Recently, Brainpickings put together a wonderful compendium of thirty+ 7-word autobiographies of some of today’s most celebrated writers, scientists, artists, philosophers, and musicians. They are culled from Paul Holdengräber‘s legendary conversations with the world’s luminaries at LIVE from the NYPL; he always asks for a 7-word bio in the course of the conversation.
Our three favorites:
Musician, writer, ex-Talking Heads David Byrne (His is 10 words, defying the rules, which we love):
unfinished, unprocessed, uncertain, unknown, unadorned, underarms, underpants, unfrozen, unsettled, unfussy
Author Joan Didion:
Seven words do not yet define me.
Sculptor Anish Kapoor (his work Healing is below):
As if to celebrate I discovered a mountain
What an interesting thing to think about! How would you describe your life in 7 words?
Related posts: ‘experimenting with your own life is the most fundamental medium we have’
ai weiwei instagram: ‘imagine one day…’
sue austin’s wheelchair: ‘re-envisioning the familiar’
chuck close’s ‘note to self’ (eight perfect rules for living)
‘yes to all’
As a refined trained & talented MD, as well to describe my life my seven words biography are: “I am a songbird in/of Go(o)d!
Beautiful!