The hard part is, of course, the proximity of death. The number has no meaning as long as you're fit and healthy. But you know that you only have so much time left and you don't know how much it is. It could be a very short time.
Philip RothAnd as he spoke, I was thinking, 'the kind of stories that people turn life into, the kind of lives people turn stories into.
Philip RothWhen he [Joe Lewis] was asked upon his retirement about his long career, Joe sweetly summed it up in just ten words. 'I did the best I could with what I had'.
Philip Roth