What does ambition look like at 90? Where does it come from? Some of the most prominent creative people over the age of 75 in a variety of industries describe, in their own words, what continues to motivate them
Your Gray Matters celebrates creativity at every age. Some people refuse to give up their creativity and careers just because society thinks that they ought to be retired. Here are 17 people that inspire us.
The Unstoppables is a series about people whose ambition is undimmed by time.
Introduction by Guy Trebay, Interviews by Ruth La Ferla and Guy Trebay - Published 4/05/24 and updated 5/08/24
The old, as it happens, represent a rapidly growing global population: the proportion of those 65 and above is increasing at a faster rate than those below that age, according to World Population Prospects, a United Nations study. Between 2022, when the report was issued, and 2050, the global population of those over 65 is expected to rise from 10 to 16 percent. People are already working longer, and, as they do, it would appear that a road map is needed, a means of understanding what keeps people like Martha Stewart, at 82, not only undiminished by age but actively in the game.
Frederic Tuten at home in his studio in Southampton, N.Y. “I feel at this crazy time that I’m beginning again, with a wish to not repeat myself,” he said. The secret is not to be frightened, not to give in to PC thinking. Credit...Lindsay Morris for The New York Times
Patricia Field at her shop in 2022. “Only when you’ve lost interest is it time to stop,” she said. Age means nothing to me. In my mind, I’m probably 40. I’ve always gotten my energy by associating with people who are younger. I still do. It’s a habit I formed early in life. Young energy is optimistic Credit...Timothy O'Connell for The New York Times
Paul Smith in 2022. As a teenager, I wanted to be a racing cyclist. But then at 17 I had a bad crash and was in the hospital for a long time. Eventually, when I found creativity, it was by chance — at a pub. As long as you have the energy and the enthusiasm, though, I see no reason to stop. Credit...Stephane De Sakutin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Bethann Hardison at her home in New York City in mid-August. I started going out on the streets on my own at 7.
It was never a Black agency, per se. Most of my kids were white because I had to compete with my white counterparts. The difference was that I made it a point to include Black kids, Latin kids, Asian kids. I also say that,
in this life, people who produce are going to continue to produce.
Credit...Yolanda Hoskey for The New York Times
Robert Wilson in Water Mill, N.Y., this month. I think of something my mother used to say: If they ask you to jump two feet, jump five.
I’m 82, but I tend to forget my age. As long as I have my curiosity and the desire to learn, I can’t imagine stopping.
Credit...Lindsay Morris for The New York Times
At 95, Stan Herman Has Learned How to Use Nostalgia. “When I look ahead, there is absolutely nothing I dread.” I wake up each day with a sense of expectation. Once you lose that, you grow old.
People say, “Oh, you’ve got so much energy.” Energy is expectations, challenges, moving forward.
Credit...Maansi Srivastava/The New York Times
“In my family, we had a saying,” Judy Chicago said. “Give up or get up.”
My father — he was a labor organizer — taught me that the purpose of life was to make a contribution to a better world.
I wanted to fulfill my father’s mandate. And I wanted to become a part of art history.
Credit...Gabriela Campos for The New York Times
“All creativity is uplifting,” Paul Theroux said. “I finish a book in a mood approaching rapture.”
After 60 years of writing and publishing — and almost 60 books — I feel ordering my thoughts on paper to be not a job but a process of my life.
Creativity is about experimenting — failing, failing again, failing better, as Beckett said.
Writing is neither dreary nor a job. I see it as a process of life.
When at last I fall off my chair, I suppose that will be my way of stopping.
Credit...Michelle Mishina Kunz for The New York Times
Grace Coddington at the San Vincente Bungalows, in 2023. Behind her are murals she created.
I’m not modern. Now is not the moment for people who are very particular and very precise. Now is about being on the move and not being tied to anything. It’s important to keep your brain occupied, to keep just one step ahead.
Of course there are things that you might regret, but I don’t really want to dwell on them. It’s better to be more forward-driven.
