Creativity

If you don't know it's impossible, it's easier to do.

Make good art. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art.

And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here.

Use your imagination. Don't be afraid. The failures that we may have will result in success someday.

Everyone you need is in this room. These are the shiny, more important people. We can't help it — we burn very brightly. Please don't ever stop.

You can't do it alone. As you navigate through the rest of your life, be open to collaboration. Other people and other people's ideas are often better than your own.

To create in those waters, we must have more than an optimist's escapism. Today, to create is to hope. To create is to live.

Love is today mingled with grief. And yet love grows greater. Create in and through that love. Calm the seas of your anxiety and infuse new life deep into the poisoned wells of culture.

For kids like me who couldn't articulate what they needed to do, the arts were my way of speaking. For people who may not be able to say exactly what they mean, they can draw it. It's a way of communicating, and if we cut it off then we are more than barbarians, because we know better.

All work and no imagination will most definitely make you an under-performer. Do you have the imagination to see yourself doing something truly exceptional?

Creativity is not something you are, it's something you do. You have to work at it.

Bring your own vision to your work and look for ways you can give something to the world. Inspire people. Make a difference.