Donald Glover on responsibility, meaning, and love
Excerpts from an interview with Donald Glover, by Eric Skelton and published in Complex on October 2, 2023.
This new chapter of your career involves a lot of different things you're doing with Gilga. What defines this new chapter for you? What's your mindset like?
I would define it as a new world. I got bored with people saying, like, "This world is shit." It's kind of like when people say, "Oh, this traffic is so bad." I'm like, "You are traffic." You can't sit there and be like, "Oh man, the traffic was horrible. I'm sorry, I was late." You are traffic. You're in it. Without you, there would be no traffic. So if you're sitting here being like, "The world is shit," it's like, you are the world. You have to take that responsibility. So I focused on making sure that everything I'm making is shit that I wish was in the world.
I'll finish by asking you the same thing I've asked everyone from Rick Rubin to Yeat... What is the meaning of life?
Oh, man. I want to know what Yeat said.
"Shmadonka." That was his whole answer.
"Shmadonka." That’s a cool answer. The meaning of life? I think it's like a meal. The meaning of life is really to experience flavor. I don't think enough people do what they actually think is cool. I mean, if we want to make it even simpler — and I know this sounds super lame — the meaning of life is to love.
I'm like, man, I wish there was an even better thing [to say]. [Laughs.] But it truly is the process of caring for something in the midst of knowing it too shall pass. Like, it's very weird to have children and know that you're kind of damning them to death. That's what's crazy about it. But you're doing that — you're taking care anyway. And by dying yourself, you're showing them how to die. So it's really just to love things and take care of things, and that will keep the process going.
Man, I feel like I'm being down on a Sunday. I swear to God, I'm a happy person. [Laughs.] But I think this stuff always makes me happy in a way, because I feel like there's something actually really deep happening and the stakes are high. I think that's why I kinda talk like that.