Quotes About Determination

I didn't sign a record deal; I didn't do any of that. I made my record independently, and I went out and hit the road in a van.

I spoke with Van Gaal, and he said that I only had a one per cent chance of playing in my position, so I headed to Bayer.

I looked up to action heroes such as Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, and Jean-Claude van Damme because I liked the attitude and determination they portrayed.

I was living in my van, playing on the street for almost two years.

I watched a lot of Jean-Claude Van Damme films and loved his film 'Bloodsport.'

I used to drive myself about in an old Austin van... and then have to sleep in the back because I couldn't afford a hotel.

Why would I have quit Van Halen? It never happened.

It is the unshakeable determination and will of our Party to put forward young people in the vanguard of the ranks of the general onward march as masters of the times and help them put up the doorplate of a thriving country before anybody else.

Most actors don't grow up with sweet, vanilla parents.

Great players are very good technically, but they also have a huge amount of character because, without it, you will never get to see that great technique because it vanishes under pressure.

Remember, that of all the elements that comprise a human being, the most important, the most essential, the one that will sustain, transcend, overcome and vanquish obstacles is - Spirit!

Sometimes you have a bad day, and you're like, 'I'm over this, and I just want to play tennis,' or do another sport that doesn't require any other variables, but then you have a good day, and it's like, it's amazing, and the success makes up for it.

At thirty-five, having spent over twenty years running varied businesses for my family, I decided to sit down and write my first novel. I had never written anything longer than a couple of pages till then and was foolishly attempting to write a hundred-thousand words.

I was frustrated because I couldn't get going, as I was trying to figure out how to make films. I had various jobs, I taught a SAT class, I was a bartender, I had a day job at an office and was making short films.

I always knew I'd keep at it with the plodding doggedness that I used to master lump-less gravy and wriggle out of fitness classes; I always knew I'd get a zillion rejection slips. I figured I'd write part time while working various full-time office jobs, and maybe, maybe in my 50s, I'd be able to quit and try writing full time.

My musical background is like almost every non classical musician in the world. One day a special record was heard and that was it. I was hooked, started trying to play various instruments and was off to bar land to become a rock star. What else?

I would take lots of falls and you know, get shot three or four times and this sort of thing, so all that sort of stuff. And there are tussles with various characters. I like that kind of thing.

It was a real hand-to-mouth existence in those early days - I'd have whatever dry cereal there was in the house for breakfast, 30 cents to spend on lunch and a hot dog for dinner. I did that for years. So there was definitely a hunger in me, of various kinds, to succeed.

It used to bug me that I couldn't even afford to take my family for a proper holiday. I didn't have any professional knowledge, and getting a photographer's job in a magazine was out of the question. So, armed with a Pentax K1000, I started going to various maidans of Mumbai, looking for subjects.

No matter what I've done, what I've tried to do, everybody says it can't be done. And it's continuous across the complete spectrum of the various kind of realities that you confront with your ideas.

I started by writing short stories, but they weren't very good; I tried them on various magazines, and none of them was published. People were nicer then about turning you down, and so I didn't lose heart - I kept on writing and wrote a lot of books, one or two of which I finished, and others I didn't.

At various stages in my life, I could have stopped, or took the long rest. For some reason, my heart told me otherwise. I just kept going. Half of the time, I wasn't sure where I was heading. The other half, I was probably taking the wrong turns. No matter.

Leadership is about doing the right thing, even if it going against a vast number of naysayers and mediocre people.

My talent is such that no undertaking, however vast in size... has ever surpassed my courage.