Time & Perspective Quote by Sarah Caldwell

Curiosity is framed here not as a hobby but as insurance. Caldwell’s line has the brisk, backstage pragmatism of someone who spent a life in rehearsal rooms where “talent” is less useful than alertness. The repetition of “you can” turns learning into an opportunistic practice: not a scheduled self-improvement project, but a muscle you keep flexing in spare minutes, in overheard advice, in watching how someone else solves a problem under pressure.

The most pointed move is “from anyone you can.” It’s a quiet rebuke to status-driven listening. In celebrity culture, knowledge is supposed to flow upward (from the famous to the fans) or laterally (between peers). Caldwell flips that hierarchy and smuggles in a democratic ethic: the intern, the technician, the rival, the old hand who’s seen a dozen crises - each might hold the one trick that saves you later. There’s also a discipline hiding in the generosity; learning from “anyone” requires swallowing ego and tolerating being a beginner in public.

The last clause, “there will always come a time,” gives the sentence its emotional pressure. It’s a promise, but also a warning delivered gently: the future will test you, unpredictably, and preparation rarely announces itself as preparation. For an artist and cultural figure, that test could be a collapsed production, a hostile room, a shifting industry, a moment when reputation isn’t enough. The gratitude she predicts isn’t sentimental; it’s relief - the kind you feel when something you bothered to learn quietly shows up right on time.