WIST Quotations

Streep, Meryl -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

You can’t get spoiled if you do your own ironing.

Meryl Streep (b. 1949) American actress
(Attributed)

Widely quoted, dating back to at least 2004. A variant cited to Closer magazine in July 2008: "You can't possibly get spoiled if you do your own ironing and get the station wagon out to go into town to get the weekly groceries."

Streep, Meryl -- Commencement Address, Barnard College (2010)

Dave — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 12:58:26 +0000

This is your time, and it feels normal to you. But, really, there is no “normal.” There’s only change, and resistance to it, and then more change.

Meryl Streep (b. 1949) American actress
Commencement Address, Barnard College (2010)
(Source)

Streep, Meryl -- Commencement Address, Vassar College (1983)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

I’ve told you this long tale of my time at Vassar because what everybody says is absolutely true. These are, or these were, the halcyon days. Real Life is actually a lot more like high school. The common denominator prevails. Excellence is not always recognized or rewarded. What we watch on our screens, whom we elect, are determined to a large extent by public polls. Looks count. A lot. And unlike the best of the college experience, when ideas and solutions somehow seem attainable if you just get up early, stay up late, try hard enough, and find the right source or method, things on the outside sometimes seem vast and impossible, and settling, resigning oneself, or hiding and hunkering down becomes the best way of getting along.

Meryl Streep (b. 1949) American actress
Commencement Address, Vassar College (1983)

Full text. Sometimes quoted (as a generic "commencement address"): "You have been told that Real Life is not like college, and you have been correctly informed. Real Life is more like high school."