Nazanin Boniadi Quotes

Shortly after I started working as a doctor, I decided to listen to the voice inside me before it was too late. It was now or never, so I decided to explore acting.

Modelling was never in my plan. Never.

When I was at school, most people were planning on going to university and becoming doctors or lawyers. I wanted to be a singer, and I was laughed at. It was tough, but I never let anything stop me.

I don't have any regrets. When I quit college and moved to Los Angeles to become an actress, it was so that I would not look back and have any regrets.

To do the things that I did, I'm amazed that I had the audacity - like resigning from the Army and becoming a janitor and a songwriter.

My son became my manager, and he said to me, 'Mom, if you could do anything you wanted to do, what would it be?' And out of my mouth immediately came, 'Dancing With the Stars.'

I always believed in the YouTube community and myself. I saw something there. The most difficult thing was others not believing in me. I had a lot of friends in Los Angeles who really thought I was crazy for leaving a steady acting job to start on YouTube.

I've always been a risk taker. When I told my mum I was quitting my job to be a bobsledder, she wasn't surprised.

I could describe my career in two words: who knew. I was on the path to becoming a professional baseball player, but I got injured in college. When I decided to move out to L.A. to try acting, nobody was betting on me, not even my family. But it's always been that way for me; nothing has come easy.

But sometimes I think you have to try to do things that people don't think are doable.

I became a writer in spite of my environments.

It is horrible to say, but I was stigmatized by being a bridal designer for a long time. I am amazed I have been able to move beyond it. I had really all but given up trying, but I did it because it was my lifelong dream.

I moved to cricket at a time when I was at the peak of my career, and I can guarantee you that no one else from Bollywood would have done that.

In America nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you.

We can each define ambition and progress for ourselves. The goal is to work toward a world where expectations are not set by the stereotypes that hold us back, but by our personal passion, talents and interests.

Acting is something that I always wanted, but I never paid attention to the notion that it might actually work out. You have all sorts of ideas about what you want to do - at one stage, I wanted to be a jockey - but this is the one that's a big deal.

I came to acting quite late. I tried not to be an actor.

From Italy, I'd get calls from cousins and aunts saying, 'I don't think you should act. It's really tough. What are the chances?' This was around the time 'Flashdance' came out, and I was like, 'What about your dreams? I'm a maniac.'

I always wanted to do something completely different.

As far as everyone else's opinion, I mean, if I would have thought that everyone was right, I probably wouldn't have left Compton, so I don't get too caught up on what the next person thinks.

I think, as a kid, whenever you say you want to be an actor, you get discouraged, so perhaps if I had have listened to those people telling me that, I might have gone down the route of a teacher. But I was never really going to do that.

I have learned that you can do anything you want to. They used to ask me if I thought the first lady ought to be paid. If you get paid, then I have to do what first lady is supposed to do. But you can do anything you want to, and it's such a great soap box.

I am not merely a baseball player. I am a black man who has done what he wants, gotten what he wanted, and will continue to get it.

The truth is, I should have never done teaching. I did teaching because I didn't have the bottle to have a go at comedy. Whether there's any gain to comedy is not for me to say. But certainly it was no loss to teaching.

In 2006, I made the decision to go after my dream. I was living in Atlanta and had a promising career in marketing, but I took a leap of faith and decided to move to New York, enroll in graduate school, and pursue acting.