David Grann Quotes

I did some good stuff over in the U.K., but I wasn't consistently working. For a while there, I was going, 'Do I really want to do this - should I go back to university?'

I recognize that I had a good deal of good luck in my life. I came along at a time when it was pretty easy to get a job in journalism. I went to work at CBS News when I was about 22, and within a year or so was reporting on the air.

I loved my boarding school, but I didn't know what I wanted to do. I didn't have a career.

I do want to finish my education. I just don't think that Boston has a big enough market for what I want to do.

I kind of have never thought about a career path, which is an unusual approach.

I didn't want to go get a job or get a degree in business or marketing, or whatever all my friends were getting degrees in.

I went to Harvard College and determined right away when I was a junior that I was unemployable, since I think I applied to 300 jobs and didn't get any of them, so I decided that I would stay in school and go to Harvard Business school, and that's my background.

The morning after my high-school graduation found me up early job hunting. The dream of college I put on the back burner.

I wish I knew what was next. I got this movie without planning to. I'm really excited to be continuing in film because it's a great job but I have my portfolio and resume for any other opportunity.

One of the perks of growing up, but also one of the biggest challenges, is making decisions about the future. Deciding what kind of job you want, whether you want to finish school, or whether you want to go to university are huge choices to make.

I'm not sure what I want to do - business, law, something else.

When I graduated, I was really lucky because I got hired immediately by CBS as a production assistant.

When I graduated from Brown, I had a very limited conception of jobs, careers, and what I wanted to do. Basically, I figured I should do some kind of thought work that paid well, but I wasn't sure what.

Coming from losing my dream of playing professional football, not having a college degree at the time and looking to jump into the business world at a young age was pretty daunting for me.

I've done a lot of different things. I would say, it's really hard for me to say what the ultimate role would be. You look at a film if it comes to you.

I was in college in Washington, D.C. I did three years full-time. I did all my requirements, and my senior year was really a gut year. And I said, 'Law school will always be there.' I was in no hurry to get right into that.

You know, it looks like I have a varied resume or a varied career, that I've made interesting choices, when the truth of the matter is, in a way I've just kind of piece-mealed a career together, you know?

It's like Forrest Gump said, 'Life is like a box of chocolates.' Your career is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get. But everything you get is going to teach you something along the way and make you the person you are today. That's the exciting part - it's an adventure in itself.

When I left university, I idled around without focus for much too long.

I kept thinking, I went to college and I have to get a real job.

I thought I wanted to be an electrical engineer, which I turned out to be. But I was always curious about other things too, and what if I got interested in history or the law?

Sometimes people come out of school right now and they immediately want a job doing something. And there's nothing wrong with just listening and learning and watching.

I realized that I would have some very tough sledding, and I was very discouraged because I didn't see much hope of getting into the field I wanted to get into with no college education.

I can't worry about whether roles will be there for me when I'm older. They're there now, and I'm just not going to panic.

I thought I would, you know, go to college, get to law school, finish, and then get a job and work as a lawyer, but that proved to be not a good fit for me.