Jamal Murray Quotes

Yonkers made me strong and made me believe in myself, because so many people would doubt you and not believe. There are people that would believe in you, but the environment was so harsh, nobody wanted you to get out, you know?

I was always told that I was too small, too skinny, too slow, not tough enough, and I never ever believed what people told me.

I've had a very unusual background in science - not the usual route of planning on being a scientist from age 3. I think my story shows that success is more about personal motivation and determination than it is about where you were born or what your economic status was.

I tell people to look at me and understand that everybody first told me that I couldn't be a 6-foot, 9-inch point guard, and I proved them wrong. Then they told me I couldn't be a businessman and make money in urban America, and I proved them wrong. And they thought I couldn't win all these championships, and I proved them wrong there as well.

I remember when I was in college, people told me I couldn't play in the NBA. There's always somebody saying you can't do it, and those people have to be ignored.

Being 5' 10, I was supposed to be too short to play college volleyball. So that gave me the hunger and the fire to say, Oh yeah? I'd just hit the crap out of the ball.

I've always been an underdog. I feel like I beat the odds.

When I graduated from Parsons School of Design, the dean at that time said I would never be a designer. Obviously I didn't listen.

People told me it was impossible to beat the Americans at their own game; there was a lot of politics involved and outsiders didn't stand a chance. But if you're good enough, nothing else matters - I'm living proof of it!

I like being the underdog. I like turning around and shutting people up when they tell me I can't.

I feel like I've been proving people wrong all my life.

When they say you can't, show them you can.

We had so many obstacles. We had a lot of sexism and misogyny, there's a lot of things that were against us. But we've just pushed forward and we showed everybody.

I'm going to keep proving people wrong because I have a lot of people to prove wrong, a lot of doubters.

You always feel like you've got something to prove, whether it be to yourself or somebody else. I can think of plenty of people along the way telling me I'll be nothing, working at McDonald's, doing things like that. The whole time, you're just trying to prove them wrong.

I have been tested. I have beaten breast cancer. I have buried a child. I started as a secretary. I fought my way to the top of corporate America while being called every B word in the book. I fought my way into this election and on to this debate stage while all the political insiders and the pundits told, "it couldn't be done."

No one thought I would be successful. Everyone thought I would fail. You have no idea how much courage it took for me to do this.

I try and tell all the kids that I meet that hope to be amazing one day and be a professional athlete or a doctor or a lawyer or whatever they want to be. I tell them they can do all that because Tourette's won't stop them.

Work hard for what you want because it won't come to you without a fight. You have to be strong and courageous and know that you can do anything you put your mind to. If somebody puts you down or criticizes you, just keep on believing in yourself and turn it into something positive.

Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.

There aren't many hits like 'Kinky Boots,' so when you get one, the gratitude that comes with it fuels your energy. From the time I started in this business, everybody told me that who I was and what I represented would never work. Well, I get to stand on stage every day and prove the naysayers wrong by doing exactly what they told me not to do.

When I was young, a lot of things were closed off to me. I was always told, 'Don't do this, you can't do that' - instead of stopping me, it made me think, 'I can do that, I must do that.'

I knew what I was getting into when I chose golf. Hell, I knew I'd never get rich and famous. All the discrimination, the not being able to play where I deserved and wanted to play - in the end, I didn't give a damn. I was made for a tough life because I'm a tough man. And in the end, I won: I got a lot of black people playing golf.

My dad told me that no one could ever make it as a writer, that my chances were equivalent to winning the lottery - which was good for me, because I like to have something to prove.

I had very supportive parents that made the way for me, even at a time when there were very few women - no women, really; maybe two or three women - and very few, fewer than that, African-American women heading in this direction, so there were very few people to look up to. You just had to have faith.