“If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself.”
Source: The Lightning Thief
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Rick Riordan 1402
American writer 1964Related quotes

from Astaire's autobiography Steps in Time, 1959, p. 325.

Source: Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963

As quoted in "Constance Wu Doesn’t Want to Be Your “It” Girl" in Vulture https://www.vulture.com/2016/06/constance-wu-c-v-r.html

Source: A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel (1982), Chapter 38, And So Time Passes

Video farewell (2002)
Context: I have lived my whole life on the stage and screen before you. I found purpose and meaning in your response. For an actor that is no greater loss than the loss of his audience. I can part the Red Sea, but I can't part with you, which is why I won't exclude you from this stage in my life.
For now, I'm not changing anything. I will insist on work when I can; the doctors will insist on rest when I must. If you see a little less spring in my step, if your name fails to leap to my lips, you will know why. And if I tell you a funny story for the second time, please laugh anyway.