Quotes About Motivation

People don't like to follow pessimists.

My pet hate is being beaten by a team who works harder than you do.

My best time to write is right after coffee and breakfast - four eggs - because, full disclosure, I'm really a komodo dragon - and that's because then I'm energized but not so awake that the critical voice clicks on, the voice that sometimes says, 'Don't write that,' or, 'Man, that sentence is terrible - you should give up and go pet the cats.'

The boost in confidence that kept me going in those early days when I was at Newcastle came from Peter Beardsley.

In fact, I had the idea because of Peter Falk. I saw my dad watching a Peter Falk movie and something clicked in my head. I gotta go make a movie for Peter Falk and me.

You hear entertainers all the time, saying, 'If I couldn't get paid for this, I'd do it for free.' When's the last time you ever heard a business person say, 'If I couldn't get paid for being chairman of British Petroleum, I'd do it for free'?

'Weedflower' was already in the copyediting phase when I heard about the Newbery award, so it didn't really influence my writing of that book, but since then, I have become more aware of having an audience.

I'm in a 'I can do whatever' phase. I'm taking this '106 & Park' opportunity into full force. I'm really focused on doing my best with it. This is my 'Fresh Prince' moment. I want to be the black Ryan Seacrest of film, TV, and more.

I definitely go through phases with fitness.

My dad was phenomenal. Born in Mexico, lived poor, didn't graduate from college, and becomes head of a car company and then governor of a state. I can't imagine I would have ever thought about running for office had I not seen my dad do it.

Daniel Bryan had the 'Yes' Movement. That was phenomenal.

I think what The Rock has been able to accomplish has been amazing. He has just done a phenomenal job in all of the movies he has been in.

In fact, when I began selling 'Phenomenal Woman' T-shirts on International Women's Day last year, the campaign was supposed to run just through March, for Women's History Month. At the time, I hoped to sell around 500, maybe 1,000 T-shirts in total. We ended up selling 2,500 T-shirts on the first day alone.

I think 'Shoe Dog' by Phil Knight is the best memoir I've ever read by a business person.

Ava DuVernay is my personal Phil Jackson. She's a perfect coach.

Phil Jackson was a brilliant basketball coach, not just because of the offense that he employed, but it was so many other things that went into it.

Phil Jackson is a mastermind, and he knows how to keep his team from being complacent.

You can talk about Phil Jackson for years when he was with the Lakers and the Bulls, I used to read a lot of his stuff.

I wasn't going off to New York to be more famous than my father, but in retrospect, that certainly was driving me. He was famous in Philadelphia, but it was also really important to him to be famous. And to a certain extent, I got some of that, even though there were parts of it that horrified me.

I do play with a chip on my shoulder. That's who I am. That's how Philadelphia basketball players are raised.

Anybody doing philanthropy has to find something that appeals to them from their own personal background or from intellectual curiosity.

My focus is to grow, have fun, and work with people who inspire me, like Philip Seymour Hoffman.

My being in America and being adopted from the Philippines have given me motivation and drive as an artist.

I will not settle to become No. 2. Ever since I was a child, even before coming here to the Philippines, I've always believed in doing my best.