Speech

We do not think of our lives in a linear way. We remember series of moments — memorable moments — and together these moments make up the meshwork of our lives. Make each moment count.

Do one thing every day that scares you, and in the process, become the action hero of your own life.

Hopes, dreams, and aspirations are evenly distributed throughout the entire world. But what is not is justice, opportunity, and working systems.

I knew what intellectual passion felt like — because I'd felt it here, at Princeton — and I wanted to feel it again. I was 26 years old. Had I waited until I was 36, I would never have done it. I would have forgotten the feeling.

Don't be deceived by life's outcomes. Life's outcomes, while not entirely random, have a huge amount of luck baked into them. Above all, recognize that if you have had success, you have also had luck — and with luck comes obligation. You owe a debt to the unlucky.

In time you will find it easy to assume that you deserve the extra cookie. For all I know, you may. But you'll be happier, and the world will be better off, if you at least pretend that you don't.

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.

I have three words for you. Persistence, persistence... persistence.

A wonderful curator and the founder of the New Museum in New York named Marsha Tucker said, 'Do what scares you.' Well... it scared me... and I did it.

Keep in mind what Victor Hugo said: 'Popularity is the crumbs of greatness.'