John Irving Quotes

I try to push myself a little every day. For me, it's doing 10 more seconds of whatever I'm working on. So if I'm on the treadmill sprinting my butt off or doing a grueling core workout, I think to myself, 'You can do 10 more seconds, and you'll be that much mentally stronger.' After a while, those 10 seconds add up!

If you get beaten, and you know that you tried your hardest and kept your focus, then that's all you can do.

I can just put my head down and train hard.

I think what endurance sports teach you is to stay dedicated, stay focused, and also to understand you're going to have ups and downs, but you need to keep running right through them.

I threw my best to every hitter I faced, and I found I had the strength to go all the way.

Sometimes you have to rest in certain games, but I want to play in every game.

The only thing that I can do - and the only thing that I've always done - is to ride my bike fast and get my head down and control the things I can control.

I've learned that if I can convince myself to just keep putting one foot in front of the other, then I can run as far as I want to.

I have to play a bit of a physical game and try to work harder than everyone else.

Don't think about the 50 reps ahead of you, just the next 5.

That's how I was taught. That's how I was raised, to ignore the stupidity, continue on and do what I need to do.

I wanted to look like Mike Tyson. But then I started to realize, in a twelve round fight, you must be patient.

I think it is important to know when to be hard on yourself and when to let things go, but always keep going.

I am willing to put myself through anything; temporary pain or discomfort means nothing to me as long as I can see that the experience will take me to a new level.

We don't have to be smarter than the rest. We have to be more disciplined than the rest.

But grace can be the experience of a second wind, when even though what you want is clarity and resolution, what you get is stamina and poignancy and the strength to hang on.

It never gets easier; you just go faster.

Keep moving forward, even one or two steps, in your own way. Those who live out their lives to the fullest, unperturbed by the noisy clamor around them, are the true winners.

I became a player who goes to a lot of effort while training, who can rely on his will and his mental strengths.

It looks like a marathon. And I'm proud that I'm not a DNF (did not finish). I'm not a DNF yet. I just kept going. I think that's been the key is just to keep going and really try to get better and try to be as truthful as I can and hope that good things come my way.

You can’t go the distance with too much resistance

Success comes from doing the hard part. When the hard part is all you've got, you're more likely to do it. And this is precisely why it's difficult to focus. Because focusing means acknowledging that you just signed up for the hard part.

It's a matter of will. If you know that you can keep your head, and that you must keep your head, you probably will keep your head.

It is sad that today many times people give up in the hard times and never get to enjoy the fruit of all their labor.

it is easy to starve, but it is difficult to stoop.