My school was 90 percent white, but 90 percent of the kids I played with were black. So I got the best of both worlds. I think that is where my comedy developed.
Will SmithRead
The things that have been most valuable to me I did not learn in school.
Interpretation
True value often comes from experiences outside formal education.
Will Smith emphasizes that the most important lessons and values in life are typically acquired through experiences rather than traditional schooling. This highlights the significance of life lessons, personal growth, and real-world interactions that contribute to one's values and knowledge.
In practice
During a graduation speech to inspire students about life's real lessons.
My school was 90 percent white, but 90 percent of the kids I played with were black. So I got the best of both worlds. I think that is where my comedy developed.
In my mind, I've always been an A-list Hollywood superstar. Y'all just didn't know yet.
The first eight years of schooling was with all white people. So that helped me to understand how white people think. I think that transition is what helped me bridge the gap, because that's what my success has really been about: bridging the gap between the black community and the white community.
We all want to be in love and find that person who is going to love us no matter how our feet smell, no matter how angry we get one day, no matter the things we say that we don't mean.
I'm profoundly changed. There's a bittersweet emotion that I feel from playing this role. . . . I want the world to be different because I was here. However lofty or crazy or delusional that may sound, I want people's lives to be better because I was here.
The separation of talent and skill is one of the largest misconceptions in modern society. Talent is something you born with, but skill can only be attained through Hours and Hours of hard work perfecting your talent as a craft. Which is why Talent will fail you without skill.
Reading and life are not separate but symbiotic. And for this serious task of imaginative discovery and self-discovery, there is and remains one perfect symbol: the printed book.
I say to the grownups, if you want to deny evolution and live in your world, that's completely inconsistent with the world we observe, that's fine. But don't make your kids do it. Because we need them. We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future. We need engineers that can build stuff and solve problems.
No man understands a deep book until he has seen and lived at least part of its contents.
Contrary to popular belief, I don't spend a whole lot of time following soccer. But as I have traveled around the world to better understand global development and health, I've learned that soccer is truly universal. No matter where I go, that's what kids are playing. That's what people are talking about.
Write a lot and hit the streets. A writer who doesn't keep up with what's out there ain't gonna be out there.
Reading a book is like re-writing it for yourself.
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