Time & Perspective Quote by Doris Roberts

Doris Roberts frames curiosity not as a self-help slogan but as a survival strategy, the kind that keeps an actor from calcifying into a “type” or a relic. “I’m learning something all the time” lands with the quiet authority of someone who spent decades in an industry that rewards repetition while punishing age. For an actress best known for playing a sharp, controlling mother on Everybody Loves Raymond, the line reads like a deliberate rebuttal to the cultural habit of freezing women into their most familiar role and then dismissing them as finished.

The phrasing does subtle work. “That’s the way I want it to go” insists on agency in a field where so much is decided by casting rooms, ratings, and other people’s fantasies. Learning becomes her chosen narrative arc, not just a backstage detail. Then she sharpens it into something almost defiant: “that’s the way I’ll go.” The double use of “go” slides from how life proceeds to how it ends, turning growth into a kind of vow. It’s not mystical; it’s practical. Staying teachable is how you stay employable, interesting, and internally intact.

The final clause, “until I am no longer on this planet,” dodges sentimentality and swerves into blunt, slightly comic cosmic distance. It’s a performer’s timing: death acknowledged, drama refused. The subtext is clear - longevity isn’t luck alone. It’s a posture.