Sam Heughan Quotes

I don't pay much attention to magazine covers. One day, there'll be slack times in my career. It's unavoidable, because success is temporary. Which is why you have to stay focused on this very taxing job.

Acting forces you to ask yourself, 'Can my constitution take a decade of constant rejection?' And after ten years, you either make it or you don't. And the problem is they don't tell you in advance.

My parents are very proud of my success but still worry, as I'm in a profession where there is no guarantee of work. They have always supported my decision to go into acting, but there have been tough times work-wise.

I'm constantly thinking about what I'll do next. I never count on music being a career of longevity. I mean, longevity is key, and I hope that it lasts, but you just don't know, because it's not in your hands, you don't make the decision.

I could never plan to have a career that went this well... you know, there were times when it didn't: when it went into the toilet, or ducked, or was difficult to get moving.

We have had examples in our industry of people working for 30-40 years because of their ability to act. Your looks leave you after a point, you don't look the same way you did when you were in your 20s or 30s. After that you have only your ability to show.

I've had so many ups and downs in my career. When it's going good, you learn to enjoy the ride.

I dont know that I want to act 15 years from now. I mean, I love the process of acting, but not the masochism. No matter how successful you get in Hollywood, you cannot rest. Your new movie doesn't open well; they're looking for the next person to replace you; it's always something. You never have true peace.

If you're successful, acting is about as soft a job as anybody could ever wish for. But if you're unsuccessful it's worse than having a skin disease.

When you start in that [model] business the rules are imposed upon you, but when you stay in the business long enough the rules could be broken.

I always knew I wanted to do music, but it took me a long time to figure out how to exactly do that. With my first record deal, everything kinda fell apart. I wasn't ready for it, I didn't know how to handle the business side at all. I thought as soon as I got a record deal, everything would fall into place and I wouldn't have to really do any work anymore. I could just make music, and be successful. Well that was not the case and everything fell apart for a period of time.

It doesn't matter if you're good. If you're just good, you won't succeed. If you have patience and persistence and talent and that's it, you will not have a successful career as an actor. The elusive thing you need is luck.

It was always that I finished one movie and then had no idea what I was doing. I think there's a limited amount of planning you can do, at least in the position I'm in. Maybe more successful actors can plan more than I'm able to.

I understand professionals have to work when they don't feel like it, and I certainly don't feel like it. So maybe this will put the nail in the coffin for my acting career.

There are the obstacles of your position as an actor, not being a commodity enough to be hired by the big directors for projects that have some kind of integrity, because the successful actors who've been in the game for a while want those roles. So there's more competition, so you have to work harder and be right for it.

When I found myself in that situation - that actors are like children, I tried to be successful. And when it worked and I figured out how to communicate that things were good - or at least okay - then I felt pleased.

In order to put it into perspective, as an actor, it's super hard to get on a TV show. If you get on one, it's super hard for that show to be reasonably successful. All of that, on paper, seems pretty special. It's the sum of the parts, really. To roll the dice and come up with this particular show is pretty fortunate. I'm very happy about Silicon Valley series. It's changed everything for me.

I don't have a road map and I'm not a goal oriented person in the sense that, you know, I have nothing in front of me that says by June of 2017 I want to have accomplished X. I have an overriding goal, and that is to be successful at whatever I do 'cause I figure if that happens I'll love it and enjoy it, and then that's when opportunity presents itself.

You do not have to love what is going on in your life, but you must accept that it, whatever it is, is going on. As long as you do not accept reality, you are powerless to define the role you will play.

It's a good time for me to pursue acting, I suppose since I'm enjoying having another medium in which to express myself. I've been getting a great response to my work.

The risk of failure is a very personal thing. One of the quotes I like, I think this came from the famous basketball coach from California - John Wooden - is that, "Successful people - winners - do everything necessary to prepare to win, without the certainty of winning." Everybody would do everything necessary to prepare to win if winning was a certainty. So you're willing to put yourself out publicly and privately and say, "I'm going to do this."

If you hang in there long enough, you will eventually reach your goal.

I was going to be a High School teacher. I was studying at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, up in Canada. I was also acting in a wonderfully supportive theatre community in Edmonton. There's a lot of support for theatre there. So, I was having a great time, but I didn't consider acting as a serious career initially, because even the most successful actors that I know in Edmonton are not super successful. Acting over there is just not a success-oriented career.

The most successful men have used seeming failures as stepping stones to better things.

You don't get points for predicting rain. You get points for building arks.