Quotes About Ambition

I wasn't overtly ambitious, or tried to get films by hook or crook. I always did things at my own pace.

I played ball for the Hollywood Blues of the Pacific Coast League, and I thought I was going to be a major leaguer. But I was the only one who seemed to think so.

Where do you go after something like 'Pacific Rim?' Which, for me, was such a moment, to have this thing and see it all come together, and it's big, and it has this cult following... You ask yourself, 'What's next?'

'The bigtime for you is just around the corner.' They told me that first in 1952 - boy, it's been a long corner. If I don't hit the bigtime in the next 25 or 30 years, I'm gonna pack in the music business and become a full-time gigolo.

Every song I put on a record could be a single and I just pack my bags for it... and the minute it takes off, I'm not gonna be home for a while.

It is not like if one film of mine doesn't work then I am going to pack my bags. It all depends on how much determination I have to want something.

I'm not trying to be this guy just chugging along. I want to lead the pack.

You never really get a chance to sit back and look at where you are or what you've done. If you stop working, you're gonna get overtaken quickly. You can't really take your foot off the gas - until you decide to pack it in.

I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for pageants. And the reason I got involved is because I wanted to give back to girls, and I really believe that girls that are involved in pageants are ambitious, driven women who are trying to set themselves apart from the pack.

I've always felt that 'Dope' is a big movie in a little package.

When I was younger I would play in front of crowds as small as 500 in the second division in Belgium, so I know what that's like. It might be easier in terms of pressure, but believe me, I would always prefer to be at a packed Anfield playing against Manchester United. That's why you want to become a footballer.

After 'Gremlins' came out, I should have packed up everything, moved to Los Angeles from New York, and dedicated myself to being a full time film actor. I had the world at my feet.

You know how it is in L.A. You go to restaurants at four in the afternoon, and they're packed because everyone is an actor, and no one is working.

I found people I really wanted to work for; I made myself available to do whatever I could with the skills I had; I took some risk, packing up and moving to Chicago; and I looked for the opportunities that fit for me. So I think the biggest advice is to find people you love to work for who you're going to learn from.

As a callow 18-year-old leaving for college, I'd seen my home town as a mere launching pad for a life in worldlier locales, a place to be from rather than a place to be.

A lot of people who want to be serious artists probably don't want to go for a talent show, but it is a great launching pad.

Many for whom the stage has been the launch pad to cinema have forgotten their roots. I don't intend to, ever.

Something like 'Without a Paddle' does really well at the box office and I'm like, 'Oh, here we go.' In 'Without a Paddle' I'm the romantic lead - great! A comedy and that's what America wants. Then it did nothing for me and I went into kind-of a work abyss. I just didn't get another shot.

I never wanted to be Keith Richards or Jimmy Page.

I want to be Geraldine Page; I want to be one of the greats.

One thing led to another and I was selected from Hyderabad for the Miss India pageant. I remember my mother being really surprised that I wanted to take part!

I think pageant girls just have a way of faking it until you make it, almost.

I start a book and I want to make it perfect, want it to turn every color, want it to be the world. Ten pages in, I've already blown it, limited it, made it less, marred it. That's very discouraging. I hate the book at that point.

I'd like to meet fewer people who say 'Oh, I want to write a book, here are 10 pages I've written,' and more 'Oh, I want to write a book, here are 300 pages I've written.'