Raymond Chandler Quotes

When you go to an audition, don't hang on to it because no matter how well you feel it went or how badly, you just never know what the outcome is going to be.

You see people in Hollywood trying to make blockbuster after blockbuster, but it's not possible. There's some god up there saying, 'You will fail now.' But I suppose that's true of us all.

I'm fully aware that things that resonate and become real hits are the exception to the rule, so much so that I've wired myself for failure.

I'm not so naive as to think that everybody always succeeds, right? I mean, half of Shakespeare's stories are tragedies - right?

Not everything is going to be successful. To strive for that is really naive. You just do the best you can do.

The more cynical you become, the better off you'll be.

Once you have a lot of success, you become a target in many ways.

It was total naivety that got me to Hollywood. I thought it was going to happen straight away. I told myself 'give it 5 years, there's no way I'll be here after that if it doesn't happen'. Cut to ten years later!

I was naive. Before 'Larrikins,' I thought passion, hard work, and a skill set will mean that anything you want to do will get done. I don't think that anymore.

I try not to want any one specific thing to happen because that's then bound to probably not happen. Particularly in Hollywood, I try not to set my hopes on anything.

I wasn't thinking that I was going to go through my career undefeated. You expect to lose sometimes.

Well, I won't say I'm cynical. I'd say I'm pragmatic.

I often tell my daughter that it is very easy to handle failure because when you are a failure, nobody is bothered about you. Nobody will look at you even if you cry. But when you are successful, then it becomes difficult or even impossible to handle it.

I never promise something; I always say that I will try. Because if you promise something and you don't do it, you will always be under pressure.

Each of us must work to become a hardheaded realist, or else we risk wasting our time and energy on pursuing impossible dreams. Yet constant naysayers pursue no less impossible dreams. Their fear and cynicism move nothing forward. They kill progress. How many cynics built empires, great cities, or powerful corporations?

See, when you mess something up, you learn for the next time. It's when people compliment you that you're in trouble. That means they expect you to keep it up.

In this business if you're good, you're right six times out of ten. You're never going to be right nine times out of ten.

It's hard to be disappointed when what you expected turns out to be true.

The realism of failure, the romance of success.

If a man aspires to the highest place, it is no dishonor to him to halt at the second, or even at the third.

On one hand it's very flattering to be compared to a big success, and then sometimes it's very frustrating because you want people to see the movie that you're making and not be continually comparing it to something that it's not. So it goes both ways.

I don't think you're going to get nominated every time you jump out of the box.

I felt wise and cynical as all hell.

It is a pity that doing one's best does not always answer.

What separates the winners from the losers is that they can deal with doing their best while still coming up short.