Gary Payton Quotes

Heading into college, I was mainly just a spot-up shooter.

Sophomore records are historically really difficult.

I went to the University of San Francisco on an athletic scholarship. I didn't study in high school. I was just there to get by and to play basketball. But a funny thing happened to me when I got to college. I got challenged by the work and the professors.

In high school, the drama program shifted to musicals, and that's not a skill set I possess, so I let sports be my outlet, and I agreed to play football in college. I was invited to play at the University of Missouri, and I played there for a year, but when all of the talented people are plucked and put in one place, it's scary; it's tough.

I always played my best when I respected my opponent and was a little scared of them because they could beat me. Every game I played in college, that was the case.

I used to work for a non-profit organization where I worked as a mentor and a counselor to first-generation college student and they kept asking me 'What can I read to try to know what I'm about to be in for,' and while I did have some good suggestions, I figured... I don't know that that book is out there, and that's sort of why I had to write it.

So, college was kind of the only option that I looked at, and I was fortunate to have great coaches when I was at UCLA. They helped me improve on and off the court.

Every time I compete, I still get nervous. There are the nerves that are because 'oh this is really going to hurt,' then there's the, 'I have to go fast and I don't know how fast everyone else is going to go,' nerves.

I was just a young kid from Parma, Ohio, and I went to college at Miami University of Ohio.

By the time I got to George Washington University, I had been a straight-A student in high school.

I cannot even imagine college. I'm white-knuckling it just letting my son go to kindergarten for eight hours a day.

I am scared of spiders! And I still get a little afraid every time I have to do something new or have to get out in front of a big crowd. The first time I sang "Swag It Out" live, I was really scared.

I think actual death will be a lot easier than dying on stage. Cause - you know - if you do [actual death] right, you can go looking good. Maybe with a little quip [like]: 'I loved everybody.' But dying on stage...Oh, God!

I don't know how to play the guitar, so having to be on stage in front of people doing something you don't really know how to do, it's terrifying.

Every time I improvise I'm aware that I could be ruining what it is that we're doing and we'll just have to do it again.

Acting is so difficult for me that, unless the work is of a certain stature in my mind, unless I reach the expectations I have of myself, I'm unhappy. Then it's a miserable existence. I'm putting a piece of myself out there. If it doesn't do anything, I feel so ashamed. I'm afraid I'll be the kind of actor who thought he would make a difference and didn't. Right now, though, I feel like I made a little bit of difference.

Most of the time when you do a job, a play or a film, you're wondering, "Will there be an audience?"

I wasn't much good. When I went into the line on a fake - I would holler 'I don't have it!'

I shot a wild elephant in Africa thirty yards from me, and it didn't hit the ground until it was right at my feet. I wasn't a bit scared. But a four foot putt scares me to death.

And my fear of failure has been lifelong and deep. If you are what you do- and I think my parents may have accidentally given me this idea- and you do poorly, what then? It’s over; you’re wiped out. All those prophecies you heard in the dark have come true, and people can see the real you, see what a schmendrick you are, what a fraud.

I wanted to find my limitations so I decided to do Shylock. And if I fail? I've never been afraid of that. I have other fears - doing bad work knowingly is the worst fear.

I'm afraid of coaching, of writer's classes, of writer's magazines, of books on how to write. They give me centipede trouble - you know the yarn about the centipede who was asked how he managed all his feet? He tried to answer, stopped to think about it, and was never able to walk another step.

I remember I was a scared rookie, hitting .220 after the first three months of my baseball season, and doubting my ability.

I think what all actors share is that, somewhere down in your solar plexus, there's this fear that you're not going to be able to come up with the goods, that this is the one movie where you're going to look like a fool, and they should have cast someone else. And you feel ugly, and you've got three chins, and you've gained too much weight, and you're losing your hair, and there are so many better actors who could do this. But if you've got chops, what you realize is that everybody feels that way, so just show up and do the job.

I was nervous and confident at the same, nervous about going out there in front of all those people, with so much at stake, and confident that I was going to go out there and win.