Quotes About Ambition

I started off on the 'The Real World,' and no one thought I would amount to anything.

The 'Real World' made me realize that I could do anything I want to more with my life.

I remember sitting on my couch on a Saturday watching reruns of 'The Real World.' And it said, 'Do you want to be on 'The Real World?' Go to MTV.com, and you can try out there.' And I said, 'I want to be on 'The Real World.'' And I sent in my tape.

I was in theater school playing Lady Macbeth and doing these great dramatic parts, and then I got out into the real world and was auditioning for commercials, and just not getting to do anything that felt remotely meaningful.

I never wanted to become a CA. My father was keen that I become one because he thought that was the right thing for me to do. I didn't have the courage to tell him that I don't want to do it. But now, I can't thank him more for having put me through it.

I just decided that I would not put my professional life on hold to raise children. I know that sounds selfish to a lot of people and I don't know if what I'm doing is the right thing. But that's the way I'm doing it.

I want to play a role of a 24-year-old woman, not 17-year-old girls. So I have picked a couple of films like 'Butter' to show that. And it's perfectly fine not to do anything for a year if I don't find the right thing.

I get offered stuff that I don't really want to do, so hopefully, I'm just kind of waiting for the right thing.

I've spent a lot of years waiting for the right thing to come in - and now, after 'Thrones,' there's a possibility that I could actually have a hand in getting something made.

I'd tell my teenage self he did the right thing never getting a proper job.

Martin O'Neill let me go and he obviously felt that was the right thing at the time. But you go on and want to prove people wrong.

To follow, without halt, one aim: that's the secret of success.

The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for the rest of your life. And the most important thing is, it must be something you cannot possibly do.

I was on a show called '12 Miles of Bad Road' with Lily Tomlin - it was an incredible HBO show. We shot 6 episodes, previewed it before the finale of 'The Sopranos;' it was written up as a 'Great New Show on HBO,' and then the whole thing was canned. Gone. Disappeared. That's when I realized anything can happen in this business.

I personally think 'Power' is much more similar to 'The Sopranos' in that it deals with a character who is leading a double life and wants to become legitimate.

I would love to play the drums with 'The Who.'

I did a lot of commercial and theater work when I got out of school and was living in Dallas, and I moved to Chicago to go through the Second City Conservatory Program.

I had always wanted to be an actress. I went to summer theater camp from kindergarten on up until high school, and always had the leads in all the plays - even though they were at the YMCA - but it was something I always wanted to do.

I started, obviously, doing theater, and I always thought that I would; in a way, I always thought that I'd be a theater actor. When I was starting out, I didn't really plan on making films, actually.

I thought I was going to be on Broadway. I thought, 'I'm going to do theater.'

I wasn't that great in sports. I started doing children's theater and loved it. I thought I had a great thing going with musicals. I thought, 'I can do this. It's fun.' I wanted to go for it, and I thought I'd like to make a living doing this.

I think the moment I discovered I definitely wanted to act was when I saw a play alone by myself when I was fourteen. Maybe it was a Moliere play? I discovered the atmosphere of the theater, and I knew I wanted to be an actor.

I had begun my professional career when I was 9 years old at the Cleveland Play House, and it was a very specific, real theater sort of like, you know, in England and the Berliner Ensemble - very devoted people. And I thought the theater was the greatest place I had ever been, and that's what I wanted to do.

I imagine I was supposed to become a lawyer or something. But this was the Depression; the lawyers I saw were all driving cabs. So I thought, 'Well, if I'm going to be badly off anyway, I might as well be badly off in the theater, where you get used to it.'