Quotes About Ambition

Yes, I started out as an anchor on television, but that was just 'me being me,' trying to make some pocket money.

A writer has to keep one foot in the street and one pocket empty and be hungry for it.

If my brother and I wanted money in our pockets, we had to get jobs - my first was at 15, at Burger King. We had to come up with ways to create an income.

There were pockets of this career - whatever you want to call it - where I said, 'I've tapped out. I don't want to do this. I'm gonna go be a stage hand. I don't want to do this. I don't want to talk to people. I'm afraid of people. I'm going to walk away from everything that this was and is.'

Man, it's hard living in N.Y.C. - even when you have money in your pockets.

I have always wanted an Olympic medal. I always wanted to see India's national flag going up at the podium.

I think if I just do what I do every day, on the extraordinary Olympic stage, I could be a podium contender.

I have my Grade 1 autobiography that says I'm going to the 2012 Olympic Games, and it has a picture of me on the podium. So, I've known my whole life. It's not something I just thought of. I've known I would be an Olympic athlete; didn't know what sport, but I drew myself in a judo gi.

I want to be the guy that's taking names, on the podium, and winning events.

At the end of the day, standing on the Olympic podium on the top is what we're all really searching for here.

Sometimes you have a poem that you really want to write and it never happens.

The years rolled their brutal course down the hill of time. Still poor, my clothes still smelling of the horse barn, still writing those doubtful poems where too much emotion clashed with too many words.

I not only wanted to write when I was 7 and 8, but I sent stuff out when I was 7 and 8. I sent it out... and I couldn't believe that they would turn down my poems about faithful dogs.

I shall, in due time, be a Poet.

My dad was the baby. When he was born they were already successful. They sent him to business school - he probably would have loved to have been a poet or a writer or something, and he was very creative.

I earn more than I thought I would when I became a poet.

I really wanted to be a poet - until I realized that I really didn't have what it took to be a poet.

They think I'm going to be a schoolteacher but I'm going to be a poet.

I became an electrician after high school. But I always had this thing in me to write. But it was always a little shameful. To say you were a poet was saying you were kind of crazy, and I carried that around for a long time. I still kind of carry that. And I think it might be true, actually.

If I were to have a dream job, it would probably be a poet. Then again, I don't think I'm a very good poet!

I got out of Iowa all set to be a poet and a novelist, but you know what? It's really tough to make a living as a poet.

I know I'm not a wordsmith. And I don't write poetry. Sometimes I think I should, because it's really helpful. But I always wanted to write novels.

I despair of ever writing excellent poetry.

I have never felt inhibited in trying to write as well as the greatest English poets.