I now realize that I was very fortunate to have grown up in many different places, surrounded by all kinds of people, all kinds of points of view.

Life is short and the older you get, the more you feel it. Indeed, the shorter it is. People lose their capacity to walk, run, travel, think, and experience life. I realise how important it is to use the time I have.

I mean, any movie or story that makes you accept and be grateful for something about your life is doing something right.

Joseph Campbell said the privilege of a lifetime is being yourself. That's his feeling. And I guess it's mine too.

We all experience many freakish and unexpected events - you have to be open to suffering a little. The philosopher Schopenhauer talked about how out of the randomness, there is an apparent intention in the fate of an individual that can be glimpsed later on. When you are an old guy, you can look back, and maybe this rambling life has some through-line. Others can see it better sometimes. But when you glimpse it yourself, you see it more clearly than anyone.

You don't have to make something that people call art. Living is an artistic activity, there is an art to getting through the day.

The Black Lives Matter movement, the various Occupy movements in Spain and the rest of Europe, in this country, and elsewhere serve as an example of what can be done, and how strong the voices for positive change and truly democratic progress can be.