Pursuing a Goal Quotes

I never had a doubt that I would make it to the NBA, even when I wasn't playing.

I always wanted to be an actor, even when I was a little kid. When I used to run away from home, I'd go to movies and sit all night watching Kirk Douglas. When I was 16, I tried getting into the Actors Studio, and they told me to get lost. I said 'I'll come back when I'm a man,' and I came back when I was 30.

Growing up it was always a dream. I just always thought as long as I worked hard that someone would take a look at me and know I could play in the NBA.

When I saw the 2010 Games and speed skating, I had a change of heart. I had always dreamed of being an Olympian, and something clicked inside of me. I knew I had to move to Salt Lake City and make this dream a reality.

Running down a dream... working on a mystery... going wherever it leads.

A lot of guys ask me, 'Why did you go straight from high school to the NBA?' So I ask them, 'If you had the opportunity to take your dream job at 17- or 18-years-old, would you do it?'

It's not easy to leave your hometown and your family and your support system and come out to Los Angeles to - to pursue a dream where the odds are not in your favor.

I wanted to run away from everything but I wanted to run towards something too.

The conscious decision, early on, was that I was going to live in New York. That was it.

When you find yourself in the thickness of pursuing a goal or dream, stop only to rest. Momentum builds success.

A deal is like chasing a girl. You work on it until she says, 'Yes,' for a date.

I used to kind of go for it, right? Like, I'd be the one who would say, 'All right, there's Kate Moss. I'm going to try to make out with her.'

There is a destination but no way there; what we refer to as way is hesitation.

Not everyone can invest their heart into learning something and making it fully realized, and the chances are 9 out of 10 that it's gonna get thrown away.