Quotes About Determination

It required me to suffer. It compelled me to reach.

Write so blazingly good that you can't be framed... Write like a motherfucker.

Read it like a motherfucker.

At which point, at long last, there was the actual doing it, quickly followed by the grim realization of what it meant to do it, followed by the decision to quit doing it because doing it was absurd and pointless and ridiculously difficult and far more than I expected doing it would be and I was profoundly unprepared to do it.

Who is tougher than me? The answer was always the same, and even when I knew absolutely there was no way on this earth it was true, I said it anyway: No one.

The only way you'll find out if you "have it in you" is to get to work and see if you do. The only way to override your "limitations, insecurities, jealousies, and ineptitude" is to produce. You have limitations. You are in some way inept. This is true of every writer, and it's especially true of writers who are twenty-six. You will feel insecure and jealous. How much power you give those feelings is entirely up to you.

I hope when people ask what you're going to do with your English and/or creative writing degree you'll say: ... Carry it with me, as I do everything that matters.

When I had no roof I made Audacity my roof. ROBERT PINSKY, "Samurai Song" Never never never give up. WINSTON CHURCHILL

I was working too hard to be afraid.

Perhaps by now I'd come far enough that I had the guts to be afraid.

Fear begets fear. Power begets power. I willed myself to beget power. And it wasn't long before I actually wasn't afraid.

a slow walker, but I never walk back. ABRAHAM LINCOLN

What's important is that you make the leap. Jump high and hard with intention and heart.

Every last one of us can do better than give up.

had to change. I had to change was the thought that drove me in those months of planning. Not into a different person, but back to the person I used to be—strong and responsible, clear-eyed and driven, ethical and good.

Fear begets fear. Power begets power. I willed myself to beget power. And it wasn't long before I actually wasn't afraid. I

Who would I be if I didn't? Who would I be if I did?

Self-pity is a dead-end road. You make the choice to drive down it. It's up to you to decide to stay parked there or to turn around and drive out.

you're going to have to get on that horse and ride into battle like a warrior.

It was exactly like attempting to lift a Volkswagen Beetle. It looked so cute, so ready to be lifted—and yet it was impossible to do.

And you have to do it no matter what is true. No matter what is hard.

But I had walked here, and I wasn't ready to give up on seeing the High Sierra just yet.

slices to the very heart of the hiker's volition,

So I stood up and tossed the other one over the edge too.