Quotes About Effort

I had never had a childhood that was anything but a miserable effort at trying to be an adult," Picasso said.

I was not a natural. . . . This is the story of becoming . . . the Hard Way.

It's so funny looking back, but my so-called overnight success actually took 15 years. I remember when I didn't have any money, and my only car was mom's Hyundai.

And yet, what else could he do but try the next

You do the foot work, and leave the results up to God.

Short of baseball and my family, it was gaming. And gaming is a $20-million to $200-million multi-year effort. It's an insane, stupid and utterly irresponsible act. But I did it.

Looking at the poster, I thought, Maybe we can't solve every big problem, but we can try to solve the ones we can.

all work is worth doing well. And there are things to be enjoyed about most jobs...

Never will I make that extra effort to live according to reality which alone makes good writing possible: hence the manic-depressiveness of my style,—which is either bright, cruel and superficial; or pessimistic; moth-eaten with self-pity

Professional Ketman is reasoned thus: since I find myself in circumstances over which I have no control, and since I have but one life and that is fleeting, I should strive to do my best. I am like a crustacean attached to a crag on the bottom of the sea. Over me storms rage and huge ships sail; but my entire effort is concentrated upon clinging to the rock, for otherwise I will be carried off by the waters and perish, leaving no trace behind.

Literature is a toil and a snare, a curse that bites deep.

God knows I tried my best to learn the ways of this world, even had inklings we could be glorious; but after all that's happened, the inkles ain't easy anymore. I mean - what kind of fucken life is this?

I had been watching the porters and it had looked easy; they swung the crates as if they were full of feathers, but I discovered that the crates were very heavy indeed, it took me all my time to lift them. I was soft, of course, for I had had very little exercise all the winter and I was unskilled into the bargain. The porters were amused at my attempts to help them but they were quite decent about it; probably they thought I was doing it for a joke.

If you work hard doing the wrong job, is it really work? Or is it some kind of fakery?

Good stuff doesn't just happen. You have to fight for it.

Then what have you proved?" I asked. "Only that people will always try to make a better life for themselves.

flusher handle and all he managed to do was fall back and flush the stupid toilet.

My first restoration was on 'Napoleon,' trying to put the French version in with the English version, and it was most unsatisfactory.

The existence of another, competing translation is a good thing, in general, and only immediately discouraging to one person - the translator who, after one, two, or three years of more or less careful work, sees another, and perhaps superior, version appear as if overnight.

If you botch a handoff or stutter step in a relay, then your team has to make up that lost time. It's always you versus the clock.

'The A-Team' compared to making 'Narc' was a breeze. There's a whole other skill set and whole other kind of bone structure that goes into making a movie like 'Narc' versus 'The A-Team.'

If you put out 20 films, you hope that a number are successful. It's like human reproduction versus frog reproduction. Frogs produce thousands and hope a few succeed. Humans don't produce many babies but put a lot of energy into them, which is kind of where we are. They still don't always succeed, but you try a lot harder.

Listen... it's one versus 38. You win 10% of the time, you're a Hall of Famer.

We get so enamored by speed, size, vertical jumps, and all these other measurables and tangibles. But what makes a great football player isn't size or speed. Great football players know how to play the game, and they push harder than guys twice their size.