TEXTS

“The world doesn’t respond to me like it used to. Throughout my life I had learned to anticipate a certain pattern of focus and friendliness. And I never realized how much of that was based on my youth and physical appearance. I thought it was because of my energy and personality. But I’ve had to accept that a woman becomes less and less visible as she ages. It begins to fade in your 40’s, and drops off in your 50’s. You have a harder time holding people’s attention. The conversations become less about you, and more about the transaction. It used to really bother me. I would feel abandoned or ignored. But I’ve grown out of it. There’s a certain grace to letting go of the need for attention. I was an actor for most of my life. I was all about getting attention. But now I’m working as a sign language interpreter, which I love. Because it isn’t about me at all.”

from "Humans of New York"

“I’m a pianist. I’m playing my last concert Thursday night. Then I’m taking a sabbatical. Some of my friends think I’m crazy to step away now, but I don’t want to become a two-hundred-concert-per-year performing machine. It requires too much efficiency. And the efficiency burns you out. There is a lot of pressure when you perform at Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall. People pay for those tickets and you must respect your audience. If you’re piloting a Boeing 777 with four hundred people on board, you aren’t going to try new maneuvers. You aren’t going to have fun or experiment. You don’t have time to stay in your dreams or ideas. You need to step back from the public eye so you have space to grow. I won’t say that taking time off makes you a ‘better’ musician, because I don’t like the word ‘better.’ It sounds competitive. But it does make you less of an automaton and more human. It’s like exploring a new continent. Time off is a space where you allow things to happen other than the known.”