Thomas McGuane Quotes

By the age of 50, I would like to know that I'm not dead - that there's some continuity to my life.

I think that everyone at any age should ask themselves, 'where do I want to be today, where do I want to be tomorrow, and where do I want to be in a hundred years?' We all have clear answers to those questions. We only have so much time. It's a real shame if we don't spend our lives trying to do that.

The questions I'm asking myself are, 'What makes me happy? Where do I want to be? What will make me happy at 50, 60 and 70?'

Jane Fonda, who divided her life into three acts, decided after her sixtieth birthday that she was now facing the final act, and came to the following conclusion: "I thought to myself, well if that's the case and if what I'm scared of isn't death, but getting to the end with regrets, then I've got to figure out what would be the things that I would regret when I got to the last act if I hadn't done them or achieved them by then. And they were: having an intimate relationship and having made a difference."

I have a lot of success and make a good living, but after while, you start going 'Why? Why are you doing all this?'

For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

No matter what we're trying to accomplish in life, or what career path we're trying to take, sometimes we get caught up and lose perspective on what's important in life.

I feel I should be trying to complete my life, whatever 'completing a life' means.

The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life.

Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough.

I think the only advice I can give you on how to live your life well is, first off, remember... it's not the things we do in life that we regret on our deathbed, it is the things we do not.

Don't just count your years, make your years count.

I don't want to spend my life in my 40s feeling bad about being in my 40s, and then all of a sudden I'm 50, and I will have missed a whole decade!

I would say this in terms of my career, that my career provided me with everything that I wanted, and I think a man is fortunate if he can say that at the end of his life.

If you carefully consider what you want to be said of you in the funeral experience, you will find your definition of success.

I have a more developed sense of my priorities. Life has so much more meaning now.

You know, you get to a certain age, 45, 50, I don't know when it happens, I said, 'Jesus, all I got is a certain amount of time. Maybe I should think about using it a little better.'

I really don't want the highlight of my life to be my success as an investor. Genuinely. My idea of death would be that person who is still telling you about that goal he scored in 1974.

I don't think my life itself is very interesting.

I'm very happy with where I arrived, both personally and professionally. I can say more so personally, because my career will have to end eventually. I do not know how long it will be, but eventually it will end, and the personal will continue.

I'm just interested in carving out a meaningful life.

When suddenly your focus changes, you see the years going by and it's an extra reminder that you don't want to live life with any regrets.

I was lucky enough to know exactly what I wanted to do when I was growing up. I think one of the hardest things to figure out in life is what your calling is, and what truly makes you happy - not what you want to work at, but what you want to do.

I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.

I love filmmaking, but I decided to go to drama school because I thought that when I'm 60 and looking back on my life, if acting hadn't been a part of it, I would hate myself.