Here is a really lovely commencement speech that Neil Gaiman recently gave. It is quite thought-provoking, a little funny, and amazingly inspirational. It got me writing for the first time in a month. I hope it does the same for you!
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/42372767 w=400&h=300]
These are a few of my favorite one-liners. They are all the more poignant in context.
If you don’t know it’s impossible, it’s easier to do.
I learned to write by writing.
I tended to do anything that felt like an adventure, and stop when it felt like work, which meant life did not feel like work.
A life in the arts is like putting messages in bottles on a desert island and hoping that someone will find one of your bottles and open it and read it and put something in a bottle that will find its way back to you.
The things I did because I was excited and wanted to see them exist in reality have never let me down.
Sometimes life is hard… when things get tough, this is what you should do: Make. Good. Art… Cat Exploded? Make good art.
The moment that you feel that just possibly you’re walking down the street naked… showing too much of yourself, that’s the moment you may be starting to get it right.
Make interesting mistakes. Make amazing mistakes. Make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art.