Quotes About Persistence

Whenever I sang, I said to myself, 'Maybe tonight.' I would never let down, no matter how few people were listening.

Mary Hart says she meant to stay on 'Entertainment Tonight' for three years. She was on for 29.

Yeah, I had a talk show canceled. Okay, let's go back to the list of people who had talk shows canceled. Johnny Carson had his first talk show canceled. Jon Stewart. Letterman. Conan O'Brien, if you look at 'The Tonight Show' as a show that got canceled.

You know, I never knew if I had any talent when I started in this business. My first job was being a page at The Tonight Show. I saw Jack Paar come out one night and sit on the edge of his desk and talk about what he'd done the night before. I thought, 'I can do that!' I used to do that on a street corner in the Bronx with all my buddies.

I moved from Cleveland to L.A. with a girlfriend, we broke up, and I lived out of my car for a year and a half, on the road with nothing on my mind but getting my act good enough to be on 'The Tonight Show.'

It used to be if you wanted to be a comedian, you used to just do sets. You'd go up three times a night, just get better, and then some people would see you and you'd do 'The Tonight Show,' and then boom, you're a comedian.

I've paid my dues. It wasn't overnight success. I went to tons of casting calls and auditions... But I've got to give luck some credit.

There are tons of great names who have gotten fourth at their first Olympics, and they just kept with it for the next quad. I'm among good company.

There's tons of creative people in television that have one failure after another, and they just step up higher. I could never get over that. When I had a failure, there was no such thing as just getting over it.

Even though it seems like there are a lot of parts, there is really tons of downtime in the acting world.

I was never specifically associated with a part, I didn't have tons of money, I wasn't conventionally tall or handsome, so you know the things that were available to me were hard work and perseverance.

I drink tons of water. It always sounds like the lamest thing, but there's a reason you keep hearing this over and over again. It really works.

I made tons of films. I did animation for my friends' films. I animated scenes just for the fun of it. Most of my stuff was bad, but I had fun, and I tried everything I knew to get better.

I know a lot of really good actors - tons, just tons - who I still don't know why they don't work all the time because they're that good. It's just a weird business, and I know a lot of actors who shouldn't be working, but they work all the time.

I sent in tons of submissions and proposals, and I collected my share of form rejection letters. Eventually, I found myself working at a comic book shop, where I met my future collaborator Brian Hurtt.

Besides acting, I have tons of plans but there is time for it.

You can call me 'Tons of Lard' for all I care, as long as I get to work.

I want to know everything there is to know about Lewis and Clark. And I want to do the Sunday crossword in less than an hour. I want to be the best dad in the world. I want to play Richard II, and I want to win another Tony award.

While my friends were outside practising to be Tony Hawk or Michael Jordan, I was inside playing Mozart, increasingly disillusioned and bored.

I love to keep doing the voice, and I'll do it as long as I'm able and as long as Tony sells cereal.

I had my sights set on Tony Ferguson for a long time.

It's always too early to quit.

Baby steps count, too, as long as you're moving forward.

If you're going to have to swallow a frog, you don't want to have to look at that sucker too long!