Don Rickles Quotes

I applaud my mother now for getting me through that time and making me believe in myself.

I don't think I would have been able to stick with it and been proud of who I am and be feminine out on the court. I think I would have folded to the peer pressure if I didn't have my mom to encourage me to be me and be proud of how tall I am.

People that were a little nerdy in high school would look up to me and know it gets better.

And like the old stereotype, I overcame my shyness by making my friends laugh.

When I was in high school, I wasn't really popular. I was picked on a lot. And then I did a talent show, and kids started to tell me that I did a good job. It was the first time that my peers told me that they liked what I was doing. Something clicked, and I knew that this is what I wanted to do.

It's true, I used to be so shy. I used to never talk, just sit back and do my thing. I was never bullied, though, and it was never like it was something that needed to be 'fixed', like being shy is a bad thing.

I was very insecure growing up, and even though I'm not that girl anymore, I think that the passion, that not feeling pretty and being insecure, is where my soul came from. And from early childhood, I let it free onstage.

You can't listen to every little thing that's bad or good said about you. I always used that - whenever I heard it, I used it as fuel to motivate me, man. That's how I was raised, whenever I came up.

I always felt second best. I was never the prettiest, never the skinniest, never the fastest in my sports. Never the smartest, because I have dyslexia. Then, all of a sudden, people were like, 'You're gorgeous.' And I was like, 'What?'

Girls on the Run is an organization that believes every girl can embrace who she is. It's all about girl empowerment. I've volunteered for different things before, but I didn't get to work hands-on. I thought this program sounded wonderful because I could go in and work with girls face-to-face.

My whole life, I thought I sucked. And then I get in here, and I grapple other people, and I'm like, 'I'm actually good.'

I think about all of the freaking talent shows I've tried out for in my life, and I'm so glad I didn't make any of them.

Basketball made me happy to be tall. And more secure about myself than I ever would have been without it.

To go from being an unpopular, chubby little kid who was chasing girls and couldn't seem to catch them, to being chased after and making sure I ran slow enough that I did get caught, it was 180 degree turn. It was being given the keys to the candy store.

I will encourage my kids in everything that life has to offer.

I've stopped apologizing to myself for having this great period of success and financial acceptance.

Everybody wants to be somebody. The thing you have to do is give them confidence they can. You have to give a kid a dream.

I'm still a shy person. I've learned to put that aside on certain occasions. I have to. It's part of my job.

I had a pretty bad time when I was an undergraduate at Cornell University. I failed out of school. I was much, much heavier.

It used to hurt when people ran down my films. I used to feel inferior. I wouldn't go to parties or award functions because my cinema is not considered good enough. But now I keep my head high, and I am proud of what I am doing.

The thing that helped me come to terms with performing was an anxiety, a desperation for acceptance. There was never enough positive motivation in my life.

Everybody has a bad hair day, but us girls still like to be told we look nice even if we don't feel like we do.

I've seen kids turn their lives around. It's usually a kid who's outside of the team-sport world, or maybe has a darker personality or doesn't fit in. Skateboarding ends up being something they latch onto. It sounds hokey, but finding a focus on something - whether it's skateboard or playing your guitar - can be life changing.

I was always the youngest person in class, skinny, scrawny, no good at sports. I asserted myself by being smart. But then I got to college and started to get C's and D's. That was fantastic. I no longer had to be the smartest person in the room.

At the level at which I work with people, their great talent is paired with great insecurity. Self-doubt is literally the twin of self-confidence. And I have to be there for both.