Isabel Gillies Quotes

I had lots of trouble in school as a child, and I lost confidence. Teachers thought I was stupid. I learned to read very late, when I was 11. Dyslexia wasn't recognized then, and the assumption was you were incapable of thinking.

I'm very learning-disabled, and I think it drove me to what I'm doing.

When I was growing up, I was told I was stupid and that I would never achieve. I suffered from dyslexia, and in those days it wasn't recognised.

There's nothing that special about me. I'm just a hard-working guy, I'm dyslexic, I had to overcome a lot of things like that.

You're thinking to yourself, 'How is it possible that I am going to pay back $150,000 in student loans? I'm never going to pay that back. What am I going to do?' Listen to me and listen to me good, class of 2013. I want you to think back to all of these things you said to yourself, 'I can't do that. I can't palpate a cow. And what's worse, palpating a cow or taking semen from a horse?' But you did it, didn't you?

I grew up thinking that because I couldn't read, I was stupid and would never amount to anything. I worked my way through college as a waitress and thought I wasn't capable of doing anything else. My grades in English were horrible, and I barely got through.

I was afraid the teacher was going to make me read in front of class and I was going to look bad. [But] if I wasn't dyslexic, I probably wouldn't have won the Games. If I had been a better reader, then that would have come easily, sports would have come easily. And I never would have realized that the way you get ahead in life is hard work.

D.C. is a hard city to grow up in. I couldn't find my footing there. Also, I got a late start academically, and I was dyslexic.

I have always survived with comedy, in that I grew up very dyslexic and did not get good grades. I always thought I was dumb, and there are many people out there that would agree

Being very dyslexic I couldn't even tie my own shoe laces until the age of 21 and I struggled at school.

From the beginning of puberty, I did really badly in school. I was super dyslexic; I was in special ed. I had a hard time reading and writing, so I thought that my self worth was in my looks, how I presented myself, and how other people perceived me.

My first couple of years in the league left me very unstable. I had some times where I played well, and I had some times were I really did not get the opportunity. After Rick Pitino gave up on me my first year, people were like, 'He can't play.' So I had to get over that hump.

I have to get three pages done every day, and there's usually a point about 150 pages in where everything falls apart, where all the plans are for naught. The book has become something else, and I have a nervous breakdown, and then I submit to what the book has become, and I keep going, and that's a terrible and then a great time.

I was one of those guys who wasn't supposed to make it in this league.

Growing up, I've had plenty of obstacles, but to be honest, I didn't always have doubters. I was a standout athlete, so when that happens, you don't have too many people telling you 'You can't do this,' and 'You can't do that.' I've always been a bit of a people person and a hard worker.

There's no way in the world any of the guys who have beaten me would have thought I could do what I've done. I just kept persisting with it.

I don't like compliments. No. I prefer criticisms; prefer to prove them wrong

Every time I overcome an obstacle, it feels like success. Sometimes the biggest ones are in our head - the saboteurs that tell us we can't.

Everyone keeps saying I’ll pick it up. But what if I don’t? I did algebra for three years, and I never picked that up.

I never knew that ["Hank Zipzer"] would happen in my life. It is one of the greatest things. It is like a gift from God.

I don't know if I'm the best of the best. But I did know that if I quit, I wouldn't be.

Sometimes I think everyone is just pretending to be brave, and none of us really are. Maybe pretending is how you get brave, I don't know.

My coping mechanism with my dyslexia is to use wit and humor.

It was only in university I was told that I was dyslexic. It kind of gave me the confidence to be able to pursue academia in the way that I always thought I could. I guess that was a bit of battle and just my own kind of negative thoughts about what I can achieve.

Temptations are a file which rub off much of the rust of our self-confidence.