Quotes About Persistence

People only look at you and say, 'You are black and you are from the banlieue,' and all the doors are closed. I had the desire to be something else. If I see a door that is a little open, I will find a way to get through.

You had to knock the doors of the great directors and producers; of course I needed the work and was desperate for work. I remember one of the producers saying, we have R.D. Burman, we have Laxmikant-Pyarelal, we've got Kalyanji-Anandji with us, why should we take you?'

My backpack is signed by three members of The Doors. I did a song with Robby Kreiger, John Desmore, and Ray Manzarek. I made my dream come true.

If the doors are going to close on me, it's a little late.

What I always liked best about myself was my resilience, especially in this business with all the 'no's,' the doors closed in my face.

When I was a young actor, in my first apartment, the first thing I bought was a Steinway piano. There was no bed at first. I slept on the floor.

The first thing I wanted to be was an actor, even before I wanted to be a singer, before I discovered I could sing.

Well, the first thing I wanted to be was a carpenter. Then I wanted to be a painter and then a singer. It was when I first saw 'Lawrence of Arabia' that I wanted to be an actor.

When I said I no longer wanted to be a painter, that I wanted to be an actor, the first thing I did was get a stinking job in an insurance building.

I was constantly, always and forever, trying to perform the musical 'Annie' for anyone who would listen, and I have a terrible singing voice. It was the first thing that made me think I wanted to be an actress.

What does an entrepreneur do? The first thing is they've given themselves permission to see a problem. Most people don't want to see problems... Once you see a problem and you keep looking at it, you'll find an answer.

When I first decided I wanted to make beats and write songs and stuff like that, it wasn't like I sat down and the first thing I wrote was even halfway legit. It took a while to find my way through it.

Martial arts was really the first thing in my life that I followed through on and accomplished a degree of proficiency for.

Music is the first thing I didn't give up.

Wrestling was always the first thing I ever wanted to do.

Eating is the hard part. It's constant - you don't ever stop from the time you wake up you eat until you go to bed. Then I wake up in the morning and the first thing I do is eat and do it all day again.

Little did I know that earning a living at stand-up is the hardest thing you can do. But once I started doing it, I just loved it, and I realized that I was actually kinda good at it, and then that was it.

The hardest thing for me about making movies, and that included 'M*A*S*H' because it was made like a movie, was starting and stopping.

The hardest thing about this industry is not working.

The hardest thing in my industry is longevity, getting your next job. It's hard to get the first job, but it's so much harder to get the sixth or seventh as a woman.

The hardest thing on 'Palo Alto' was letting go because I kept working on it, trying to make it better.

I want to protect my vision, and that's the hardest thing.

It's the hardest thing in the world to dedicate to writing, but if you do that even once a week, after six months or a year you'll have something substantial.

The hardest thing to do is to fail and keep pushing at the same time.