Thomas Piketty

'Das Kapital,' I think, is very difficult to read, and for me, it was not very influential.

The main force pushing toward reduction in inequality has always been the diffusion of knowledge and the diffusion of education.

I believe in the power of ideas, I believe in the power of books, but you have to give them time.

I'm a big action junkie. I grew up on the '80s action movies - the bad ones and the good ones.

After my swims this weekend I think coach realized, you know what, you have to have a good one getting out of this meet. So I put the suit on and had a decent swim.

Exeter was, I suspect, more crucial in my life than in the lives of most members of my class, and conceivably, than in the lives of almost anyone else who ever attended the school.