Arts

In my life, there is only one concept that I have determined. It's that everything is gray. Every person, every question, every tragedy, even every victory — they all have nuance. Pay attention to the nuance.

It would be better to fail doing something challenging, something worthwhile, something I was excited to show the world, than to succeed doing something safe that wouldn't actually inspire much at all.

I was not someone who should have the life I have now, and yet I do. I was sitting in the chair you are literally sitting in right now and I just whispered, 'Why not me?' And I kept whispering it for seventeen years.

To have the opportunity to live a creative life, to have even the possibility of the opportunity to live a creative life, is a gift.

You'll find your way. I did, and have more or less lived to tell the tale, and I sincerely doubt I was half as clever or talented or prepared as you are today.

It's hard to fail 10 times in a row.

Succeed or fail on your own terms.

Keep chasing those moments where you discover something new about your voice. Don't ever let that end.

When you stop looking — or when you see only what you want — as a human being you become a stenographer.

My fear of failure never approached in magnitude my fear of what if. What if I never tried at all?

You are about to enter the most uncertain and thrilling period of your lives. The stories you are about to live are the ones you will be telling your children and grandchildren and therapists.

There will be blind alleys and one-night wonders and soul-crushing jobs and wake-up calls and crises of confidence and moments of transcendence when you are walking down the street and someone will thank you for telling your story because it resonated with their own.