Amar'e Stoudemire Quotes

It's really cool to come from nothing and essentially be a nobody and make yourself somebody.

Dreams do come true, even for someone who couldn't speak English and never had a music lesson or much of an education.

I come from a hut, from a hut I went to the projects, from the projects I went to a mansion so you out there you have ABSOLUTLY NO EXCUSE!

From being a little girl in the projects, going through all of the mess that I was going through, to ending up at the Inauguration for the first African-American president, I'm speechless right now because I never thought I'd - I never ever - I couldn't even see that far. Even when I ended up in the music business, I couldn't see that.

I just want people to know you can get through stuff. I hope people can see that in what my life has been and where it is going.

I am proof that one person can rise above any challenge, and if I can, then so will others if they are given the chance.

When people see what I have now, they have no idea of where I came from and how I didn't have anything growing up.

When I graduated from Parsons School of Design, the dean at that time said I would never be a designer. Obviously I didn't listen.

Going from a two-year-old Polish boy, who practically came to Germany with nothing more than a football under his arm, to a world champion - it's more than I could have ever imagined.

'Freaky Ali' is not a heavy film. It's a simple but inspiring film. It will inspire those who want to go from zero to hundred. People who have made an effort to achieve success from nothing will be able to connect to the character.

Who can't relate to a story of a dreamer who, against all odds, is going to make something of himself that is completely unexpected?

Lincoln was not great because he was born in a log cabin, but because he got out of it

They'll probably start working on my movie sometime... They are doing a complete movie of my life story. It will not be based on any negativity. It will be more about my life, from a kid, how I came up and why I came through.

I'm not an aspiring young actor; I'm a storyteller who made it late in life, and I'm therefore an inspiration to everyone who thinks that, at 23, if you're not in the Backstreet Boys, then you're never gonna make it.

When I graduated from high school, the teacher said I was throwing my life away following music, and the same teacher invited me back to speak at the school. I don't say that to brag, I just want to be an example.

My early years were hardly a model of focus, discipline, and direction. No one who met me as a teenager could have imagined my going into research and making important discoveries. No one could have predicted the arc of my career.

I want to be an example of a guy who made something of himself out of nothing. A guy who overcame the odds of a tough childhood, who worked hard, who didn't let his surroundings get the best of him and lead him to jail or the graveyard. Where I ended up - being a comedian, a TV star, and a movie actor - might be unique, but my story is not.

Everything I've ever done was out of fear of being mediocre.

It doesn't matter what you're trying to accomplish. It's all a matter of discipline. I was determined to discover what life held for me beyond the inner-city streets.

I've been the teenage success, I've been homeless and driving around in my car and not knowing where to eat. You just want to keep working and learning, and I was doing that. If I hadn't done 'Wild Bill,' I'm sure I would have acted in something else.

I had to overcome challenge after challenge in order to take my life from nothing to living my dreams.

Many have changed so much that they have lost the magic of the dream that carried them on their own bootstraps.

Louis Armstrong, who learned to be in exquisite dress, came from the bottom, and he's not a trash can.

I had teachers who said I was not good enough. So, I said I will become good enough. So I became this guy who became obsessed to become good enough. Now I sit down and tell people who I was. Now, I say, 'Do you know who I am?'

If you are different, or you have minimum possibilities, you can still succeed. I am living proof of that.