Jesmyn Ward Quotes

Sometimes when you're putting the work in it just seems so, so hard, and you never know when that work's going to pay off.

I had my years of struggling. Some of my shows failed miserably, and I was upset by it and it dented my confidence. But I never stopped. I kept going for it.

Either you give in, or you fight. That's all I know, being where I'm from. You fight for what you want. You go after what you want. The only thing I could do was give up or keep fighting for what I wanted in life.

Once I failed in cricket, I joined a law course, but when it also did not work out, it was another setback. When you get back-to-back failures, you automatically start to work harder in life.

Necessity does the work of courage.

If you worried about falling off the bike, you'd never get on.

I didn't have big movie offers, or any big agents wanting to work with me. I had to go grassroots, start at the bottom and go on 150 auditions before someone finally gave me a shot.

I just kept on doing what everyone starts out doing. The real question is, why did other people stop?

Too many people let others stand in their way and don't go back for one more try.

The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory.

Good parts should always scare you a little bit, and good parts... you might not get advice to do them.

Effort is only effort when it begins to hurt.

I love getting told no 'cause then I fight even more.

The only things that haven't worked for me are when I've held back. There's no reason to sell an idea short. The only risk would be to not fulfill the dream.

Easy doesn't do it.

I was playing garbage minutes the first two to three weeks. There was definitely a little bit of 'what's going on?' in my prayers.

The only rule I got is if you slide, get up.

If you stop struggling, then you stop life.

When I started out, I struggled, and I was broke a lot. But I'm glad I struggled, and I'm glad I was broke a lot.

I'm not going to take a show unless I'm not sure I can do it. You have to have that sort of adrenaline.

Have a little faith, kick a little dirt.

If you just try long enough and hard enough, you can always manage to boot yourself in the posterior.

I think every part's a challenge, and you also never know if you're going to pull it off.

I'm so grateful for where I am now, but I think I'm more grateful because it's been so hard-won; I haven't given up, and I've had plenty of reasons to give up.

Struggling at anything that you want to be doing is hard.