This autobiography was better than I expected. He looks back on his life and has the candor to admit he made a lot of mistakes. (Though something tells me that even if present-day Will head given advice to his younger self, he wouldn't have listened.)
" It was the deepest, existential human question. It may be the most important question that we as humans ever ask each other. Does it matter to you how I feel?"
"Jus' remember, Lover Boy," she said, "be nice to everybody you pass on your way up, coz you just might have to pass them again on your way down."
"It's respectable to lose to the universe. It's a tragedy to lose to yourself."
"The thing I've learned over the years about advice is that no one can accurately predict the future, but we all think we can. So advice at its best is one person's limited perspective of the infinite possibilities before you. People's advice is based on their fears, their experiences, their prejudices, and at the end of the day, their advice is just that: it's theirs, not yours."
" Confucius had it right: It's nearly impossible for the quality of your life to be higher than the quality of your friends."
"The thing about money, sex, and success is that when you don't have them, you can justify your misery— if I had money, sex, and success, I'd feel great! However misguided that may be, it psychologically permeates as hope. But once you are rich, famous, successful—and you're still insecure and unhappy—the terrifying thought begins to lurk: Maybe the problem is me."
" If you cultivate the fantasy that your marriage will be forever joyful and effortless, then reality is going to pay you back in equal proportion to your delusion. If you live the fantasy that making money will earn you love, then the universe will slap you awake, in the tune of a thousand angry voices."
" Desire tends to weaken over time, whereas purpose strengthens the more you lean into it. Desire can be depleting because it's insatiable; purpose is empowering—it's a stronger engine. Purpose has a way of contextualizing life's unavoidable sufferings and making them meaningful and worthwhile. As Viktor Frankl wrote, "In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice."
" To all of my young male readers: no means no. Nothing good comes from spending your hard-earned money on a "family home" that your wife doesn't want. You are putting a down payment on discord and for years you will be paying off a mortgage of misery."
" I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day; I'd rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way. The eye's a better pupil and more willing than the ear, Fine counsel is confusing, but example's always clear"
" But the heart and soul of our union was then, and is still today, intense, luminescent conversation. Even to the writing of this very sentence, if Jada and I begin a conversation it is a minimum two-hour endeavor. And it is not uncommon and we talk for five or six hours at a stretch. Our joy of pondering and perusing the mysteries of the universe through the mirror of each other's experience is unbridled ecstasy. Even in the depths of disagreement, there is nothing in this world that either of us more cherishes or enjoys than the opportunity to grow and learn from each other through passionate communication."
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