Quotes About Aspiration

I have no desire to run for public office.

To operate with the aspiration of color-blindness in a country whose central operating mechanism for centuries has been race belies the logic of race-neutral public policy. Public policy must account for the historic and intentional pillaging of resources experienced by black Americans.

Well, first of all, I grew up in New York City, going to first a public school, then a private school, and when I got to the private school in Manhattan, I learned of what we called 'The Promised Land,' which are the Hamptons. I've always had an affinity for the Hamptons.

The public schools in our neighborhood were so bad that the teachers in the school said you shouldn't send your kids here. My mother called around and found a school that was willing to give both me and my brother scholarship money. It's a classic story about black parents wanting more for their kids than they had for themselves.

My firm belief is that people who aspire to public service should have the best advice up front, as they decide whether to run and the people decide whether to support them.

Going back to high school and college, I believed I would be involved in public service. I literally could not conceptualize anything else.

I'm very goal-oriented. I do see myself doing something in public service.

I come from a family in which public service was something to aspire to.

Well I guess the plan was to write poetry and publish books and make a living from writing poetry. That was a pretty ambitious plan I guess.

I didn't say I have to be a writer, but I did say that I needed to publish at least one book.

There are 2,000 young-adult novels published a year, and hardly any of them ever break out.

I was always ambitious - not to make money: to be published.

Well I don't write, I attempt to scribble here and there. And no, nothing ever so grand as being published.

Once I decided to write, to be published, I knew it would happen.

I was directed because I knew I wanted to be a novelist, but I didn't have a very good job or a way of getting published. I found those years to be among the most difficult of my life.

I'd go to a bookstore, and I'd flip through flap copy, and I'd think, 'If this gal can get published, I can get published.'

I've read science fiction my whole life. I never really dreamed that I'd be a published science fiction writer myself, but a short story I started years ago sort of demanded to be turned into a novel.

Dreamers become writers, and for me, being a published writer is a dream come true.

Several elementary school teachers had described me as a 'future authoress or poetess.' Mother took me to meet Chicago's leading black librarian, who published a poem of mine in the magazine she edited for Negro children.

When I wrote my first book, I was too scared to find out how people got books published. I was convinced that you needed some sort of magical potion that I didn't have.

I always grew up with the idea that in order to be a successful writer, I should have a book published.

All I've wanted to do is write. In school I just wanted to be a writer but I was afraid to be a writer because I felt I couldn't. It didn't really feel like my writing was interesting enough, so getting a book published was a huge kick.

Having my novels published is a dream come true.

I'd rather be a cartoonist. I don't want to be a publisher.