John Leonard Quotes

When you say 'failure,' that seems really dramatic, but a lot of failure is just really depressing and mundane. I remember the first time I ever played a concert in Italy. I played a venue that held 900 people, and I think five people showed up. It wasn't a big, 'John Carter of Mars' type failure. It wasn't dramatic; it was just depressing.

There are times when you feel like you give a great effort, you have prepared properly, and you got less than what you wanted. So on the one hand, you should feel really good about that and just let the results be what they are. On the other hand, you can't be happy with it when you finished 19th.

I had the qualifications, but I was not chosen.

There used to be a cruel joke that said Brazil is the country of the future, and always will be; Obama is the Brazil of today's politicians. He has obviously achieved nothing.

I feel like my career has been a series of glowing obituaries.

Your life story would not make a good book. Don't even try.

I feel like everything will be a letdown after 'You're The Worst.' It was such a great experience.

I am miserable when I'm in a movie I'm not proud of and a movie that I don't want to do.

'The Da Vinci Code' was pretty awful. A good idea disappointingly handled.

There are a lot of movies I'd like to throw away. That's not to say that I went in with that attitude. Any film I ever started, I went in with all the hope and best intentions in the world, but some films just don't work.

I never felt like I had made it.

I did '24;' it was terrible. I hated every moment of it.

I tried to bake a cake for my mother's birthday - it took me four hours. It was terrible, and I cried for three days.

The 2001 tour to Australia would have been a great highlight in my career if the Lions had won the series. That might sound strange because it was a great tour in many ways, but, for me, the more time goes by, the less of a career highlight it becomes, and just more of a frustration.

I can't say that I knocked on every door, but the few that I did didn't respond the way I wanted them to, so I think it was kind of disenchanting enough for me to go back to being subterranean.

I used to think that nails-down-a-chalkboard was the worst sound in the world. Then I moved on to people-eating-cereal-on-the-phone. But only this week did I stumble across the rightful winner: it's the sound of a baggage carousel coming to a grinding halt, having reunited every passenger on your flight with their luggage, except for you.

Every now and then you dig a dry hole.

People talk about you won four national championships. Well, I feel like we've had good enough teams to win eight. So I feel like we failed four times. I feel like I failed four times.

I feel like every conversation with my father is like an M. Night Shyamalan movie; 90 minutes of build-up to no payoff.

I've drawn some things that have fallen very flat.

Not being able to end the last game of my college career with a win, it really hurts.

It's tough to say this, but sometimes it's better if you are losing because then you don't expect anything.

My first WPS season was a bust.

In Sochi, I felt like I lost a gold.

Whenever you put so much time and effort into one single game, and you go out there and lose, it sucks.