Quotes About Aspiration

I always felt that Jay Z, if he had a different upbringing, could be on Wall Street or in politics. If you really listen to Jay Z talk, he's kind of the smartest guy in the room.

The anger from Occupy Wall Street is coming from this simple fact: America no longer seems to be a place where you can work your way up, from rags to riches, from lower class to middle class to upper class.

I never liked the trucking business. I did not intend to spend time in the trucking business. I was a professional, I wore a suit everyday. I was going into law school, or Wall Street or to get my MBA. That's where my head was at.

I have a pathetic urge at some stage in my life to be able to pull out my wallet and pull out a little card on which it would say, 'Kenneth Branagh, artistic director.'

I'm not pretty. The truth is I didn't think I could be a model at all. I was looking at some of the guys on the walls at Irene Marie and I thought to myself 'Jesus Christ. I can't do this. I don't look anything like these guys'.

President Obama called for a 'we' nation in his Inauguration Address. Art convenes. It is not just inspirational. It is aspirational. It pricks the walls of our compartmentalized minds, opens our hearts and makes us brave. And that's what we need most in our country today.

My father worked in Chrysler's drafting department and used to bring home tracing paper, No. 2 pencils, and masking tape from the office. With these, I used to trace off drawings from the 'Superman' and 'Batman' comics and put them up on my bedroom walls.

Perhaps nobody ever accomplishes all that he feels lies in him to do; but nearly every one who tries his power touches the walls of his being.

I'm trying to climb up both walls at once.

I always looked up there, because I remember a time when the only things on the walls in Fenway were the Jimmy Fund sign and the retired numbers. Never in a million years did you think you'd ever be up there with those guys.

I grew up having all the Dolce & Gabbana campaigns on the walls of my teenage bedroom, and I was dreaming of one day being a model.

As a kid, I was a paperboy, and the walls of the place where we picked up our papers were plastered with pictures of former paperboys - some sports figures, some presidents, some military officers.

I've always envied Thomas Jefferson's bed at Monticello. It's in a tiny alcove, bound by walls at the head and foot.

Christoph Waltz, you know, blew up in Hollywood at a very old age. He won two Oscars back-to-back so I thought, 'You know what? Even if it happens when I'm 50, that's fine.' You know, I'll always keep going, always keep trying.

I'm over being a pop star. I don't wanna be a hot girl. I wanna be iconic. And I feel like I've accomplished a lot. I feel like I'm highly respected, which is more important than any award or any amount of records. And I feel like there comes a point when being a pop star is not enough.

I still wanna rap better than everybody else, and I wanna say important things.

I've always been a good person, but I wanna be, like, the best person.

I wanna be in a movie, I wanna have a clothing line, I wanna put myself in a position where, when I'm dead and gone, or I can't rap anymore, that's still moving. Tupac and Biggie, they've been dead 10-plus years and people talk about them everyday. I'm gonna try to speak everything into existence. I know the music is my key to get there.

Screw being a singer! I wanna be the voice of my generation with my talk show.

As a kid, looking at Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, New Edition, the Temptations, Motown, people who I felt were huge artists, they made me wanna do something.

People ask me, 'Did you always want to be on SNL?' No, actually, it never crossed my mind. It didn't even seem possible. It would've been like saying, 'Hey, do you wanna go to the moon?'

Sometimes you wanna be James Bond, and sometimes you wanna be Marlon Brando until you realize you can't be either!

I wanna do a song with Adele! Nobody gets Adele as a feature, so maybe I can. I hope she knows who I am!

I wasn't like a Hollywood child actor - 'I'm five! I can sing, I can dance, I can act! I wanna be a star!'