Quotes About Persistence

If you lose three or four in a row, people start talking about retirement. They are not used to this sport like they are used to tennis. If you take a look at how many times Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer lost, it's all part of the game. Soccer is no different: teams go through bad times and then rise again.

I make movies the same way other kids play tennis or go to piano lessons. I'm trying to get better at what I want to do, just like other kids are trying to get better at what they want to do.

With tennis, no one's going to give it to you. You have to be determined.

I did everything - swimming, dancing, and badminton as well as tennis. It was always tennis that I really loved, though.

I learnt tennis, swimming, basketball and several others, but the sport I loved the most was golf.

I'm glad that I can play the tennis that I always wish to play.

When we introduced 10-and-under tennis - when we shortened the courts and had smaller rackets and low-compression balls for trying to introduce the sport to youth - a lot of people said we weren't going to succeed.

I was all for basketball, and I made the decision to play tennis.

I did a really good job of sticking to the tennis court.

My reality was that I would become a tennis player. I never had any doubt about it. It was my life.

When his football and baseball careers ended, my dad became an accomplished marbles player. Then dad got really good at pitching horseshoes. And to show you how athletic our bloodlines really were, my mom was a wonderful tennis player.

The reality of our business is that for every actor who's rolled up his tent and given up and gone home, the next day you hear about some shoe salesman at Macy's who had this audition and now he's Harrison Ford. There's always that carrot out there in our business.

I'm one of those actors who likes to do it wrong nine ways before I come to the tenth way, which is the way I think it should be.

I didn't want to become a professor or get tenure or teach or anything. All I wanted to do was get a degree because Louis Leakey said I needed one, which was right, and once I succeeded I could get back to the field.

We use the term 'fight' very lightly - 'I've been fighting so hard to get my car, I've been fighting so hard to get that job, I've been fighting so hard to get that girl.' But the reality is boxers do fight bitterly to get whatever they want or whatever they need in life, and most of them come from nothing, which is the case of Roberto Duran.

I try to send out a good message - I sometimes get asked for advice for leaving home and trying to 'make it' overseas. I would always say think long term, and think bigger picture: make the sacrifice.

I still audition a lot and work really hard to get work. So I don't really walk around feeling like I've made it. My short term goals are really just to be creatively stimulated and to be excited about material I might be working on.

I believe in lifestyle changes, and when you think of something long term, you do it better. If I know I just have to eat this way for a week, how does that help you for the long term? It doesn't.

You have to build businesses for longer term.

I've had many failures in terms of technological... business... and even research failures. I really believe that entrepreneurship is about being able to face failure, manage failure and succeed after failing.

For a long time, I've had a recurring dream - I dream I don't have to write any more, that I'm free. I'm not free, alas; I'm still clearing the same terrain, with the impression that it's never finished.

It's strange: I always try to do the best acting job I can do under the imaginary circumstances of my working position at any given time. But it's terrible when you know it's going bad, and you know it immediately. But you just have to still try to do the best job you can.

It was a terrible blow that was dealt when I was fired from 'Saturday Night Live', but I have to say that a few doors opened right away. Movie roles started to roll in, and pretty soon, I was over it.

Choose something you like to do. I know it's a cliche, and you've heard it over and over. But the reason is, you're going to have to work long and hard to achieve any success. You better like it or life is going to be terrible.