Cory Monteith Quotes

When I first came out, I was a film student, and my mom sewed clothes. I was already doing a million things then, whatever it took to survive. If I had to braid someone's hair to get one pound for my lunch money, that's what I did.

I have no definite talent or trade, and how I stay alive is largely a matter of magic.

Coming from a middle class background, I faced a lot of hardships during my initial years in Mumbai. I did not have much money and had to sing jingles and bhajans to survive. But those years taught me that a singer should be versatile.

My dad is an amazing human being. He - just a hard worker. Just that thing you think about with, like, just anyone who comes this country - that's my dad. He can do anything. Not just at work - comes home, he can cook, he can clean, fix the toilet, fix the car. He learned all these jobs just so he'd never have to pay another man.

I think that I'm lucky in that, even at levels where I, by and large, wasn't making enough money to sustain my life, I worked as a male nanny, I waited tables and did what I had to, to keep doing theater and acting.

I always knew that I would have to make it on my own somehow.

But I love the idea - whether it's in my work or where I live - exploring new frontier, and I like putting myself in strange places and trying to survive and figure things out and gather up an infrastructure. I like knowing that I could figure out a way to live anywhere.

You win any which way you can. You do what you have to do to get by. That's the way it works in any job.

I can take hardship. I can sleep on the cold floor anytime. I can also sleep on a feather bed.

I'll dispose of my teeth as I see fit, and after they've gone, I'll get along. I started off living on gruel, and by God, I can always go back to it again.

Put paying your dues and all that puts so much into being a success. You have an understanding of what it's about, being on your own for three or four years and living day to day on $3, or living in an apartment with no electricity.

I'm a survivalist and a survivor.

After school, I'd wait for someone to pick me up and no one would, so I'd be like, 'I guess I'll walk home.' I had to be a hustler, because nobody did anything for me.

I was never given any hand-outs. I started at the bottom and was very good at finding people who knew more than me and learning from them.

The sun of liberty is set; you must light up the candle of industry and economy.

I worked as a truck driver, carpenter's assistant, doing whatever it took to keep bread on the table for the family.

If you help a chicken out of an egg, most of the time that bird will die. If you help a moth out of a cocoon, it'll die because they don't go through that struggle and maturation. I can give you a fish for the day and you'll eat a day, but if I teach you to fish, you'll eat for a lifetime. Maybe even start a business.

There's something quite satisfying, quite reassuring about seeing a man having to survive.

I come from a simple background, so I couldn't call my father and say, 'Come pay my bills,' so I had to get out there and work.

I've always been the person to look at any turmoil as temporary. I recall times where my mom was working five and six jobs, and there's still no food in the house.

When you grow up starving, you cannot point with pride to a book you've just spent six hours reading. Picking cotton, sewing flour bags into clothes - those were the skills my father grew up appreciating.

I wouldn't be where I am right now, and have the right work ethic and discipline, if it weren't for all the indie films I did. We weren't pampered and were pretty much on our own.

You need to learn a practical lesson. Grit alone is not going to save you from sinking.

Nothing's given in the Rock family.

I always kept busy. If the music business got bad I'd get me a job doin' somethin' else. Bellhop. Porter. Anything to make an honest living.