Quotes About Ambition

I am old enough to think the word 'journalist' is not all that noble a designation. Journalist - that record keeper, quote taker and processor of press releases - was, in the world of letters I grew up in, a lower-down job. To be a writer - once the ambition of every journalist - was to be the greater truth teller.

People who have what they want are fond of telling people who haven't what they want that they really don't want it.

I remember my first agent telling me - because they found me as an actor, but I was probably more interested in writing and maybe directing - they were like, 'Well, you can't do both things.' And I was like, 'I'm gonna show you.'

I don't like telling people what my plans are, because I have big plans.

Even when I be telling people like I'm only dropping one album, they be like, 'Nah, bro, you gotta keep going.'

Private dreams are the most powerful. You have to dream of success to make it happen, and if you don't believe in yourself, nobody else will. But that doesn't mean you have to go around telling everyone about it.

I was always telling everyone, I want to be a broadcaster. They'd say, What, are you crazy? What, you're going to be Arthur Godfrey?

Some of my earliest memories, from when I was six or seven, are of going to see Pedro Infante movies and telling my mother, 'When I grow up I want to be like them.'

I was born. When I was 23 I started telling jokes. Then I started going on television and doing films. That's still what I am doing. The end.

It was a very long and hard decision. My dad kept telling me, 'You can always go to college, but you can't always go pro.' That made sense to me.

I was telling people like 'My Dawg' gon' be the song that get me out there. I knew it.

Telling people that I wanted to make dance music, or be on the radio, they looked at me like I was crazy because there was nothing like that in Lichtenstein when I was getting started. That's why I went to Germany, because there is industry there.

I was the one who kept telling my second husband he should become a cinematographer. I paid for him to get his director's card, and he went on to make 'Godspell.'

The entrepreneurial bug had already bitten my son Ankur by the time he got to college. As a lifelong entrepreneur, I certainly didn't want to dampen his enthusiasm by telling him he couldn't do it, but I also wanted to make sure it was balanced with the proper attention to his studies.

I used to make short films even as a kid. I used to have a camera and play around with it. So, I was always interested in the process and telling stories. I've always wanted to direct.

I was aware, however, that telling at any point in my career could adversely affect my future career.

Being under the microscope meant I was never given any slack. I still managed to screw up plenty in life, mind you, but in the things I really cared about - the legal work, or the stories I was telling as a writer, or the office I built in government - I wasn't left a lot of margin for error. It's kept me driven.

Sure enough, it wasn't long until I got a call, telling me I had a scholarship there. It was the only scholarship offer I had and, believe me, I jumped at it.

When Oprah Winfrey tells you that you need to have your own show, you feel compelled to do it. Especially if she's gonna pay for it!

If someone taps me on the shoulder and tells me they don't want me to open the batting for England, it's going to hurt.

Right now, my caddie has a nicer car than I do. That tells me a little something.

No one tells salesmen what they can and can't do.

Generally speaking, it has been my ambition to write as a good old nurse will speak when she tells fairy tales.

When somebody tells you they don't think you're good enough here, your face doesn't fit, you don't just roll over; you've got to back yourself.