should hold them in more respect than we tend to. I don’t think we should ever lose sight of what brought them there.”
Daniel Ricciardo (on fear of failure):
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“There were times when I was younger when I’d leave the track with regrets. ‘Aww, maybe the race would’ve been different if I’d just attempted that.’ It was not a cool feeling. Especially in F1, there’s always pressure on you to perform, and there are always younger drivers coming up through the ranks. Hesitation can be quite costly. You only get a few chances to prove yourself. So it’s important to have a go at it. Even if you don’t pull it off, people respect that you didn’t sit back.”
Simon Pegg (on depression):
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“I’ve always been very private, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized you don’t have to be so fiercely protective. Mental health is something that’s still incredibly misunderstood and stigmatized. And it helps if people who are assumed to be living a great life — because everyone thinks people who act in films have great lives — show that it can affect anybody. It’s indiscriminate. Happiness is something that exists on a different level than money. You can be a billionaire and want to kill yourself, but you can be picking up dog shit and loving life completely. As long as you’re happy, you’re a success.”
Hugh Laurie (on comedy):
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“I think it’s a very big part of who people are. No drama can be good drama — truthful drama — if it isn’t on some level funny. Because life is comic. It’s the way people deal with all kinds of things. I’m always looking for it and always hoping that it’ll be present in what I do. I don’t think of comedy as a genre, I think of it as being an element of life — and one of the greatest elements of life: that we find humour in existence. It’s of the essence. It’s what it means to be human. Boy, that was a resonant last phrase, wasn’t it?”
Barry Jenkins (on directing movie stars):
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“I just want actors to show me who these characters are — and that opportunity belongs to anybody. Nothing against movie stars, but I’m not out here trying to work with movie stars. I want to work with actors, and so many people have talent and just haven’t been given the opportunity to showcase it.”
Bill Nye (on if you should be building a bunker to survive the apocalypse):
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“Oh no, no! You’ve got to be optimistic. If you’re not, you won’t get anything done. One thing I will say about both our governments, Canada and the U.S., is that change is built in. Adaptation and evolution and fitting into the current public sentiment are built into the governments, and this gives us a huge advantage. Whereas if you have a monarch who’s got ultimate control and can proclaim this and that, you don’t have that flexibility. So stand by! Things are going to change.”
