Stephen Lang Quotes

Right before I got 'Sons of Anarchy,' I actually quit acting for 18 months and didn't read a single script, and I wrote a film. I felt like I needed to do something that I had control over, as an artist, and also just do something where I felt like I had some control over my life, as just a human, out in the world.

It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project.

In the end, I want to be able to say, 'My life was what I made it.'

I came to filmmaking as an actor looking for great characters and great opportunities, both of which are kind of hard to come by. It turns out I really love the process. And, it's exciting to be able to take my career by the reigns and make things happen for myself. Hopefully, in doing so, more opportunities will become available to me.

I should have been trying to build a career, rather than leaving it in the hands of somebody else.

My life and career is my own adventure.

The idea that you have to pursue greatness... it's up to you; it's your life.

There's something magical about putting yourself into life. You've got to stand up and take responsibility for your own life and you cannot abandon that.

No one will improve your lot if you do not yourself.

I take full responsibility for my life and my career.

This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it.

Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.

We're the only ones who can change our reality.

Take responsibility for making your own life beautiful.

If you take the responsibility for your life, you can start changing it.

Your life is your own, to develop or to destroy. You can blame others little and yourself almost totally if that life is not a productive, worthy, full, and abundant one.

I was blessed with a sense of my own destiny. I have never sold myself short. I have never judged myself by other people's standards. I have always expected a great deal of myself, and if I fail, I fail myself. So failure or reversal does not bring out resentment in me because I cannot blame others for any misfortune that befalls me.

What a man has made himself he will be; his state is the result of his past life, and his heaven or hell is in himself.

All of the things that have happened in my life have been self-propelled. I can't blame anybody else or point a finger at anybody.

At this point in my life, I'm not going to spend a lot of time focusing on dissatisfaction with who I am, and I'm not going to spend a lot of time tempering my personality. Whatever job I have next, I'm going to be somebody who wants to get things done.

You've got to stand up and do your own battles. My daddy taught me that a long time ago, that you fight your own battles. The only way to shut everybody up is to win.

I decided long ago never to walk in anyone's shadow; if I fail, or if I succeed at least I did as I believe.

People don't realize how much control they do have. The more you can show them this control, the easier it is to tap back into the creative side of the brain that allows people to see possibilities and options.

So, if you're doing good longform with talented people than you can step out and you can be the president or a construction worker and people accept that. It's really the roles you give yourself.

I believe God is real, but I believe God calls me beyond myself to take responsibility for my life and to try top work to allow other people to be themselves and to take responsibility for their lives.