Make Good Art | Neil Gaiman | Commencement Speech

This commencement speech is mandatory listening for anyone who hopes to be creatively successful. This is, quite possibly, the best commencement speech you will ever hear.

Memorable quotes:

“The one thing that you have, that nobody else has, is you: your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So, write and draw and build an play and dance and live as only you can. The moment that you feel that, just possibly, you’re walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind and what exists on the inside; showing too much of yourself; that’s the moment you may be starting to get it right.”

“Be wise, because the world needs more wisdom. And if you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise and then, just behave like they would.”

“The things I did because I was excited and wanted to see them exist in reality, have never let me down. And, I’ve never regretted the time I spent on any of them.”

“You should enjoy it.” -Stephen King
“That was the hardest lesson for me, I think, to let go and enjoy the ride. Because, the ride takes you to some remarkable and unexpected places.”

“We’re in a transitional world right now, if you’re in any kind of artistic field, because the nature of distribution is changing. The models by which creators got their work out into the world and got to keep a roof over their head and buy sandwiches while they did that– they’re all changing.”

“The old rules are crumbling and nobody knows what the new rules are. So, make up your own rules.”

“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. Make good art.”

Six main points of advice:

1. When you start out, you have no idea what you are doing.
2. If you have an idea of what you want to make, what you were put here to do, then just go and do that.
3. When you start out, you have to deal with the problems of failure.
4. I hope you will make mistakes.
5. Make your art. Do the stuff that only you can do.
6. On freelance work: You get work however you get work. But, people keep working, in a freelance world (and more and more of today’s world is freelance) because their work is good, and because they’re easy to get along with, and because they deliver the work on time. And, you don’t even need all three.

Bestselling author Neil Gaiman has long been one of the top writers in comics, and also writes books for readers of all ages. He is listed in the Dictionary of Literary Biography as one of the top ten living post-modern writers, and is a prolific creator of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama.