Derek Luke Quotes

The stories are success stories. The letters from listeners often touch the heart and can be inspiring.

When I was about 10, I saw Timothy Bottoms in a tele-movie called 'A Shining Season,' and it really moved me. I was maybe 8 or 9. Timothy played a runner who had cancer, and he defied the odds by coaching a girls' team to victory.

I would love to do Tammi Terrell's story. I love stories of the underdog coming out on top and stories of survival.

Part of the power of all storytelling is reassurance, offering hope to those sat in the darkness, that good can succeed and wrongdoing fail.

And it's great to watch an underdog win.

As you know, I'm all about victory for the underdog.

No matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out.

But Ship Who Sang remains my favorite story. I really rocked folks with that and still cannot read it aloud myself without weeping at the end.

My life has been sensationalised into a rags to riches story.

'Precious' is strangely uplifting. It goes down into the valley but it also goes to the mountain tops. A lot of difficult realities are explored in 'Precious,' but the peaks make the valleys and the valleys make the peaks.

It feels good when guys reach out to be inspired - and you have shown people an example of how you can come back and be better than you were before when adversity strikes; and when the world predicts the opposite, you show them you not only can be successful but be great.

I enjoy reporting on triumph over tragedy.

There couldn't have been a better Hollywood ending for us. It's beyond baseball. It's rooting for your family.

Some defeats are only installments to victory.

'Breaking Away' was a great experience. It's the kind of movie that engenders a lot of goodwill from people.

I feel like I'm a fighter. I've fought my whole life to get to where I'm at. I like fight movies. When someone gets knocked down, I like to root for him to succeed.

I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'

When there is no peril in the fight there is no glory in the triumph.

I think all good sports movies aren't really about sports.

You're always in a blessed position if you have a great success story, especially to be in a position to be able to tell it so people can even understand.

I have been drawn to stories that are attempting to turn suffering into beauty.

I'm sure there are many more people who can identify with failure and hardship in life than with the success of an Alexander Hamilton or a John D. Rockefeller.

'Rectify' has been beautiful and emotional but grueling. In a beautiful way, in the right way.

Sometimes people look at television personalities and say, 'Wow, they've never had any problems.' And I really wanted people to know that hadn't been my path. I want people to know the real me underneath.

When SpongeBob's perseverance shines through, and you root for him - that's when the show is working.