Maya Lin Quotes

As a kid, you don't know what's going on at the time. But once you get older, you start to realize it.

I think you only see experiences as defining moments with distance.

Were we closer to the ground as children, or is the grass emptier now?

I think for all of us, as we age, there are always a few moments when you are shocked.

When I look back at my life now, I'm not amazed by what I did at 16 to 21.

There's something to be said about being able to be retrospective about a certain age as opposed to just in it.

It's funny: 'Next Thing' was written in a time of my life when I was actually really naive and thought that I was wise.

It's interesting how things you hear as a kid take on a whole new meaning when you are an adult.

I suspect I was not the first 21-year-old who thought he knew more than he did. And one of the virtues of age, one of the virtues of getting married and becoming a father, is it often leads one to take a more measured approach to life.

As years passed away I have formed the habit of looking back upon that former self as upon another person, the remembrance of whose emotions has been a solace in adversity and added zest to the enjoyment of prosperity.

When I see myself at 14 years old I can put my hands on my head and think: 'How could I have done that?' but at that time it had sense for me. You do the same when you're 20. And now, when you look at people who are 20 years old you ask yourself: 'Was I like that? Was I really like that?'

At some point I got sick of people calling me Bonzo junior. But now that I'm older and wiser, I'm just honored to be mentioned in the same breath.

But I had a strong reaction to my first three albums and I struggle with them now, as an adult. It's very much the same as looking at your teenage photos in high school.

Obviously, aging has a certain amount of mellowing process because there's certain things you realise you were doing when you were younger that were plain ridiculous, stupid.

There is nothing fine about being a child: it is fine, when we are old, to look back to when we were children.

When you're in the center of something, on a ride, I don't think you realize what it is until it's over.

When I was teeny tiny, I definitely had a voice that didn't quite match the way I looked at five.

It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it.

Five years from now I'm probably going to look back on the things I'm doing and cringe.

Teens are not like the weird, dumb dwarves you have around your house. They are actually you when you were younger.

It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.

You may think me crude, and probably I am crude, but I am not so crude as I was, for I am clever enough to see that the girl of nineteen who thought herself a genius was only an unusual girl writing her heart out.

I'm a lot older than I was when I was 30, which is kind of hard to believe.

That experience with 'Rent' went by so fast. I was younger. I didn't even really know what opening night was. And now I'm thinking back on the times I went to Broadway as a kid and the excitement I felt... And I'm realizing that I'm actually a part of that, so I'm learning to take it in, 'cause so often I shrug it away.

I don't know why it is, but sometimes I feel like I'm 60. It's like I've been around for a long time. I felt that way even when I was 8.