Rick Yancey Quotes

I do what I've got to do to survive, to keep my teeth in my head, and my head on my shoulders. I apologize to whoever can't put that together and understand that.

When all choice is taken from you, life becomes a game of survival.

Survivors can't always choose their methods.

I know exactly what it's like to not have a penny. I know exactly what it's like trying to get a job. I know exactly what it's like having bloody one tin of Ambrosia left in the cupboard. But I know I can survive.

How can you beat someone that's already lost everything?

The rules of survival never change, whether you're in a desert or in an arena.

Poverty was the greatest motivating factor in my life.

Perhaps catastrophe is the natural human environment, and even though we spend a good deal of energy trying to get away from it, we are programmed for survival amid catastrophe.

Nothing has more strength than dire necessity.

We're all spending way too much of our time and energy trying to fight the stuff we can't change.

We are doomed to cling to a life even while we find it unendurable.

I am hitting my head against the walls, but the walls are giving way.

If someone throws you in a pool and you can't swim, you're going to struggle.

Early in my career I had to be a goon to survive. I did everything I had to do and probably some things I shouldn't have.

We sit here stranded, though we're all doin' our best to deny it

I would kick this bad world's ass if I could just get on my feet

New York is just New York. It's a hard city, it's a hard city to live in. It's a desperate city. It's filled with scam artists and people who are always looking for a way in and a way out and the majority of people have to really negotiate their way through that jungle to get to the other side; the other side being a place of tranquility and peace and home and safety.

When I had no roof I made audacity my roof.

Life will defend itself no matter how small it is.

Life on a lifeboat isn't much of a life. It is like an end game in chess, a game with a few pieces. The elements couldn't be more simple, nor the stakes higher. Physically it is extraordinarily arduous, and morally it is killing...You get your happiness where you can. You reach a point where you're at the bottom of hell, yet you have your arms crossed and a smile on your face, and you feel you're the luckiest person on earth. Why? Because at your feet you have a tiny dead fish

When things get bad enough, your only resort is to lie in bed and start praying.

My father once told me of a trick question he used in a college class on forest fire control. If there was a fire coming from a certain direction and wind was coming from another, what was the best thing to do? The right answer was, "Run like hell and pray for rain," but few students ever got it. So allow yourself the freedom of knowing there are times to bail out, quit, run, leave the struggle, and have more time for joy.

The only difference between me and a homeless man is this job. I will do whatever it takes to survive…like I did when I was a homeless man.

I think that everybody does hustle in order to survive. That doesn't mean lying - it's more about how you handle situations.

Desperation will allow you to do incredible things in the name of survival.