Anthony McCarten Quotes

I've always been an underdog. I feel like I beat the odds.

I'm just a genetic freak, but it has never stopped me from doing whatever I want to.

I like being the underdog. I like turning around and shutting people up when they tell me I can't.

Who can't relate to a story of a dreamer who, against all odds, is going to make something of himself that is completely unexpected?

All of my life, I've been told no. That I was too poor, too short, too black. I enjoy it when people underestimate me.

I was the kind nobody thought could make it. I had a funny Boston accent. I couldn't pronounce my R's. I wasn't a beauty.

There was no person, whether they thought I was too fat, too black, too country, too ghetto, too New York, too thug or too whatever! Nobody ultimately had the say over whether or not I was going to make it.

Going in, I knew I wasn't one of the top ones, because I didn't even make the pre-season All-American team. That shows you what people thought of me right there, so I knew I had to go to work.

I never thought I was breaking a glass ceiling. I just had to do what I had to do, and it never occurred to me not to.

When I started getting so many haters and closed doors, I decided to prove that it could be done. I was a divorced single mother of three at the time and a size 12 - not your typical model artist that labels feel work for the music industry.

If I were to listen to people all the time when they say, 'Hey, this is a really high challenge, this is a high climb, the bar is pretty steep,' then I wouldn't have gone to the academy. I wouldn't have become an aircraft carrier pilot. I wouldn't have become a Navy SEAL for sure. And I probably wouldn't have applied to Harvard.

If you are different, or you have minimum possibilities, you can still succeed. I am living proof of that.

I've always felt like the underdog, and I'm comfortable with that label.

I'm living proof you can excel regardless of where you come from.

Growing up, I had the weird fantasy list: I wanted to be Alice Cooper, Steven Spielberg, and Stan Lee. You have to have almost psychotic drive, because you're going to have years of failure.

There's always going to be someone out there who doesn't like what you do, doesn't like your style, your face. That's part of life. But I feed off that. I don't think I'd be where I am today if it wasn't for that. It puts a little fire in the belly, keeps me going so I can prove so many people wrong.

Do just once what others say you can't do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again.

The hardest struggle of all is to be something different from what the average man is. I don't believe in 'super-men,' for the world is full of capable men, but it's the fellow with determination that wins out.

The only thing that I know is that, growing up, I came across stumbling blocks, and I always said to myself, 'If I ever get into a position to do something about this, I would like to, so that somebody does not deal with what I went through.'

I've been an underdog all my life.

When you break glass ceilings, you're going to get minor scrapes by a shard or two from the glass.

I guess I should say I like to do things that people say you can't do.

You can make something out of nothing. I proved that with my career, making it out of the city that I'm from.

It doesn't matter what background you come from; it doesn't matter what your circumstances are - you can survive.

I think it's important to inspire other people to try and do things that people discourage you to do.