Robert B. Laughlin Quotes

It would be great to be 105 and still making films.

The myth that 'old' guys can't write anything fresh is just a myth.

My mother worked as an artist until she was 96.

We must first get over the myth that older workers can’t innovate.

There are no excuses for theoretical physicists not to perform and deliver.

As you decline in years, you decline in the marketplace.

God bless Hollywood and all that it stands for, but, you know, people tend to peak in their 40s, and then it's all downhill from there.

I'm unusual in that I've worked more as I've got older.

I don't give a damn what anybody says. I don't think at 70 and 75 that you can be as productive and efficient as you were when you were 40 or 50.

I have always believed that there is no age factor to this music business. You are only as old as you feel and basically you can be a contender at any time.

Thomas Jefferson once said. He said , "We should never judge a President by his age, only by his works." And ever since he told me that, I've stopped worrying. There are those who say I've stopped working.

You better get as much work as you can now because, once you get over 40, it’s over.

Soon I'll be old and I've done precious little in this world for lack of time. I am always afraid I'll become senile before I've finished what I've undertaken.

That's the happiest I am, when I'm doing great work.

Take the sum of human achievement in action, in science, in art, in literature subtract the work of the men above forty, and while we should miss great treasures, even priceless treasures, we would practically be where we are today ... The effective, moving, vitalizing work of the world is done between the ages of twenty-five and forty.

A lot of times people get to a certain age and they quit. I always felt sorry for the Frank Capras, the Billy Wilders, directors like that, because they quit in their sixties. Why would you quit? Think of the great work they could've done in their sixties, seventies, and on up.

There is nothing worse than an idle hour, with no occupation offering. People who have many such hours are simply animals waiting docilely for death. We all come to that state soon or late. It is the curse of senility.

I understand from my own work that haste makes waste. But I also understand that ... the creative spark dims, and then death puts it out. William Shakespeare, for instance, hasn’t produced a new play for 400 years. That, my friends, is a long dry spell.

Those who are waiting for an epiphany to strike may wait forever. The artist simply goes to work, making art, both good and not so good.

I never feel age... If you have creative work you don't have age or time.

There is no ritual that enhances creativity other than just starting.

The only thing I know for sure about the creative process is it always comes back. Magically. When there are no creative juices and nothing is coming to me - if I wait - it comes!

Most people feel younger than their age, but the culture values youth, success, beauty, productivity. There is no space in this culture for older people.

If you want to find out anything from the theoretical physicists about the methods they use, I advise you to stick closely to one principle: don't listen to their words, fix your attention on their deeds. To him who is a discoverer in this field the products of his imagination appear so necessary and natural that he regards them, and would like to have them regarded by others, not as creations of thought but as given realities.

The foolishness of old age does not characterize all who are old, but only the foolish.