Whether you function as welders or inspectors, the laws of physics are implacable lie-detectors. You may fool men. You will never fool the metal.
Whether you follow your Bliss or not, your Life will be peppered with crises and challenges at different points in time. Doesn't it make sense, therefore, to follow your Bliss, so that you can at least be happy doing what you love doing, and anchored and non-suffering, when Life's challenges show up?
Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will.
Whether you find it through mediation or sighing over tea or just turning all your devices off for five minutes, listening is an ancient lifeline by which we are awakened time and again. Once reawakened, we more easily find our way to each other, and so help each other live.
Whether you either passionately think we should stay in, or on balance think we should stay in, or on a balance of risks think we should stay in -- for heaven's sake get out and vote in, because you might wake up and find out you're out.
Whether you eat meat of not, you can be part of this decision to limit the meat industry destroying our planet's resources.
Whether you draw diagrams that generate code or you type at a browser, you are coding.
Whether you do stand-up comedy or write a story, you have a duty to deliver. As a comedian, you walk out on stage, and you have a minute to hook them, or they'll start booing. As a writer, it's very similar. A reader doesn't have time to say, 'I'll give him 50 pages, as it's not very good yet, but I hope it'll get better.'
Whether you do something or decide to do nothing, either way, you are making a moral choice. And I hope people make the right one.
Whether you do a play in front of 100 people or a movie that one billion people see, you're still affecting people.
Whether you deny your wounds or see them clearly, they bring a great source of power because they lived in the same place as your heart.
Whether you create, or you observe an objective piece of creativity, meditation should be the key. Without it, mind can only spread on the canvas its nightmares. Most of the paintings of the great painters like Paul Gaugin or Picasso are almost like vomit. They could not contain their agony and suffering -- it was so much they threw it on the canvas to get relief. The real objective art is not a relief; it is not a sickness that you want to get rid of. It is a blissfulness that you want to share. And by sharing, it grows; you have more of it, the more it is shared.
Whether you consider me a master filmmaker or not, I do it with my intuition and my vision, my experience as a storyteller.
Whether you come from heaven or hell, what does it matter, O Beauty!
Whether you come from a council estate or a country estate, your success will be determined by your own confidence and fortitude.
Whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.
Whether you chose a passive-aggressive husband, workaholic wife, or life of single motherhood, we are all officially allowed -- and uniquely qualified -- to critique our own life experience. Please don't pretend you're living mine.
Whether you choose to move on from your struggles and enjoy life or waddle in your misery, life will continue.
Whether you change the linen or stitch up wounds, cook the food or dispense the medicines, it is in your hands to help build a public service worthy of all those who gave their lives for the dream of democracy.