Quotes About Persistence

I never gave up on 'Archie.' I started picking up 'Archie' comics when I was in my thirties, and then I started subscribing to them.

Running doesn't come easy to me, especially the first thirty or so minutes. My message is take it one step at a time.

When I was 26, I wrote my first mystery, 'The Thomas Berryman Number', and it was turned down by, I don't know, 31 publishers. Then it won an Edgar for Best First Novel. Go figure.

What we call creative work, ought not to be called work at all, because it isn't. I imagine that Thomas Edison never did a day's work in his last fifty years.

Having done something like The Thorn Birds gives you enormous longevity. You can keep picking and choosing the roles for a bit longer.

You can't win the Kentucky Derby unless you're on a thoroughbred.

That's the easiest thing to do, is quit and give up when things are hard. You really see what you're made of when those things are not going the way you want them to go.

Those who are blessed with the most talent don't necessarily outperform everyone else. It's the people with follow-through who excel.

One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent.

The grace thou hast will soon be less, if thou addest not more to it.

I take leave of Prome and her towering god, Shwa Lan-dau, at whose base I have been laboring with the kindest intentions for the last three months and a half. Too firmly founded art thou to be overthrown at present; but the children of those who now plaster thee with gold will yet pull thee down, nor leave one brick upon another.

When facing a difficult task, act as though it is impossible to fail. If you are going after Moby Dick, take along the tartar sauce.

Nothing good ever happens by itself - it is achieved through striving, though this sometimes bears a high price.

To learn to do backflips and front flips, you had to fall and bump your head a couple times. I've been doing them since I was a little one, though. Just something I've enjoyed doing, just flip.

I love to learn new things, even though I might not master it. That takes a lot of time.

I live with very serious headaches, even though I am on daily medication.

The height of my goals will not hold me in awe, though I may stumble often before they are reached.

Even though it feels like you are so far away from the big leagues, my love for the game kept me motivated to get through the hard times in the minors.

The paradox of perfection is that you should try and achieve it by doing quality work even though you know you can never achieve it.

Even though I get older, what I do never gets old, and that's what I think keeps me hungry.

I don't enjoy anything while I'm doing it. I enjoy having done things, though.

No one I knew in Sydney was thinking about how they might come to America and become a movie star. That would be considered delusions of grandeur. My parents were supportive, though. They just told me to keep at it as long as I was having fun.

I never cut class. I loved getting A's, I liked being smart. I liked being on time. I thought being smart is cooler than anything in the world.

You can lay in bed and think you don't stand a chance, that's what all of us thought, and here we are. We ended up doing all right.