Joe R. Lansdale Quotes

I train like I never had nothing 'cause I ain't never had nothing.

Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.

My advice: Don't quit. When I got to New York City, I lived so far below the poverty line, because I didn't give in and get a job at 7-Eleven. I think you can thrive in misery.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

Great things come out of being hungry and cold. Once you're pampered, you get lazy.

I experienced firsthand what it means to be poor, what it means to go hungry, and that, I think, may be the reason, the root cause of why I'm able to work so hard, even these days.

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.

A lot of times when people become successful, people don't really understand what they had to do or the sacrifices they made to do that, or they assume that they had money. This is coming from, like, a kid who was broke and lived with roaches and a single mom in Dorchester.

I like struggle.

Philly gave me my ambition and drive to get more. It's a reminder to stay on top of my game. That's not a place I want to go back to.

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

I grew up in this poor place, with very limited circumstances, at about 16 years of age was sent by my family to work, and instead of remaining in the position into which I was sent, I somehow worked my way out of it without any help from anyone, just luck.

There is no success without hardship.

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.

If there's no fire, there's no scream. If there's no scream, then no one hears you and no one comes to help you in the first place. The depth of my struggle has definitely determined the height of my success. To be able to teach my kids not just about success but about the struggle that comes with it.

I grew up below the poverty line; I didn't have as much as other people did. I think it made me stronger as a person, it built my character. Now I have a 4.0 grade point average and I want to go to college, and just become a better person.

When I was struggling to get recognition as a wrestler, I faced innumerable hardships. I even slept on the ring itself after finishing my practice. Those days, I did not have a house to live.

Despite growing up in very poor circumstances, my father had big dreams.

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 feel like, sometimes, when things are just handed to people, in a way, right away, you don't get a sense of what the rejection and the struggle is like that comes along with life.

A successful man is built of 1,000 failures.

I've been working really hard in this business for a very long time and I've had my share of ups and downs - and to be honest, most of them have been downs. It's a motivation point.

We had nothing, no money, when I was young. We lived in a council house. My dad struggled; my mum struggled. But that made me what I am. If I had everything on a plate from the start, maybe I would not have been a champion for 11 years.

I dropped out of school; I got fired from my job. Those were my roughest moments, but I always knew through it that I was going to be great.

If you can make it in Rockford, you can make it anywhere.