Garrison Keillor Quotes

For a long time I wasn't happy, but that had nothing to do with Beyonce. That had to do with me trying to get my life in order and make better decisions for myself. I'm seeing all these wonderful things happen for her, and I am happy for her. But I want a path. I want things to pop off for me, too.

I'm 47 years old, and I have to accept the fact that I'm probably not going to set the world on fire... If I was going to do that, I would have done it by now.

You're going to change the world? Well, go ahead and try. You'll give it up at a certain point and change yourself instead.

All my life, I always wanted to be somebody. Now I see that I should have been more specific.

I thought my goal in life was to be in a successful band, and I had got that, but I was as miserable as I had ever been, and I couldn't understand why that would be.

Any man who selects a goal in life which can be fully achieved has already defined his own limitations.

I could have had class. I could have been a contender.

Researching Magic Johnson, I realized I clearly haven't done enough with my life.

In the past, my aspirations were as arty as they could get, and I'm really embarrassed by it.

Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.

My failures have made me look at myself in a way I've never wanted to before.

When I finally got there, to where I thought was the top, I wasn't doing what I was doing in the beginning. I was not happy.

I have dreams that I will reach balance in my life, and, at forty-one, I have none.

I have far ascended beyond every ambition my 16-year-old self ever had.

At thirty, man suspects himself a fool; Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan.

Now, more than ever, I realize just how illusory my undeserved success has been. I still hold out some hope of doing better, but age and unhappiness have sapped my strength.

A simple problem of arithmetic: there are far more ambitions than there are grand destinies available.

I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.

I was told once if I kept breaking things on my legs, that I wasn't going to be able to walk soon, you know? I wanted to be a pro skateboarder, but it was too hard. I was trying, but it wasn't going to happen.

I didn't really know what I wanted to do, but I knew the woman I wanted to become.

Like all young men I set out to be a genius, but mercifully laughter intervened.

I'm not sure whether I've been happy. After my last book tour, I sat on my balcony with a cup of tea. I thought: 'You can't rewind the movie. I've spent more than half my life in the Middle East. There have been great moments of horror and depression and loneliness.'

I was not emotionally mature enough to accept any kind of success when I was young. I needed to go that long route.

Ambition is a very dangerous thing because either you achieve it and your life ends prematurely, or you don't, in which case your life is a constant source of disappointment. You must never have ambition.

Architects of grandeur are often the master builders of disillusionment.