Quotes About Aspiration

Persistence pushes me to be bold and seek out the opportunities I've wanted. It starts by envisioning what you want, no matter how big or small, and believing that you can achieve it.

There were times, sure, I wanted my career to go better. But once it starts to go downhill, you can never get back, or only to some degree.

Getting the job you want always starts with excelling at the one you have.

It's like the journey of a police official, who starts from a low rank and goes on to have a high rank. After doing Punjabi films, even I plan on joining Bollywood as a lead actor.

When one starts writing a book, especially a novel, even the humblest person in the world hopes to become Homer.

I think everything starts with an idea. No matter how crazy it is, you should always try to bring it to life.

When I was about 12, I came home from middle school and told my parents I wanted to be an actor. My father didn't say it to me, but he told my mom, 'No. I'm not going to allow that. He'll starve to death.' I grew up in a small town in Illinois where being an actor was not something people did.

When you grow up without it, you want to have it. It's funny, in America some people say, 'Why do you want to make money so much?' And I say, 'Well, I guess you didn't starve as a kid.'

When I was little, I remember rehearsing starving so that when I got to New York I would know how to do it.

Even imperfection itself may have its ideal or perfect state.

Simply stated, girls want role models and mentors.

When you look at guys who get recruited, most of the best athletes, they come from poor families. I don't forget. I was a junior looking through my mother's stuff and looked at her bank statement, and we had $30 in the bank.

They talk about the American Dream. I still believe in that. I still believe that this is a great country, where great things can happen, where anybody can become president of the United States. Just that simple statement there defines so much about the whole business of liberty and freedom and the pursuit of happiness.

I very much wanted to be editor of the 'New Statesman!' But I never wanted to be prime minister, except maybe as a little boy.

That was the big thing when I was growing up, singing on the radio. The extent of my dream was to sing on the radio station in Memphis. Even when I got out of the Air Force in 1954, I came right back to Memphis and started knocking on doors at the radio station.

I got ideas above my station, and I made mistakes.

As a Southerner and as a Mormon you approach life in this aspirational way: 'I will rise above my station.'

I never wanted to be a statistic. I never wanted to be that cat who tried and never made it.

I knew the statistics of playing pro football were 1% of 1%, so I just never planned on it.

One day, I saw a statue of Benjamin Franklin, and I said to myself, 'I can do that kind of work, too.'

Fonteyn was our first proper British ballerina, and from the moment I started dancing, her image engulfed me. In my first year at the Royal Ballet School, Margot's statue was outside my dormitory. Like generations of budding ballet dancers before me, I used to touch her middle finger for luck.

You never grow up thinking you'll have your own personal bobblehead. And then when you make it, it's like, 'Damn, here's a little mini statue.'

If you've been nominated for an Oscar, it would be ridiculous to say you didn't want to win. It would be lovely to have one of those statues.

Americans have so far put up with inequality because they felt they could change their status. They didn't mind others being rich, as long as they had a path to move up as well. The American Dream is all about social mobility in a sense - the idea that anyone can make it.