Speed Levitch Explains It All

ON CREATIVITY: "Creativity I think of as the pursuit for the original exuberance that we all came into this world with, the exuberance that we all had until it was taken off to an abandoned dock somewhere and shot in a gangster assassination by the outside world. With that said, I've always thought of myself as a renaissance man and I'm pouncing with avarice on all opportunities and doing my best to experience complete self-expression and pursue the fullest applications of self. Yeah!"

ON BEING A TOUR GUIDE: "I came to the tour route with the understanding that it is one of the great opportunities for self-expression and I do think that the people who really moved mountains in human history were all great tour guides. I do think that being a tour guide -- understanding it to be a great opportunity for self-expression -- enhanced my own use of language. It enhanced my understanding, if you will, that language is the instrument of life. It is the music of life, and really a shamanic journey in its own right. I do think that the frontiers of human awareness are in the language, and so that when we're playing with the language, we are at play and frolicking in the frontiers of human awareness."

ON THE MEANING OF LIFE: "I think, most notably, that our true state is the greatest party that has ever been thrown. On the cruise, we define life as an ongoing opportunity for celebration. I would say that it is an unintentional meditation and an elongated journey into our own forest. I think life is a gigantic adventure that leads back to ourselves. I think that meaning is just a subsequent invention, if you will, a rivulet off the original river that is our learning process. It seems to me at this point in my life that we are all involved in a process and that process is about learning. I think the earth in the long run is a giant classroom. Is that what you were asking? I could go on a long time."