Steve Carell Quotes

There isn't an actor alive who hasn't been turned down, and I promise you I have taken a hell of a lot of rejection. That said, I do count my blessings every day.

I don't know why people say I'm not supposed to be doing what I'm doing. I'm just trying to do my job. I'm blessed, and I'm glad that I'm blessed.

I got to play in a crowd, play in Wimbledon finals, be the guy on a Davis Cup team for a while. Those are opportunities not a lot of people get. As much as I was disappointed and frustrated at times, I'm not sure that I ever felt sorry for myself or begrudged anybody any of their success.

I know I've been lucky. But it's what you do with that luck afterwards that really defines whether you stick around.

I feel like it has gone very fast for me, but I feel like it wasn't instantaneous, at all. I was getting a lot of rejections. I just got very lucky and it happened quickly for me. I don't feel like I'm a prodigy or something.

Pray that success will not come any faster than you are able to endure it.

I just assume that I'll fail at something for several years - that I'll try my hardest and still fail for several years. With writing, that turned out to be wrong. I tried my hardest and failed for about fifteen years.

Well, I was lucky enough to be involved in about 19 failures at an early age, so I'm realistic about the success I'm having and how quickly it can go away. What's important is to be smart about it.

You don't have to do everything by the time you're 30. Or 40. All you need is a work ethic. It's what allows you to push through moments of disappointment and self-doubt and fear.

Yes, I am a failed playwright. I had three shows on Broadway by the time I was 30. They all flopped, and I fled.

I've struggled a lot to get where I am. I initially got rejected by every producer. But no complaints. I enjoyed each and every moment of the struggle. My first break came in 1997 from Krishna Vamsi and then Puri Jagannadh, who is my closest friend. I owe everything I am to him. Our careers have evolved simultaneously.

I never doubted that I would work, and every time I went to an audition, I went into the room with the knowledge that I was going to get the part. Ninety-nine times out of 100, I didn't.

You start at a young age, going on auditions, and you think you did a good job and expect to get that role, and you don't, and it's a letdown, a disappointment. So you tell yourself to just do the work and disconnect, because you have no control over the outcome.

You're not going to get every part, so you can't base your sense of self-worth around whether or not you actually land the job.

If you truly want to succeed, you have to stay humble - humble or crumble - because it can all go away in the blink of an eye.

I won't say I wouldn't be grateful and happy and delighted and thrilled to bits to receive a nomination. But I wouldn't be suicidal if it didn't happen.

You have to wade through tons of 'no's' to get one 'yes,' and you can't let it go to your head when you get that yes.

It's important you stay professional and keep working, and I'm thankful for everything that's happened to me.

I knew two things from my father: keep working hard, stay humble, and someday you'll be OK.

I'm just happy to know that no part of me thinks that I made it. Everything in me says you need to keep going, keep working.

After my WWE tryout in 2014, I thought for sure that I was going to get signed and that it is finally happening and that I was going to finally be there. Then, when it didn't happen I was heartbroken. I always think it is because God had a plan for me.

When you have come from the bottom and worked your way to the top, you are more grateful.

I don't know if many people know that one of the first jobs that I wanted and I lined up for was cabin crew at Jet. I was rejected because I was told I don't have a good personality. Thank God for your rejection. After that, I got a job at McDonald's, and the rest is history.

My story is one of ups and downs. It's made up of tastes of success and a lot more rejection.

That is how I have been brought up - to never give up, never take anything for granted.