Quotes About Achievement

It's not just people in Hollywood: I'm sure everyone in the world thinks, 'What would be it like if I won an Oscar?'

My highest point was the first thing I won, a short story competition in a women's magazine in the Eighties. It was the first time I'd had my writing validated, and the first thing I'd ever shown anyone else.

My only drive was to be the best dancer in the world, but I never won the world championship.

I thought that when I won the Olympic trials I was going to be the happiest person in the whole world. And I was happy. But it wasn't like I thought it was going to be. I had already imagined it in my head so many times. It was real before it happened.

My friend Quincy Jones says we won our first Grammys together in 1963. I have no recollection. I don't even remember the room. When he showed me the picture, I remembered what I wore. But it's like awards don't mean anything.

I think when you're young and have that first burst of energy and make five or six pictures in a row that tell the stories of all the things in life you want to say... well, maybe those are the films that should have won me the Oscar.

Although I have won many times now, each time when I have a lead, I start to think about winning. It's very difficult not to think about winning. Every time, there are new challenges. Every time, there are new issues to overcome.

My daughter just graduated college and she's a dance major. She's done a couple of dance videos already and won Miss Massachusetts a couple of weeks ago. She's going out for Miss United States the second week of July, out in Las Vegas. She will probably wind up going to New York and trying the Broadway thing.

Professionally, I feel like I won the lottery and I am the luckiest person in the entire world.

The school I went to was a little farm school in Wannaska, student body 61 or something. There was a kid, the only black kid in our county, Dustin Byfuglien. He won the Stanley Cup a couple years back with the Blackhawks. Out of a class of 21 kids, he and I always had to be on opposite teams on everything because we were the most athletic.

A month and a half after my first audition, I won the role on 'Lost.'

The awards world can be ridiculous, but I'm not one to bash it. I love awards! When I've been nominated for Emmys and when I won my DGA Award, I couldn't have been happier. I always liked getting a gold star in class.

When I won the Tony, I blacked out. I don't remember anything. I had bullet points jotted down, but I forgot to read half of them. My hands were shaking. It was an insane honor to be recognized in that way.

I was the kid who never won the races. I never jumped the highest. I wasn't on the list of the high-achieving.

Anna Kournikova will always be better paid than Lindsay Davenport. The first left the circuit without having won a single title while the second was world number one.

One of the main things that's appealing about games is that you know a game can be won. It's an unusual game that's impossible to win.

After I won the Pulitzer, there was this sense of, 'OK, that's enough for you. Now go away.' What I wanted was to keep writing, keep working. But no one would produce anything of mine they didn't think would be as big as 'night, Mother.'

I've been working every year since I started acting, and I got many awards before I won the Oscar for 'The Queen.'

I wrote my first short story for a competition and won second prize. Another competition came up and I won first prize. The first story was published in a newspaper. The second went out on radio.

I will have won Wimbledon this year in 2013, and I will stop with that. It was magnificent. You will certainly see me at tournaments again, but not playing.

They say getting a show on the air and having it be a success, literally, the odds are like winning the lottery. For me, I've won the lottery several times, so I've been awfully lucky.

All my success seems to come straight away, and it's not until later that I get to appreciate it. Like with 'Popstars,' I won the competition, and now I look back and go, 'God, I was lucky to have number-one singles and albums.'

I'm scared of being a one-hit wonder because my second single has set the bar too high.

I do sometimes go back to my old songs. Some I feel very proud of. They make me wonder, 'How did I do this?'