Uta Hagen: Do It Fully

Uta Hagen in 1954, captured by Fred Stein.

In Conversation with James Grissom

New York

1998

Time is so valuable, so scarce, so fickle that I can no longer tolerate seeing it wasted--by me or by anyone else. I think we have to be serious about whatever it is we're doing, because I know--believe me, I know--how soon it will be before we can't run or ride or read easily; how difficult it will be to remember things.  This is all happening to me now, so I feel good about the fact that I realized the value of time and the value of people fairly early on.

Whatever you do,  do it fully. I cook fully. I read fully. I listen fully. As you can see, I speak far too fully.

I've come to believe that if you are not willing to die for your family, your friends, your world, your neighborhood,  and the work in which you believe, then it won't have any value to others. I'm not talking about being a humorless person, a grind, a killjoy. I'm talking about living fully and generously, while being entirely aware of the fact that life and all it offers is rapidly slipping away from us all. I want to be gripping the hell out of it when I go.