Jim Gaffigan Quotes

Dynasty was the opportunity to take charge of my career rather than waiting around like a library book waiting to be loaned out.

You can't lay back and wait for somebody else to do it. And I think if the president's made a mistake here, it's this laid-back kind of approach where he's waiting for someone else to solve the problem.

Whether that's speaking up in your job or asking for a promotion or saying, 'I think I can do that.' Using your voice in ways that might initially scare you. That can be being an architect of change.

It was only when I started to dig my heels in that I started to realize that's what I needed to do - that nobody was going to open the door for me, that I had to make some space.

I think I've always been waiting for things to happen.

I am no advocate of passivity.

I've been the person who hides behind people and lets everyone else do their thing, and I've been content there.

People are either driven to action or complacency, mission or rust. You're either participating in the Game of Life or you're watching it from the grandstands.

I stood up for myself as I always have done. Nobody has ever told Coco Chanel what to think.

Too many people get credit for being good, when they are only being passive.

Men will treat you the way you let them. There is no such thing as 'deserving' respect; you get what you demand from people.

[On how she goes about trying to live authentically] Well really listening to my point of view and if I am on a set, say, that doesn't really value a woman's point of view, regardless of how they feel, continuing to give my point of view and try to find a way to be heard and not diminishing myself because other people are diminishing me. Because that, I think, is the worst temptation that, you know, you judge yourself by how others are judging you, and to fall into that trap is to walk into the realm of self-annihilation.

I should have had more faith in my talent. I think I would have gotten to achieve more, earlier, had I believed in myself. But I let other people take credit for my work.

We spend too much time as people thinking about what we don't have instead of actually making a change, and we just need to make that change now because we're being giving the opportunity.

I don't think you should sit around and wait for people to give you an opportunity to express yourself or do your work, or whatever. Actors have to be producers and writers have to be producers.

There's a lot of power in the word 'no,' and a lot of people, like myself, need to know that.

I guess just personally I've become a bolder person in my day-to-day. I think a lot of it came from moving to Brooklyn. I just sort of became an adult and started speaking up for myself and not apologising for myself.

But most important of all, she explained that it was all right to say 'No. I disagree.' that was a gift. I understood it was power. The power to think my own thoughts. The power to believe in myself.

Don't wait for people to tell you who you are. Show them.

Stop saying yes out of fear about what others will think about you and say NO out of love for yourself!

And I not only have the right to stand up for myself, but I have the responsibility. I can't ask somebody else to stand up for me if I won't stand up for myself. And once you stand up for yourself, you'd be surprised that people say, "Can I be of help?"

We hold ourselves back in ways both big and small, by lacking self-confidence, by not raising our hands, and by pulling back when we should be leaning in.

I think the most clear, direct way to empowerment is to really know yourself and to really use your voice and to not be afraid of other people's reactions.

I've always felt that if you're not on your side, why should anyone else be. So I always encourage people to be confident, and sometime even a little falsely so, just so you can give yourself an opportunity.

I'm done living for other people. I'm done being a people pleaser. I'm done thinking about what people think about me.