Quotes About Persistence

I'm not good at being static. I have to be climbing a mountain.

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.

If you really want a radio station to play your song, go to that radio station every day with that song in your hand and say, 'Please play it.'

I wanted to be the perfect artist. I'd do three hours of media interviews a day, going to every radio station I could squeeze in. I'd sign autographs after the show until everybody left.

The first boss to give me a shot on-air left the station not long after I started reporting. The next boss fired me, and told me I was the worst person he'd ever seen on TV and that I would never make it. That felt like being punched in the gut repeatedly! But I pulled myself together and kept fighting for my dream.

At the end of drama school, I made a contract with myself: I'd try acting for five years. I was 26. I had already spent eight years working in restaurants and gas stations. So I had seen enough small businesses to understand that that's what acting is: a small business.

I handed out flyers in malls, candies in gasoline stations; helped set up tarpaulins in bars. I played bit roles in several indie movies. Looking back, I can say it has definitely been a long journey.

When the first record came out, I'd go down to radio stations pretty much every day to get the record played, and I would walk in and they'd tell us how much they loved the record, but they weren't sure how much they could play it because they were already playing a girl.

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

I don't get bothered about statistics. If somebody had pointed out to me the odds of my being a working actress getting paid for what she does, I probably would have quit early in the game.

I always say if I'm not good at something it's just because I've not had time to focus on it... it's just uncrafted, like a slab of rock that contains the statue of David within it.

99.9% of the time, the people we see worked for it. People like Morgan Freeman and Harry Connick, Jr. work every day to continue the status that they have.

I appear to have had more comebacks than Status Quo.

It's impossible to always move forward, but sometimes even maintaining the status quo is enough.

It's not how fast you get there, but how long you stay.

Keep at it, always be thinking about it, always be developing, always try to grow and learn more - and never stay in one place.

John Gresham Machen

Your decision to be, have and do something out of ordinary entails facing difficulties that are out of the ordinary as well. Sometimes your greatest asset is simply your ability to stay with it longer than anyone else.

I don't give up. I'm a plodder. People come and go, but I stay the course.

A playwright lives in an occupied country. And if you can't live that way you don't stay.

There's always hurdles. So I just keep moving, just constantly redefining myself. That's how you stay in the race.

I love the film route and I'm gong to try my hardest to stay on it.

You either listen to the naysayers and fall into the pit of self-loathing, or you stay on the path and move forward.

For me, the main thing is to continue to work, continue to grind on everything and stay focused.