Timeless Work Quotes

Genius, indeed, melts many ages into one, and thus effects something permanent, yet still with a similarity of office to that of the more ephemeral writer. A work of genius is but the newspaper of a century, or perchance of a hundred centuries.

My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public, but was done to last for ever.

I do not want to have the feeling of writing 'for eternity', so to speak.

When a writer makes something, it's theirs forever. That is the magic for me.

Most writers write to say something about other people - and it doesn't last. Good writers write to find out about themselves - and it lasts forever.

A writer should have another lifetime to see if he's appreciated.

Move out man! Life is fleeting by. Do something worthwhile, berfore you die. Leave Behind a work sublime, that will outline you and time.

In front of the camera and in front of the lens, there's no lawsuits, there's no agent, and there's most frequently no time limits... There's a longevity that's kind of built into it. I spend most of my time behind the scenes, and when it is time to perform, I'm genuinely delighted to do it.

Immortality is a by-product of good work.

The work that lasts over time is the work which still speaks to us when all contemporary interest in that work is extinct.

Even though I get older, what I do never gets old, and that's what I think keeps me hungry.

We should all be so lucky in our lives to create things that we're still talking about 25 years later.

When I read 'The Master', I felt that I had read a true classic. It's so rare nowadays that you have that feeling: it was a privilege to read it.

A writer wants something more than money for his work: he wants permanence.

'Tom Sawyer' could have been written eight months ago, with the kind of response it still gets.

I don't want to have one hit, one song of the summer, and then have me disappear forever. I really want my things to last, and I want my songs and my bodies of work to resonate with people. I want to hit people - at least make a dent in them. I want to make a mark somehow.

I sometimes feel that if your book sells more than 20 years, then there's something in it that you can say, gee, I did something that endures, that's timeless.

I want to create a body of work that is entertaining and speaks to people for a long time. Longer than my life span.

Happy indeed the poet of whom, like Orpheus, nothing is known but an immortal name! Happy next, perhaps, the poet of whom, like Homer, nothing is known but the immortal works. The more the merely human part of the poet remains a mystery, the more willing is the reverence given to his divine mission.

Of all my movies, I feel that 'Krishna Gopalakrishna' remains one of my best works though it could not be called a box office success. I maintain that it was far ahead of its time.

I have written my work, not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time

If you look at a painting that you love by one of the great masters, every time you go back to it, you see something different - a different attitude or brushstroke. 'Hamlet' is like an entire gallery of old masters.

Genius now and then produces a lucky trifle. We still read the Dove of Anacreon, and Sparrow of Catullus; and a writer naturally pleases himself with a performance which owes nothing to the subject.

I have spoken, and I was understood. It's not like I'm a tragic person who wasn't understood. All those books are in print, all those movies are still out there, the audience gets younger. So I don't have that "I've got to do one thing before I die." I did it.

A visionary company is like a great work of art. Think of Michelangelo's scenes from Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel or his statue of David. Think of a great and enduring novel like Huckleberry Finn or Crime and Punishment. Think of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony or Shakespeare's Henry V. Think of a beautifully designed building, like the masterpieces of Frank Lloyd Wright or Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. You can't point to any one single item that makes the whole thing work; it's the entire work-all the pieces working together to create an overall effect-that leads to enduring greatness.