Credit...Elizabeth Weinberg for The New York Times.
For Lauren Hutton modeling was never the dream. I turned 80 in November. Sometimes I feel like I’m 33. Sometimes I’m 572. Obviously, anyone who has success has luck, but there are three or four other things you need — intelligence, a certain amount of talent for the gig, a strong work ethic. Ms. Hutton recalled looking around and seeing “there were no older women in ads or on magazines.” “So I keep working,”
Lauren Hutton in her Lower Manhattan loft last month. Credit...Celeste Sloman for The New York Times.
Ali MacGraw in Santa Fe, N.M.
I live north of Santa Fe, kind of in nature, and I’m very involved with the community. I’m blessed to be in good health. and I know so many people who don’t have that choice. I have a life that makes me happy.
I failed and failed. Unlike a lot of people, though, I did not swallow the Kool-Aid.
I live a very different life now. I don’t care at all about being seen in the latest piece of clothing or knowing the latest song. I don’t feel diminished by not knowing those things.
Credit...Simbarashe Cha/The New York Times
George Takei in April.
Mr. Takei writes about growing up in Japanese American internment camps during World War II.
That’s what inspires me. It’s the people that make a democracy work, and, sadly, most people are not equipped anymore to take on the responsibility of being American citizens.
Credit...Justin J Wee for The New York Times
For Maxine Hong Kingston, Age Is Just Time Going By.
In a way, I don’t believe in old age. I hear people say, “this hurts” or “that hurts,” and they attribute that pain to old age. It’s not age. Age is just time going by, and that’s very mysterious.
I do think about retiring, but stories and ideas keep coming. As Phyllis Hoge, a poet and my best friend, used to say, “We won’t die until we’ve finished our work.”
Credit...Marissa Leshnov for The New York Times.
Joan Collins: I refuse to be defined by a number, by an age. I think that’s terribly old-fashioned and not relevant in today’s world.
But you have to be resilient in this business. Rejection is a part of it.
My father — he was a theatrical agent — instilled in me that I should develop skin like a rhinoceros, and be like a marshmallow on the inside.
You also need patience. This business is a waiting game.
Joan Collins in February. Credit...Amy Harrity for The New York Times
Giorgio Armani doesn't think much about age.
For those of us who grew up in the shadow of war, ambition was something natural, a vital drive. It was not so much a desire for fame and notoriety but rather an urge for personal fulfillment.
My mother and father taught me the value of commitment and hard work to get things done. It is a lesson that has never left me.
The main pressure is staying relevant without giving in to the pressures of the moment, which often feel very urgent but are forgettable in the long run.
In my head, I am the same age I was when I started Giorgio Armani. Situations and people change, but the challenges and problems are all the same in the end. My way of tackling them hasn’t changed — with great determination.
Giorgio Armani in 2015.Credit...Paul Stuart/Camera Press, via Redux
Betye Saar Is Making Some of the Best Work of Her Life.
The main challenge, I guess, to being an artist is how to make a living.
I still want to make art. Sometimes in the morning when I wake up, it’s hard to get out of bed, hard to get back into my body and get it to move. But I do it.
Not everyone has a reason to get out of bed, something they love to do and that gives their life meaning. I am so lucky that I have that as part of my life.
I don’t really think about my age, unless someone mentions it, though I guess I feel middle-aged — which for me is, like, 50 to 70. It would be kind of neat to live to 100, to have 100 revolutions around the sun. I’m pretty close.
Betye Saar in February. Credit...Kayla James for The New York Times.
Martha Stewart Has ‘Never-Ending Curiosity’ (And a Few Regrets.).
I get up at 6:30 every morning. My housekeeper comes at 7, and I can’t be in bed when she arrives.
Maybe a little uncertainty can help fuel ambition.
My never-ending curiosity drives me. Will it stop? That’s never even occurred to me.
Martha Stewart in 2022.Credit...Ysa Pérez for The New York Times
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