Inspiring advice from a commencement address by author Neil Gaiman

Are your actions taking you closer to your goal or further from it?

In a commencement speech at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia earlier this year, author Neil Gaiman said he used the image of a distant mountain to represent his goal to become a writer.

When he was confronted with a decision in life and wasn’t sure what to do, he said, “I knew that as long as I kept walking towards the mountain I’d be alright.”

Hear other inspiring bits of advice in this 18-minute video.

I’ve always thought that as writers, it’s our job to experience life, including the bad parts, and figure out how to make art out of it. See artist Gavin Aung Than’s take on Gaiman’s speech in this comic.