Mr. T Quotes

I looked up to my father when I was 7 and 8. I believed it was my calling to be in the big leagues. I'd been raised by a family that always told me I could do anything I wanted.

The main reason I wanted to be successful was to get out of the ghetto. My parents helped direct my path.

Things haven't changed since I was a young kid. I just wanted to be the fastest guy I could be, and I am still chasing that dream to this day.

That attitude that I wouldn't succeed didn't come from my family; it came from school and then the township we lived in. I wasn't going to settle for that, and my mother warned us not to settle for less, to make the most of our lives.

When I was growing up, I always wanted to do well in boxing. I wanted to look after my parents, and I wanted to look after myself.

If I wasn't from Philly, I couldn't promise you that I would have the same drive and the same ambition because, as a little kid, I always saw myself as making it out, and I would escape with television.

I grew up on a farm and didn't have connections, and I had a dream that I believed in, and I felt passionate about it, so if I can instill hope into somebody too with the film, that's what I most want.

I could have gone down a very different path, but my parents would not let me give up football.

My mother was determined that I was going to leave the farm and do well in life. And she thought with the gift, I might be able to do that. So she took in washing. She got a washing machine in 1942 as soon as we got electricity and she took in washing. She washed the schoolteacher's clothes and anybody she could and sent me for singing lessons for $3 per lesson.

We all have our motivations in life and for me, it's my kids. They push me every day and keep me going. It gives me that extra motivation that I need.

When I was a young boy, those 'Rocky' movies were my favorite, especially the wild and exciting endings. I loved those films; they inspired me to want to become a fighter.

When you chase a dream, and no one understand or has your back except seven friends from high school and your grandma, it's not going to be easy.

Throughout my life, ever since I played for Clausenengen back home, instead of listening to the teacher at school, I was writing down all the chances I missed in a book thinking 'I should have done this.' Scoring goals was all I thought about.

You know, 'people like us,' it involves... it's everybody who has struggled, you know what I'm saying? Everybody who has... who has had a difficult time getting to where they want to be, and now they can look at us as examples of, 'Hey, I can do this because they did it and I see it happening. Maybe I can do it, too.'

I'm still passionate now about my job, but when I first started out as a kid, I was so motivated. No one had ever acted in my family before, and my parents had no idea how to help with that. I would leave notes on my parents pillow every night at 13 saying, "Please help me find an agent!" Eventually it worked, so I relate to that go-getter mentality.

When I was little, that was one thing that I was told in a vision: I was going to have my own show when I grew up. And it's going to be funny.

I still have a video of my father, which I watch before every game I play for Brazil. It gives me strength, makes me determined.

I hold that a man should strive to the uttermost for his life's set prize.

My parents always felt if I worked hard enough I could make any dream come true.

Growing up, I didn't dream of being nothing, of living in the ghetto my whole life. I wanted to get out.

I always wanted to be a winner, to score goals. There was no massive bravery in terms of my mum passing away and stepping up. I just wanted to score. I know everyone would have given me a pass on it if I hadn't taken it. But I'd have had the hump with myself if I'd shirked it.

My life would be a reflection of my childhood, but it isn't; it is a reflection of the dreams that I had as a child for a better life. When I look around and see the beautiful people and wonderful surroundings that are now my reality, I know that I have overcome so much. I still have plenty of fight left in me.

In retrospect, golf for me was an apparent attempt to emulate the person I looked up to more than anyone: my father. He was instrumental in helping me develop the drive to achieve, but his role, as well as my mother's, was one of support and guidance, not interference.

I remember my dad asking me one time, and it's something that has always stuck with me: 'Why not you, Russ?' You know, why not me? Why not me in the Super Bowl? So in speaking to our football team earlier in the year, I said, 'Why not us? Why can't we be there?'

My mother didn't feel sorry for herself, she was left with no child support, no alimony at a very young age, with a child to raise, a high school education and she just figured it out. She didn't complain, she didn't rely upon government, she relied upon her own skill set, her own self confidence, her own drive in moxie and her own duty to me and her and she relied upon her family and her faith.