Quotes About Inspiration

As a little boy of 3 or 4, I became lame. Something was wrong with my right leg. There are pictures of me being pulled around in a little wagon. The doctors didn't know what to do. So my nanny took me to the miraculous Madonna at Sacro Monte in Varese, the priest blessed me, and I walked.

I realized that my grandfather walked with Martin Luther King forty years ago. That was his dream. And in his little way, he helped us get closer to where we are today.

I first became aware of the delights of the natural world when my father, an entomologist, presented me with what looked like a twig. When it got up and walked, my delight was such that I wrote a poem, 'To a Walking Stick.'

I walked into a demo session one time, and a guy said, 'I'm thinking kind of like a Trace Adkins thing.' And I looked him right in the eye and said, 'Man, you've got the wrong guy. I'm gonna have to fire myself. You've got to hire somebody else.'

When I was 12, my dad took me to see 'You Got Served.' I walked out a whole different person.

For 'The Journal of Finn Reardon,' I traveled to New York City and walked the streets where Finn and his friends would have lived, worked, and played. I visited the Tenement Museum on Orchard Street and toured an actual flat in which families like Finn's might have lived.

I always thought I was going to be a great poet, and go and live in New York, where the great poets lived - you know, where Whitman had walked the streets.

Living in New York City is one constant, ongoing literary pilgrimage. For 20 years, I lived among the ghosts of great writers and walked where they had walked.

There's a staircase on the first floor of the Capitol that I walk every day. It's made of marble, and as you walk those steps, you think of those who've walked before you. You think of the challenges that the country's faced.

My father led by example. He wasn't much of a talker - he walked life.

Children are primed to take in something of more moral value than they're getting. I know I'm blowing my own horn here, but 'E.T.' had value to it in terms of the feeling about yourself that you walked away with.

When I went back to my old high school, all these kids looking at me like I'm the real big homie, the same way I look at Jay Z, Nas, or Dr. Dre. You would've thought Michael Jackson walked through that joint off the excitement that they had.

I know when the Berlin wall went down and I walked into what was East Berlin and saw two big Nike banners - that gave me a chill.

Much before I entered films, my dad walked into my room and saw me busy drawing something at 3 A.M. He stood there for some time and said, 'Whatever career choice you make, you are going to be successful.' I'll never forget those words. It gave me the confidence to be who I am today.

None of the kids in the neighborhood had dogs. My dad walked in that Labrador, and we started running together and rolling around together like we found each other after years apart. And then, suddenly, some of the other people in the neighborhood started getting dogs, too.

When Barack Obama got elected, I remember being in Harlem specifically. I remember watching that whole part of town just swell. People walked the streets, but it wasn't a riot - it wasn't mayhem. It was a unified feeling of euphoria.

I was inspired by the men who walked on the moon. It really was my inspiration, I think, you know, as a kid of 9 years old - I know I'm dating myself, but - I thought, 'What a cool job!'

I got to sing for Julie Andrews when I was a senior in college. I was singing some of her songs for an audition and wasn't expecting her to be there, so when I walked in, I barely avoided peeing myself.

My career says that my doors will always be open for all. When an Anupam Kher walked in through my door at 28 and got 'Saaransh,' it launched his unimaginably productive career.

It's two guys in particular. Norman Smiley, he got his hands on me the day I walked in the door - started teaching me the fundamentals and teaching me things that I use - but Billy Gunn, that guy has helped me evolve more than anyone.

I mean, my dad, is really the biggest leadership influence in my life and I believe Jesus was the greatest leaders that ever lived and I think He had the most impact on humanity of anybody who ever walked the planet.

I still remember the moment when my teacher, Mr. Budaza, walked into class and said, 'Today we are going to study 'Julius Caesar,' one of Shakespeare's most important plays.'

It's great because growing up, especially being a Raiders fan and then playing with Marcus, I was like, 'Holy smokes, that's Marcus Allen' when I first walked in and saw him.

In many ways, my life has begun before I was born. It began in the moment my mother Malka walked out of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.