As a soccer player, I wanted an FA Cup winner’s medal. As an actor you want an Oscar. As a chef it’s three-Michelin’s stars, there’s no greater than that. So pushing yourself to the extreme creates a lot of pressure and a lot of excitement, and more importantly, it shows on the plate.

Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.

Oh yes. I’m an actor, so I just learn my lines, and show up and do it. I gave it a little bit of thought.

The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.

Working with our military community has been the biggest honor of my life.

While some doubted that connecting the world was actually important, we were building. While others doubted that this would be sustainable, you were forming lasting connections. We just cared more about connecting the world than anyone else. And we still do today.

The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort? Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean, is there something wrong with society that’s making us so pressurized, that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?

We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent.

Wherever the enemy wants to fight, we will follow him to the ends of the Earth. We’ll adapt, we’ll train, we’ll advise, we’ll mentor, and we’ll fight, and we’ll fight well.

As an artist your first loyalty is to your art. Unless this is the case, you’re going to be a second-rate artist.

I always make my dreams into goals.

Successful people will always tell you you can do something. It’s the people who have never accomplished anything who will always discourage you from trying to achieve excellent things.

Celebrity is the chastisement of merit and the punishment of talent.

Actors I admire? Ed Harris, or course, I think he’s terrific; because I know he always had to fight being what he looked like a lot, but I think he’s a terrific actor.

Everybody wants to be famous, but nobody wants to do the work. I live by that. You grind hard so you can play hard. At the end of the day, you put all the work in, and eventually it’ll pay off. It could be in a year, it could be in 30 years. Eventually, your hard work will pay off.

If my films don’t show a profit, I know I’m doing something right.

I know I have a responsibility to the fans.

Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement.

A man will turn over half a library to make one book.

What we achieved was a nuclear pause, not a nuclear halt.

I feel that I’ve done what I wanted to do, and that makes me feel fairly content.

The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of his race.

I’m not a fast thinker, but once I am interested in something, I am doing it for many years.

I do a little thing about the way people shake the sweetener packet. You know, like they’re all excited. I want to get all the granules down to one end. I love all these rituals.

Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn’t be done.

Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.

You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.

Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience.

We was able to become real successful in the mixtape space.

I probably work harder, putting in a lot of time and effort, than a lot of drivers because all I think about, and all I do, is to do with racing, trying to make myself a better driver.

I’m super serious about music. That’s, like, the only thing I’m serious about.

My father will anticipate everything. He will leave you and me no chance to do a great and brilliant deed.

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

A lot of critics object to what I do, but I got into comedy to make people laugh, and I’ve always worked hard.

I was 18 years old, and it was a dream come true for me to work out and eat great food for free. What else do you want in life? People think that is what it is like to be in a SEAL team, but it is less than a fraction of your career as a real SEAL.

Derbies are always difficult to play because you have to handle the pressure. There’s no advantage or disadvantage for either side.

Believe it or not, I was just given an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Tennessee.

I love Steve Carell.

Ability hits the mark where presumption overshoots and diffidence falls short.

With all the… success that I’ve been lucky enough to get? That doesn’t happen unless the home life is solid.

Being acknowledged for your work is always a great accomplishment, whether it’s people in my city, kids in the street, all the way up to the Grammys.

When a person starts to talk about their dreams, it’s as if something bubbles up from within. Their eyes brighten, their face glows, and you can feel the excitement in their words.

I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night.

Years ago I met Richard Burton in Port Talbot, my home town, and afterwards he passed in his car with his wife, and I thought, ‚I want to get out and become like him‘. Not because of Wales, because I love Wales, but because I was so limited as a child at school and so bereft and lonely, and I thought becoming an actor would do that.

What one has to do usually can be done.

All I ever wanted to do with my life was own a little house. I did that way back with ‚Rocky,‘ so now everything I do is just icing on the cake.

A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.

I’m sure everyone knows now that only a few have performed in Madison Square Garden. That list is so small. Now I’m on that list. I’m a part of a very small group, which is unbelievable. You relish in that moment for a second.

The joy of doing well as a batsman for your country is much more than that little joy of going for a party and enjoying music. It is a completely different high, and I get high by performances. That’s what I enjoy now.

All great achievements require time.

If you’re going to spend two years of your life on something, it has to matter to you; you have to be passionate about it.

I treated it like every day was my last day with a basketball.

It’s what counts, isn’t it, on the Sunday, rather than pre-season testing. If you lock up, you do a little mistake, it’s nothing, but if you do it on Sunday, you lose a place or you have to box for a flat spot or something like that. It’s a much bigger problem.

I’m not really an actor, I’m a reactor; I’m a pitchman. That’s what I do best. Nobody can do it any better.

People tend to play in their comfort zone, so the best things are achieved in a state of surprise, actually.

We are going to transform Britain’s rail system from the worst in the world to the best. If you can do a few things like that, when the body gives out, you can say you’ve lived a good life.

I’ve done everything I wanted to do, even if I have had to pay a very high price – which has been the case most of the time.

Once you get on the playing field it’s not about whether you’re liked or not liked. All that matters is to play at a high level and do whatever it takes to help your team win. That’s what it’s about.

It’s easy to become very self-critical when you’re an actor. Then you get critiqued by the critics. Whether you agree with them or not, people are passing judgment on you.

The thing most people don’t pick up when they become an entrepreneur is that it never ends. It’s 24/7.