Quotes About Ambition

I used to sneak up to the 8th floor and watch Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo rehearsing 'Saturday Night Live' and could only wonder if I would ever have the chance to be funny. It took me five years to go up the two stories, but it is such a sense of fulfillment to be able to show what I can do on national television.

I don't know what keeps me going. Sometimes I wonder... I think it's just pure perseverance and wanting to succeed and having that burning desire to always have success.

This whole 'X Factor' thing with people assuming I'm going to be a one-hit wonder - that won't happen with me.

I had grand visions of being in professional sports. But when reality set in, I went, 'Oh, OK. I'll just move to Hollywood and be an actor.' I didn't want to look back on my life and wonder, 'What if I had done this? Or I had done that?'

I wonder now how tough you have to be to get big things done.

I booked my first studio at like 12 or 13. Somewhere in that season of my life, singing along with the radio became me wanting to be on radio, you know. And writing Langston Hughes replica poems became me wanting to write like Stevie Wonder.

I used to wonder what it would be like to see my name on a billboard. I couldn't even imagine something like that. Then you see it, and, well, it just makes billboards not as special as they used to be. It's weird.

When I see people scratching and clawing towards ambition and greed, I wonder why they are doing it and for what.

As I watched bookstores close, I began to wonder how that felt for the owners. Owning a bookstore was their dream and now they're struggling and seeing those dreams fall apart.

Something I've learned is that when people tell me I can't do something, I immediately wonder why and then think it through. It only makes me more motivated to prove them wrong.

People wonder what you are going to do after you've won the Champions League three times? Win it again, if I can.

I wasn't some sort of ingenue. I always saw myself as a lifer in this industry, and working as an actor on 'Wonder Years' was a first act.

The more you create, the more ambitious you become with your projects. Short films were a direct result of over 200 web series sketches and vlogs. After you create enough 2-minute videos, you start to wonder what else there is. Deadlines and discipline and quantity with a focus on quality have always been what keeps me going.

I went from thinking, 'I wonder if I can be a broadcaster. Will anybody give me a chance? Maybe I can get a shot at it,' to thinking, 'Man, I want to do this for a long time.'

A lot of people thought I was going to be a one-hit wonder, so I had that chip on my shoulder.

I would watch films like 'Frances Ha' and 'The Squid and the Whale,' and wonder why we weren't making these beautiful slice-of-life movies. Then I thought, 'Why am I not doing it?'

I don't want to be a one-hit wonder.

If I'd been easily discouraged, I could have been a one-hit wonder.

I sometimes wonder what would've happened if I'd entered the competition instead - I'd probably have come nowhere and given up on the whole fiction game.

Sometimes I wonder if I got lulled into not wanting things because I grew up black in this country.

I don't want to get home from work and wonder if I could have done better if I didn't go out that night. What you're doing is going to go on the big screen and go down in history.

People are really suffering these days. There's a lot of corporate triumph and a lot of personal despair as they wonder what are they working for.

Sometimes I wonder why I'm not working at McDonald's and how come I have the life I have. I don't know. But I'm happy that I have these choices. That's kinda sappy, huh? But whatever, acting beats pumping gas.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm running against Mitt Romney or Sen. Hatch.