Tag: Commencement

Salman Rushdie: Sorry For The Mess

Author Salman Rushie gave the keynote address at Emory University’s commencement for the graduating class of 2015. At the end of his wise and humorous speech, he apologized to the graduates “for the mess we are leaving, the whole ecological, fanatical, oligarchic mess.”

“We thought of ourselves, my lot, as tolerant and progressive, and we are leaving you an intolerant and retrogressive world,” he said.

“But it’s a resilient place, the world, and its beauty is still breathtaking, its potential still astonishing, and as for the mess we’ve made, you can change it, and I believe you’re going to,” he said.

“We are language animals, we are dreaming creatures,” Rushdie said. “So dream. Speak. Reinvent the world.”

H/t BobbyK