Advice From Commencement Speeches

Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do.

Make good art.

I’m serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on your trail? Make good art. Cat exploded? Make good art. Somebody on the Internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil or it’s all been done before? Make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, and eventually time will take the sting away, but that doesn’t matter. Do what only you do best. Make good art.

I love Neil Gaiman. This is from a commencement speech he gave to the University of the Arts, and although I appreciate the sentiment behind what he’s saying, the only piece of advice I’ve ever used from a commencement speech was to remember to wear sunscreen.

Also, if the IRS is on your trail, make good art and then sell it to pay your taxes, because they will put you behind bars.

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