Neil Gaiman: "Go and make interesting mistakes..."

"Go and 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."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "First of all..."

"First of all, when you start out on a career in the arts you have no idea what you're doing. This is great. People who know what they're doing know the rules and they know what is possible and what is impossible. You do not. And you should not. The rules on what is possible and impossible in the arts were made by people who had not tested the bounds of the possible by going beyond them. And you can. If you don't know it's impossible, it's easier to do. And because nobody's done it before, they haven't made up rules to stop anyone from doing that particular thing again."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "If you have an idea..."

"If you have an idea of what you want to make, what you were put here to do, then just go do that. And that's much harder than it sounds. And sometimes in the end so much easier than you might imagine... "

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "A freelance life..."

"A freelance life, a life in the arts, is sometimes 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 wash its way back to you. Appreciation, or a commission, or money, or love. And you have to accept that you may put out hundreds of things for every bottle that winds up coming back."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "Make your art..."

"Make your art. Do the stuff that only you can do... The moment that you feel that, just possibly, you're walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind and what exists on the inside, showing too much of yourself, that's the moment you may be starting to get it right."


–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "You get work because..."

"You get work because you get work, but people keep working because their work is good, and because they're easy to get along with, and because they deliver the work on time. And you don't even need all three. Two out of three is fine. People will tolerate how unpleasant you are if your work is good and you deliver it on time. People will forgive the lateness of your work if it's good and they like you. And you don't have to be as good as everyone else if you're on time and it's always a pleasure to hear from you."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "Be wise..."

"Be wise. Because the world needs more wisdom. And if you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise and then just behave like they would."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "I wish you luck..."

"I wish you luck. Luck is useful. Often you will discover that the harder you work and the more wisely you work, the luckier you will get. But there is luck. And it helps."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "Make Good Art..."

"Remember, whatever discipline you're in... you have one thing that's unique: you have the ability to make art. And for me, that's been a lifesaver... When things get tough this is what you should do: Make Good Art. Do what only you can do best: Make Good Art."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "The problems of failure..."

"The problems of failure can be hard. The problems of success can be harder because nobody warns you about them. "

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "I tended to do..."

"I tended to do anything as long as it felt like an adventure, and to stop when it felt like work, which meant that life did not feel like work."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "I decided I'd do..."

"I decided I'd do my best in the future not to write books just for the money. If you didn't get the money, then you didn't have anything. And if I did work I was proud of, and I didn't get the money, at least I'd have the work. Every now and then I forget that rule. And whenever I do, the universe kicks me - hard - and reminds me."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Tina Fey: "So, my unsolicited advice..."

"So, my unsolicited advice to women in the workplace is this: when faced with sexism, or ageism, or lookism, or even really aggressive buddhism, ask yourself the following question... 'Is this person in between me and what I want to do?'

If the answer is no, ignore it and move on. Your energy is better used doing your work and outpacing people that way. Then, when you're in charge, don't hire the people that were jerky to you.

If the answer is yes, you have a more difficult road ahead of you...

If your boss is a jerk, try to find someone above or around your boss who is not a jerk. Is there such a thing as an all-jerk workplace? Yes... But if you're lucky your workplace will have a neutral proving ground... if so, focus on that. Again, don't waste your energy trying to educate or change opinions. Go Over, Under, Through - and opinions will change organically when you are the boss.

Or they won't. Who cares? Do your thing. And don't care if they like it."

–Tina Fey, audio book of Bossypants, (disc 3 track 10)

Kurt Vonnegut: "Go into the arts..."

"Go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something."

–Kurt Vonnegut, novelist/essayist/artist

Gillian Flynn: "To be kissed on..."

"To be kissed on the lips by your husband is the most decadent thing."

–Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl

Gillian Flynn: "What a generous thing..."

"What a generous thing that is, I realize, for a husband to try to make his wife laugh."

–Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl

Gillian Flynn: "People want to believe..."

"People want to believe they know other people. Parents want to believe they know their kids. Wives want to believe they know their husbands."

–Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl

Gillian Flynn: "It's a very difficult era..."

"It's a very difficult era in which to be a person, just a real, actual person, instead of a collection of personality traits selected from an endless automat of characters."

–Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl