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Given my age, I am pretty near the end, probably, of my career as a writer, a scholar, a teacher. And I wanted to speak of things I will not be able to do.

I think in order to move forward into the future, you need to know where you've been.

I am not getting any younger and am taking a new approach to life.

You reach a certain age, and you realize, 'Wow: there are younger people doing this better than I can, and don't leave me out - I don't want to be left behind. I want to do it, too. Where are you going? I want to be part of it.'

Instead of looking at the past, I put myself ahead twenty years and try to look at what I need to do now in order to get there then.

I've been writing about growing old for some time, really from the beginning of my career. It's something I'm apparently hung up about and now that I am old, hopefully I speak about it with some authority.

I'm older, I'm matured... I'm looking forward to the years to come. Good years.

I'm not really too worried about what I'm gonna do next, because I just think of my career as, like, having sixty years ahead of me.