"Which is - you know, like check it out, I'm pretty young, I'm only about 40 years old. I still have maybe another four decades of work left in me. And it's exceedingly likely that anything I write from this point forward is going to be judged by the world as the work that came after the freakish success of my last book, right?"
About this Quote
The joke is in the math. "Only about 40" flips cultural scripts about aging, especially for women in public life, where a creative peak is treated like a narrow window. She insists on time - "four decades" - not as inspiration-porn, but as a provocation: imagine carrying that much future under the shadow of one past triumph. That framing shifts the anxiety from personal insecurity to structural pressure. The world doesn’t just want another good book; it wants a repeatable version of a specific phenomenon, and it grades everything else as fallout.
"Freakish success" is the tell. She refuses to romanticize the win as merit alone; she labels it an anomaly, something partly monstrous, partly lucky, certainly uncontrollable. The subtext is both defiant and defensive: if success is freakish, then failing to reproduce it isn’t a moral failing. She’s trying to reclaim authorship over her narrative before the marketplace writes it for her: the artist who peaked, the brand that cooled, the cautionary tale.
Quote Details
| Topic | Legacy & Remembrance |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Gilbert, Elizabeth. (2026, January 17). Which is - you know, like check it out, I'm pretty young, I'm only about 40 years old. I still have maybe another four decades of work left in me. And it's exceedingly likely that anything I write from this point forward is going to be judged by the world as the work that came after the freakish success of my last book, right? FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/which-is-you-know-like-check-it-out-im-pretty-78550/
Chicago Style
Gilbert, Elizabeth. "Which is - you know, like check it out, I'm pretty young, I'm only about 40 years old. I still have maybe another four decades of work left in me. And it's exceedingly likely that anything I write from this point forward is going to be judged by the world as the work that came after the freakish success of my last book, right?" FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/which-is-you-know-like-check-it-out-im-pretty-78550/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Which is - you know, like check it out, I'm pretty young, I'm only about 40 years old. I still have maybe another four decades of work left in me. And it's exceedingly likely that anything I write from this point forward is going to be judged by the world as the work that came after the freakish success of my last book, right?" FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/which-is-you-know-like-check-it-out-im-pretty-78550/. Accessed 6 Feb. 2026.
