David Niven Quotes

I am a genius. Then it amused me to keep saying so, but now it does not. I expected to be happy sometime. Now I know I shall never be.

Manchester United was a sad experience. Things didn't go as I had hoped. I was disappointed, and it didn't help me to rise to the surface.

The last verse [In My Secret Life] completely got to me, about how we all have great ideals but in reality we end up conforming, following everyone else. We want to be stronger so we lead that life inside, thinking of ourselves as these great brave souls. I literally thought when I was 15 that I was a musical genius and I could change the world, but in fact you're not and you can't and you don't, and that realisation is almost heartbreaking.

I've been an idiot to think that real life could have a happy ending

The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.

At 30 I thought my life was over. I thought I'd have made something of myself by then, that life would somehow have made the necessary arrangements - but actually I had nothing.

You play a couple of shows, and these label guys come - and they leave halfway through a show. Then the phone calls just stop. And your heart is broken.

I have crushed the cup of youth like a rose between my fingers but its nectar never warmed my weary heart.

When you're in your 20s, your 30s, even, you have - at least, I had - vast ambitions, and you sit around mooning about these things, and you're depressed, because you haven't done them. And it takes you a long time to come to the realization that if you can't be John Updike, well, then, you can't.

When all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed.

I always wished for this, but it's almost turning into more of a nightmare than a dream.

I don't think any of us grew up into the world we were hoping for or expecting.

I got involved in music because I love everything about it, but now I'm in it you see the other side and it isn't much fun. Not as glamorous and enjoyable as you imagine.

You know, nothing is ever happily-ever-after. Ever.

It's a source of great sadness to me that my father died without having seen me do anything worthwhile. He was constantly having to make excuses for me.

Some people will always be disappointed.

I was supposed to be a doctor. I was supposed to go to Princeton. And everything I was supposed to do I didn't.

I love the romcom. I thought I had a career playing the best friend. What happened to that? It's really sad to me.

I left my cushy job as an engineer in New Delhi in 2008 to pursue acting in Mumbai. I figured roles will start pouring in as soon as I landed in the city, but my bubble burst quickly.

Not many people get that 'happily ever after' they want in life. There are disappointments every step of the way, no matter how hard one strives for the best.

Things don't always happen the way one wishes they would.

I remember coming out of college thinking, 'OK, I'm gonna get an agent, and I'm gonna make money. I'm gonna make millions of dollars.' And that never happened.

She had waited all her life for something, and it had killed her when it found her.

I kept thinking that with all those first jobs, "This is the beginning of something!" And then nothing would happen. That's the real Hollywood.

I hate New Year's Eve. One more chance to remember that you haven't yet done what you wanted. And to pretend it doesn't matter.