Quotes About Ambition

I knew I was destined to be a rock star. I just knew it, like I've always had the power of foresight. I feel right now exactly the way I felt after I finished mixing my first solo album 'New York Groove'.

They said I couldn't play anything but an English boy. I knew I could. So I went to New York.

I went to a foreign land, New York City in 1982 and had no money, no respect in the gym. Everyone thinks you're full of it. The remit in those days was break his heart, get him out of the gym.

My show 'The Big House' was picked up; they flew me to New York. I'm about to step on stage to announce Kevin Hart's 'The Big House.' And a hand grabs my shoulder, 'Kevin no, they just decided to cancel it.' It's a serious smack-in-the-face business, and either you can take it, or you can't.

I watched 'Iron Chef ' for years, and I thought, 'That's playing for the New York Yankees.' I made that my version of being Derek Jeter, and I worked really, really hard to win that.

You grow up in a small community, there's no outlet like New York or L.A.

My dream when I was 14 was someday I could have a David Levine caricature of me in 'The New York Review of Books.'

When you're from an unknown place, I think it's hard for you to believe it's possible. You think you have to go to L.A. or New York to make it, but I don't think that's true. I'm glad to be an example that you can make it from where you are. All you need is talent and hard work.

When I left Michigan and I came to New York, that was my goal, to be a professional dancer. And I sort of fell into singing by accident in a way.

I'd always dreamed of being an actor and going out to Los Angeles or New York and being paid to do what you love, and then I went and did that, and it wasn't what I expected.

It had always been a dream of mine to come to New York to work. Coming to New York and looking for work is one thing, but coming to New York and already having a job and feeling like you are already part of the city has been an amazing experience for me.

During the Eighties, when I was hurting for money, I thought, 'Hang on a minute - I can paint.' I was living in New York and I thought it would get the grocery money coming in, and it escalated from there.

I wanted to make it in New York. I thought if I went out to the Midwest, I'd be burying myself. But I was wrong.

I see a New York that is once again the empire state.

Nearly everyone says New York is their number one city in the world, don't they? It certainly is mine. But I feel like the ship sailed for me in terms of living in New York because I think you need to live there when you're in your 20s - when you can be poor and energetic and just don't care.

There's this old Frank Sinatra song: 'If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere'... that song was about New York, but it applies to America. People know that if you make it in America, you can make it anywhere, and that is both in terms of sophistication and customer satisfaction.

Devo and The Cramps didn't get big until they went to New York City. Chrissie Hynde didn't get big until she moved to London. When I was growing up, there wasn't even a place to play - just one little bar. If we wanted to have a gig, then we had to drive 45 minutes up to Cleveland.

New York can be a tad stressful.

There's no doubt that New York held its temptations for any writer - it still does.

Living in New York City, you have to keep trying to do a lot of things.

I was always running off to the city, whether it was Philly or New York, going somewhere where there was something more for me.

I applied for a job at 'The New York Times' many years ago, and felt correctly that my life depended on it.

I had some years of definite frustration. Auditioning and not working as much as I would have liked to, or working and being paid a pittance, and sort of scrounging by in New York and sleeping on a chair that folded out into a bed.

When I was a kid, the idea of gettin' paid to paint your face... listen, I grew up in Ossining, New York, a nice little town by the Hudson, and nothin' ever interested me except being your usual high school big shot, which I was an' loved it, played all the sports and goofed around, always out on the street with the guys, everything was funny t'me.