Kalau kamu suka baca novel dan suka genre fantasy, jangan sampai kamu belum pernah membaca novel karya Neil Gaiman. Salah satu ciri khas dari karya Gaiman adalah unsur mitologi yang diambil dari dunia nyata, tapi ada sedikit beda, sehingga membuat kita berpikir kembali tentang batas realita dan fiksi. Salah satu karyanya yang paling sohor adalah graphic novel berjudul Sandman, berisi kisah tentang personifikasi makhluk yang kita kenal sebagai mimpi (Dream).
Video di atas merupakan video Neil Gaiman di University of the Arts, Philadelphia.
Distilled in 10 points:
- Embrace the fact that you’re young. Accept that you don’t know what you’re doing. And don’t listen to anyone who says there are rules and limits.
- If you know your calling, go there. Stay on track. Keep moving towards it, even if the process takes time and requires sacrifice.
- Learn to accept failure. Know that things will go wrong. Then, when things go right, you’ll probably feel like a fraud. It’s normal.
- Make mistakes, glorious and fantastic ones. It means that you’re out there doing and trying things.
- When life gets hard, as it inevitably will, make good art. Just make good art.
- Make your own art, meaning the art that reflects your individuality and personal vision.
- Now a practical tip. You get freelance work if your work is good, if you’re easy to get along with, and if you’re on deadline. Actually you don’t need all three. Just two.
- Enjoy the ride, don’t fret the whole way. Stephen King gave that piece of advice to Neil years ago.
- Be wise and accomplish things in your career. If you have problems getting started, pretend you’re someone who is wise, who can get things done. It will help you along.
- Leave the world more interesting than it was before.
Agoes Santosa's Journal 