偉大作家筆下生命年歲的智慧

Here is the book that gave birth to this TED talk. Designed by Milton Glaser, the legendary graphic designer who created the I ♥ NY logo, the book moves year by year through the words of our most beloved authors, revealing the great sequence of life.

My talk shares the message at the heart of this beautiful book, namely that there are patterns to life that are common to all of us. As Mann wrote: 'It will happen to me as to them.'

In compiling 100 Years, I came to view its annual observations about life as a bequeathal to my infant daughter. No book I have ever read so beautifully renders the handing down of lessons as Gilead.

It was an unremitting awareness of mortality that prompted me to compile 100 Years. (The opening quote: 'Birth was the death of him.') I lay bare in Half-Life the seeds of that awareness.

Here is a TED talk I gave that grew out of Half-Life.

This remarkable film splices together snippets of previous films showing clocks and watches so that every minute of the day ticks by. The film is magical and propulsive and speaks of time. My hope is that 100 Years does, too.