“You cannot be really first-rate at your work if your work is all you are.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anna Quindlen was supposed to deliver the commencement address to the graduating students at Villanova University on Friday, 23 June 2000. She withdrew as commencement speaker because of a planned staged protest against her strong liberal views, especially her support for abortion rights. Quindlen later distilled the speech into a book: A Short Guide to a Happy Life

“I don’t think you should have to walk through demonstrators to get to your college commencement,”

Anna Quindlen’s 2000 Commencement Address Transcript: