Aspirational Figure Quotes

The greatest are an inspiration for all the kids who wake up early in the morning. Everyone watches you, is inspired by you and wants to be you. So you influence society. That's what being more than an athlete means. I want more kids to have that opportunity. I want everybody to start with the same chance.

David Geffen was a Bruce Wayne to me. He was extraordinary, but at the same time, his talents were something that I could dream of and could fathom.

When kids grow up wanting to be you, you matter.

I dreamed of being like Sam Seaborn on 'The West Wing'.

I think I could be a role model to people growing up.

What I would love, instead of being a role model, is being someone of inspiration.

I don't want to be Kobe, I want to be LeBron.

How are you gonna make an 'idol' from the type of person you're trying to avoid in real life?

Filipinos want beauty. I have to look beautiful so that the poor Filipinos will have a star to look at from their slums.

The first time I saw a picture of [fabled actress] Ethel Barrymore - she was on Broadway and she was wearing pearls. I thought, "That's who I should grow up to be." It's odd, because it was her physical image that I wanted; I had no idea what it was like actually to be her. In those days, we weren't bombarded by images the way we are now, and the ones we did have were more vivid in people's minds.

I don't think you have to be perfect to be a role model.

I want my daughter to see a strong woman who goes after what she wants.

I make jokes about it, but it's the truth that I kind of patterned my look after the town tramp. I didn't know what she was, just this woman who was blond and piled her hair up, wore high heels and tight skirts, and, boy, she was the prettiest thing I'd ever seen. Momma used to say, "Aw, she's just trash," and I thought, That's what I want to be when I grow up. Trash.

I don't apply [being a role model] to the choices I make. I feel like a role model is not necessarily someone you want to imitate, just someone you admire.

A movie star is someone people look at and go, 'I want to be like that person'. There's the responsibility of desire. It's not something I'm interested in trying. I would fail miserably at it, so why even bother?

Whatever person kids relate to the most, I want them to call me that. Sp of Hannah's more who they find their inspiration in, call me Hannah. If they're more an average girl who wants to blend in with everybody else, then call me Miley.

When I grow up I want to be just like Benny Carter!

I would never be so arrogant to think that someone should model their life after me. But the idea of possibility the idea that I get to live my dreams out in public, hopefully will show to other folks that it's possible. So I prefer the term 'possibility model' to 'role model.'

I remember in Indonesia, there was this actor in a film that got pretty big internationally, and he went to Hollywood. Seeing an Indonesian guy doing that when I was 13 or 14, it really motivated me.

If we wish to express what we want the men of future generations to be, we must say: Let them be like Che! If we wish to say how we want our children to be educated, we must say without hesitation: We want them to be educated in Che’s spirit! If we want the model of a man, who does not belong to our times but to the future, I say from the depths of my heart that such a model, without a single stain on his conduct, without a single stain on his action, is Che!

Lots of women tell me I'm their idol.

I thought I was going to be like Kevin Spacey in college.

They need a role model. They need a star!

I idolized Superman when I was younger. I thought he and I had a lot in common. He was always going into phonebooths and taking off all his clothes.

I was a teenager, and I went to see the Superman movie, and up to the point I walked into that movie, I was a kid with no direction and no real purpose and no strong parental figures, and kind of aimless. I walked out of that movie knowing that whatever my life was going to be from then on, it had to have something to do with Superman, because something touched me emotionally with Christopher Reeve's performance.