Quotes About Legacy

You know, my mom, who inspired me to be a novelist, I remember her reading 'The Agony and the Ecstasy,' about Michelangelo, and saying, 'No mother would want that for her child, no matter how great the artist.' I have my share of demons, but I am a gregarious sort.

Like so many others, I came to romance during the golden age of it - Judith McNaught, Julie Garwood, Johanna Lindsey and Jude Deveraux were at the height of their historical domination. Without those women, I wouldn't be a romance novelist.

My dad was very successful as a journalist, so I didn't want to be one. I wanted to be a novelist.

I hope people will like my novels after I'm dead. And I hope my children think about me in good ways, by and large.

Charles Dickens left us fifteen novels, and in an ideal world, everyone would read all of them.

My father has always been the heart of my Penn Cage novels.

It's an article of faith that the novels I've loved will live inside me forever.

The truly great books are always novels: 'Anna Karenina,' 'The Brothers Karamazov,' 'The Magic Mountain.' Just as with 'Shahnameh,' I browse these books from time to time to remember how a great book works on us or to teach my students at Columbia University.

Some critics said, 'Hey, why are you writing historical novels?' I say they're not historical, they're contemporary, because people walking around who lived through this, even a little bit, they carry it inside. The contemporary isn't just what you can see now.

I'm not going to write any more novels. I don't want to end up being one of these angry, bitter writers moaning that only three people are reading him. I don't want that.

I'm not a novelty act from the '80s in most parts of the world.

I've always said that the games in November are the ones you remember.

When I retired from my music November 1997, it had been 37 years.

My story about becoming an actor is a completely non-romantic one. I became an actor because my parents were actors, and it seemed like a very... I knew I was going to act all my life, but I didn't know that I was going to be a professional actor. I thought I was just going to work as an actor every now and then.

I don't want to play forever. I want to give everything I can now and then walk away knowing I gave everything. The example I think of is Barry Sanders. He was such a great player, and he left when he was still on top. I want that to be me.

I think 19 years, what I've done, you see nowadays people get there with money and so on, but they last one or two years. To be able to have lasted that long, it's still impressive for me. I had a blast being a Formula 1 driver.

I'm nowhere near Barry Sanders. But that doesn't take anything away from my game.

When you have great songs that are going to live longer than the composers, everything you can do to bring those different elements and nuances out, serve the song.

Mel will always be Mad Max, and me, I will always be a Number.

One of the best things people could do for their descendents would be to sharply limit the number of them.

There comes a point when you can more or less count the number of books you're going to write before you die.

I want to be the number one songwriter-producer guy of all time.

I was sent to a school because my father was already aware that his days were numbered, and he was anxious for me to acquire a good education and follow in his footsteps.

If you look at some of the people in the Hall of Fame, my numbers are compatible.