Graduation

We live to commune. We live to create. Our enduring biological and spiritual drive is to create, to live in the act of becoming. It is not a choice. It is our experience of our existence.

We need our fear in order to find our love. They go together.

You've got to want to do whatever you want to do more than you want to be whatever you want to be. Want to write more than you want to be a writer. Want to heal more than you want to be a doctor.

Action is the antidote to apathy and cynicism and despair. At the end of your days, you will be judged by your gallop, not by your stumble.

Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love.

Learn to love the process of revision — in your writing and in your life. Don't be afraid of the editing.

Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.

When you teach, you learn that you are the other. That the distance between us is not as great as we fear.

Excellence is the antidote to racism, sexism and nepotism. The harder you work, the luckier you become. What is luck? Luck is when opportunity meets preparation.

If you are educated, if you are a doctor with those stethoscopes hanging around your neck, people may not want to come to see you, but they will have to come to see you because you have a skill and knowledge.

Never give up, never, never give up! Because the only person that can stop you is — YOU!

History tells us that modern science evolved from the visual arts. Observational science started with the visual arts. Galileo's first publication was not on a scientific matter. He wrote a monograph on perspective, on shadow and light.