丘 吉尔曾受邀在某校毕业典礼上讲话。在校长冗长的介绍后，他只说了一句话：”永远，永远，永远不要放弃。”(Never, never, never give up.)就走下讲台。这被称为历史上*短的毕业演讲。其实，这是一个误传。丘吉尔1941年在哈罗公学演讲时提到过这句话，但过程却并没有这么传奇。每到毕业季，各大高校都会请来名人给毕业生做演讲。当这样的演讲多了，其内容不仅算不上传奇，甚至可能难免俗套。

【名人演讲*招：套近乎】

演讲之初先要营造轻松的氛围，演讲者们深谙这个道理，于是各种开场方式悉数登场。

09届的同学们！你们的掌声在哪里？(拉里·佩奇)

Class of 2009! I don’t think I heard you. (Larry Page)

谢谢大家，谢谢弗吉尼亚(主持人)那么卖力地推销我。我一度以为她在介绍别人呢。(蒂姆·库克)

Thank you for that nice reception and thank you Virginia for the incredible introduction. I thought some of them were about somebody else. (Tim Cook)

我想说的*句话是”谢谢”。不仅因为哈佛给了我这样非同一般的荣誉，还因为一想到今天的演讲，我就紧张恐惧、茶饭不思，几个星期下来竟然减肥成功。(J·K·罗琳)

The first thing I would like to say is “thank you”. Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honor, but the weeks of fear and nausea I’ve experienced at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. (J.K. Rowling)