This has been around for awhile, but I just recently listened to the full speech. Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite writers ever, and this resonates. Especially lately. And not just with me.

Enjoy. 

Make fantastic mistakes. 

Make good art.

Full speech transcript and video also available on the UArts site:
Neil Gaiman's 2012 UArts Keynote Address 

~Jen

Four Easy Payments

This cake is tree-shaped, so authentic
squirrels will scamper up it! Woodpeckers
will plunge their beaks into its frosted trunk!
The tree-cake even grows caramel apples--
but if you eat them, they don't grow back.

*
This cake is a calming blue-green ocean.
It will buoy your spirits with gently rolling
swells of gelatin and negative ions. It emits
a white noise that no spousal whining
or even screaming fights can contend with.

*
This Cake is built to the exact specifications
of Noah's Ark. This Cake includes cubit
upon cubit of barnyard fun: candied yaks,
peanut-butter workhorses, chubby white
sheep & goats in cream cheese. Two (2) each.

*
This cake is a cross-section of your head.
We use top-notch magnetic resonance technology
to image your thoughts & re-create them exactly
in marble cake with chocolate-truffle filling.
Bet you didn't know regrets could be this delicious!