Lance Henriksen Quotes

I was rejected by casting directors during the day. I attended class in the evening, then rode 90 miles on the train home.

This whole thing about winning and losing is muddy waters. But I can remember, as a young actor, just walking around this city and not being able to get arrested.

For my first role, I had to audition five times. I've gotten a lot of no's and rejections. But I just had to keep working hard. I took classes; I worked on my craft and continued to work with an acting coach and just didn't give up on myself.

I turned to my mom and said, 'I'm going to be a martial arts movie star.' She didn't believe me, and neither did my dad. They both thought I would grow out of it. That it was a phase. I decided then I was going to do it or die trying.

Everyone has egos, and you want to come out on top. You have to pick yourself up and go at it again.

One of the most difficult things everyone has to learn is that for your entire life you must keep fighting and adjusting if you hope to survive. No matter who you are or what your position is you must keep fighting for whatever it is you desire to achieve.

I remember how my mom would take me on the subway from Queens to Broadway. We'd go to the offices of casting agents. Many doors were slammed in our faces. I was just a boy, but I remember that well.

I've been the teenage success, I've been homeless and driving around in my car and not knowing where to eat. You just want to keep working and learning, and I was doing that. If I hadn't done 'Wild Bill,' I'm sure I would have acted in something else.

When I got out of high school, I wanted to be an actor but was getting a lot of rejections. I was getting rejected by life. My mother, God rest her soul, told me not to quit.

Some people are born with very little; some are fortunate enough to have it all. When I grew up, we didn't have much. I had to hustle to get what I wanted... but I had that hunger for more. I didn't always make the right choices, but I learned from my mistakes.

I moved from Cleveland to L.A. with a girlfriend, we broke up, and I lived out of my car for a year and a half, on the road with nothing on my mind but getting my act good enough to be on 'The Tonight Show.'

Everyone who turns up on 'X Factor' does it because a door has been closed to them at some time in their lives, and this is the only shot they have got.

I knew I wanted to act, and I was really driven, so I kept going for it. We moved to L.A. full-time when I was 8 or 9.

You go up for hundreds, thousands of roles, and you get told no, no, no, so many times.

Years ago I met Richard Burton in Port Talbot, my home town, and afterwards he passed in his car with his wife, and I thought, 'I want to get out and become like him'. Not because of Wales, because I love Wales, but because I was so limited as a child at school and so bereft and lonely, and I thought becoming an actor would do that.

There's that talent thing where I can score goals, and there's also that want and ambition to keep doing it and doing it and doing it. I've seen a lot of players do it for a year and then they rest on their laurels, but I've been very driven throughout my career. Without being the most talented, I think I've tried to make the most of it.

The hardest struggle of all is to be something different from what the average man is. I don't believe in 'super-men,' for the world is full of capable men, but it's the fellow with determination that wins out.

I lived below the poverty line when I was young and starting out as a writer. But my wife and I kept trying to do things better, as anyone with ambition does. But just because you're trying doesn't mean you're always going to succeed.

If a small-town boy like me who bagged groceries was able to make his dreams come true, you can too.

I'm going to go out and attack it and get better every day. That's the same approach I've had since I was just a little kid.

I come from zero and I've had to push myself up to where I am today. I'm not going to give up and I'm going to keep pushing.

I have to keep proving myself, and that's what I am willing to do.

I said I wanted to be the best in the world. I thought if I could make it, I would be able to change my future, to change my destiny. I would push myself to the limits. I would do 70 laps and barely eat.

My journey in Bollywood has been quite filmy, as it includes sleeping on railway platforms to teaching dance for a living. The journey has taught me a lot, and I am very grateful that all that happened with me. It helped me in becoming a more stronger man.

It was really, really heartbreaking to not be named to the team in Sochi, but some things are just not meant to be. That experience changed me as a skater. I took a step back and decided that some things are not worth accepting. I wanted to be on another Olympic team. I took time to evolve myself as a person and as a skater.