Quotes About Ambition

I feel like there's a dangerous culture among young actors of going to posey joints and socialising - not doing hard work. I don't want to go and hang out in Soho House L.A. That's literally my worst nightmare. I'd rather be at home reading scripts.

I say this to young actors: You don't get into this because you think you're average. You get into this because you think, 'I'm good.' It's an art form, and I'm an artist. But as an artist, you know there's not a soul in the world that's going to believe in you other than yourself.

One of the things that I cannot fathom is young actors who will not audition and won't read.

There were certain young actors I had trained with at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art who had always got the big parts and I was always the spear-carrier. Suddenly the roles were reversed and I couldn't understand why, and nor could they.

See, the thing that bothers me with young actors, young actors of color specifically, is that they see movies and television, and they figure that's all it is to it. They have no respect for the craft. They want to be, you know, movie stars or whatever. And I worry that we're losing a certain quality, you know?

Nowadays, kids... young actors... they go straight to L.A. before they've even done anything.

I don't envy young actors.

How often do you see young actors playing scholars? Or striving to be intellectuals, you know? It's not that often.

If all young actors want is to star in romances, what do they need to learn kung fu for?

I don't want to be one of those young actors who is around for a couple of years and melts off the scene.

Most young actors, that's all they're trying to do: Get better at acting and be able to keep doing it. And that doesn't work out for most people.

I'm interested in the dark horse. It's too scary being the face of something, unless it's really right. A lot of young actors want to get a lead role, get into Hollywood. I do everything slow and steady.

I fell in love with the young adult space watching 'Dawson's Creek' and 'Roswell.' I've been a fan my whole life, and it was always a dream of mine to contribute to that area.

I was born and raised in Queens and moved into the city as a young adult. Then I ended up acting and decided to run off to California.

I think it's a mistake to think, 'Am I going to write a young adult book, or do I desperately want to write a book for adults?' I think the better ambition is to try to write someone's favorite book, because those categorizations of adult, young adult, become kind of superfluous.

I consistently run into young adults who have quickly turned away from traditional jobs at great companies to try their hand at a start-up. I believe that some of this stems from the desire to strike it big like Mark Zuckerberg, but I also believe it is because starting a company has become far cooler than working in one.

I was born on the other side of the tracks, in public housing in Brooklyn, New York. My dad never made more than $20,000 a year, and I grew up in a family that lost health insurance. So I was scarred at a young age with understanding what it was like to watch my parents lose access to the American dream.

I lived the true American dream, because I was able to pursue what I set as my goals at a very young age.

I really loved football from a young age. And my only thought, my only objective in life, was to be a professional footballer.

I was a New York Jets fan growing up. My dad said I used to sit there at a very young age and watch football with him and tell him, 'I'm going to play for that team one day.'

From a very young age, I had this idea that if you are very successful in your career, and you're giving all of your attention to that, then your family life... possibly will not flourish as it might.

My mom raised me to be an independent woman, and if there is anything I want in life, to go after it. And that nobody could hold me back. The only person that could do that was myself. That's the core of who I am and she ingrained that in me at a really young age, so I've been an independent, strong person my whole life.

You look more like a legend when you accomplish a lot at a young age.

I wanted to be a boy when I was young because boys got to do all the good stuff. So I became very aggressive and very competitive at a young age.