Some media outlets are using the occasion of Heath Ledger’s demise to publish lists of stars who died “too soon.”

Does anyone really die too soon? Maybe everyone dies at exactly the right time. Maybe some people die too late.

[James] Dean died before he could fail, before he lost his hair or his boyish figure, before he grew up.

— Donald Spoto, Rebel: The Life and Legend of James Dean

James Dean died at age 24. Did he die too soon? Would he have been remembered as fondly if he’d lived to an old age?

Better to be a delicious fruit snatched away in mid-bite than something one finds in the back of the refrigerator and says, “My god, we should have thrown this out a long time ago.”

It’s never a bad career move to check out in your prime . . .

[James] Dean died before he could fail, before he lost his hair or his boyish figure, before he grew up.

— Donald Spoto, Rebel: The Life and Legend of James Dean

One must discontinue being feasted upon when one tasteth best; that is known by those who want to be long loved.

— Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Many die too late, and some die too early. Yet strange soundeth the precept: ‘Die at the right time!’

— Ibid.