I'm very comfortable with the idea of there being late bloomers, and for me, of course, there's no difficulty at all in the way that I think of talent and achievement and so on.
When I walk up on that shore in Florida, I want millions of those AARP sisters and brothers to look at me and say, 'I'm going to go write that novel I thought it was too late to do. I'm going to go work in Africa on that farm that those people need help at. I'm going to adopt a child. It's not too late, I can still live my dreams.'
Those who succeed in an outstanding way seldom do so before the age of 40. More often, they do not strike their real pace until they are well beyond the age of 50.
I know that some of the great painters and some of the great artists didn't even start to 'peak', as you say, till they were in their fifties and sixties. And God knows, history is full of artistic people that weren't even recognized till they were dead and gone.
I've talked to a bunch of big men who told me they didn't really start playing basketball until seventh or eighth grade. That wasn't the situation with me.
The value of old age depends upon the person who reaches it. To some men of early performance it is useless. To others, who are late to develop, it just enables them to finish the job.
Sometimes you don't go straight from high school or college and get to the NBA from there. Sometimes you have to go when you're a little bit older and try that other route like Jeremy Lin. And he made it.
Sometimes recruiters and scouts are missing on players. Going after the guys who are really hyped, five-star players and guys that are playing in grassroots and are seen all the time. Then there are the players that developed internally. They go to small schools and they continue to work on their games and they blow up later.
That's how I learned how to act. I learned by doing it. I didn't start acting until I was 37.
There are always late bloomers [in sport], no matter size, although big men are more often late bloomers.
I think a lot of people try to plan things in their career. They feel like, If I don't get this done by the time I'm thirty, everything's over. But I've worked with a lot of people whose careers shot to the top later in life.
Great talents ripen late; the highest notes are hard to hear.
Nobody can seem more politicised and glamorous than the baby-boomers. But their kids are surprisingly robust and late bloomers.
I'm glad we turned into a big-time touring band later in life. In fact, it's almost like we planned it out that way.
Actors don't really get into their stride until they're in their late 30s and 40s.
I'm not an aspiring young actor; I'm a storyteller who made it late in life, and I'm therefore an inspiration to everyone who thinks that, at 23, if you're not in the Backstreet Boys, then you're never gonna make it.
I have examples of people who find their way back later on in life, in their 30's, 40's, it can happen in your 50's, I'm sure it can. It's not really a science. It's maybe more of an art.
Have you seen a marathon race? Some runners will be leading right from the first - but after the halfway mark, it is the runners at the back who take over while the early leaders fade out.
Conductors start getting good when everybody else retires.
You know, I always root for the older athlete. I root for the second album. I root for solo careers after the rock star breaks the band apart.
Cinema is a thankless industry where sometimes to appear on the cinematic scenery is a thing for late bloomers and people who are very patient. The places are accounted, and the space is often unwelcoming. Money is rare, and independent voices are muted by the almost complete absence of risk takers.
For me a Writing Day was an occasion for self-reproach and panic, a time to lament the passing of the years, stare out of windows and remember that even those famous late starters Joseph Conrad and George Eliot had started by the age I was now.
Germany's hierarchical reverence for seniority may have something to do with the fact that everything here happens relatively late. Germans start school at six, graduate in their late 20s, and get their first proper jobs in their 30s. Adolescence can go on a long time. It is rare for anyone to achieve responsibility before their 50s.
There's quite a few artists that didn't pop off until they were a little older - Rick James being one.
Guys are kind of retarded until they're about 30.
