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.

I would love to sign on to do a movie if it was the right role and if it was the right script, because I would be taking time away from music to tell a big grand story, and spend all of my time and pouring all of my emotions into being someone else. So for me to do that, it would have to be a story worth telling.

Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.

Having these colossal accolades and titles, they get in the way.

Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.

Racing, competing, it’s in my blood. It’s part of me, it’s part of my life; I have been doing it all my life and it stands out above everything else.

Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.

If I’d observed all the rules, I’d never have got anywhere.

By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.

Whatever you want to do, do with full passion and work really hard towards it. Don’t look anywhere else. There will be a few distractions, but if you can be true to yourself, you will be successful for sure.

It is no use saying, ‚We are doing our best.‘ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.

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

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.

The pressure on young chefs today is far greater than ever before in terms of social skills, marketing skills, cooking skills, personality and, more importantly, delivering on the plate. So you need to be strong. Physically fit. So my chefs get weighed every time they come into the kitchen.

I’ve had mixtapes that have been better than albums I’ve heard from other artists. I take my time; I put my heart into it.

Big results require big ambitions.

I sang a song at my sister’s wedding. My mother forced me into that, too. But that one felt all right.

It’s very fun to be the hunter of the sounds. The hunter of the right energy. And it’s not really about if every sound is correct; it’s more the energy – if it hits you in some way, it doesn’t really matter to me if it’s not perfect. I’m still very excited while hunting for songs.

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.

Every noble work is at first impossible.

I remember when my mother, Shyamala Harris, bought our first home. I was thirteen. She was so proud, and my sister and I were so excited. Millions of Americans know that feeling of walking through the front door of their own home for the first time – the feeling of reaching for opportunity and finding it.

A BMW can’t take you as far as a diploma.

Growth is the great separator between those who succeed and those who do not. When I see a person beginning to separate themselves from the pack, it’s almost always due to personal growth.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

It takes up enough of my time and interest just working on comedy. I just enjoy it and love doing it.

The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch.

When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank.

The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every calling, is diligence.

I’ve played with IVs before, during and after games. I’ve played with a broken hand, a sprained ankle, a torn shoulder, a fractured tooth, a severed lip, and a knee the size of a softball. I don’t miss 15 games because of a toe injury that everybody knows wasn’t that serious in the first place.

Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard.

I have two Golden Boot awards at home. It would be nice to win another, but I wouldn’t mind it if I didn’t.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature.

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

The mark of all good art is not that the thing done is done exactly or finely, for machinery may do as much, but that it is worked out with the head and the workman’s heart.

Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.

Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.

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

People say ‚I want to be rich‘. The question is, ‚Are you willing to do what it takes?‘

Almost everything that is great has been done by youth.

My life turned out to be beyond my greatest dreams.

What nature requires is obtainable, and within easy reach. It is for the superfluous we sweat.

I just am committed wholeheartedly to theatre with no intermission.

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 really appreciate the moments that I was able to win rap album of the year or whatever.

I think my first thought on reaching the summit- of course, I was very, very pleased to be there, naturally – but my first thought was one of a little bit of surprise. I was a little bit surprised that here I was, Ed Hillary, on top of Mt. Everest. After all, this is the ambition of most mountaineers.

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.

There is nothing better than getting shot at and missed. It’s really great.

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

Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

Starting at about, I guess, forever, I’ve always looked forward to getting older. When I was 14, I couldn’t wait to be 16 and get a driver’s license.

I believe the destiny of your generation – and your nation – is a rendezvous with excellence.

When you stand for something, you’ve got to stand for it all the way, not half way.

We were the first generation to have to deal with the modern stardom of football. Some handled it better than others.

It is not history which uses men as a means of achieving – as if it were an individual person – its own ends. History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends.

When you are laboring for others let it be with the same zeal as if it were for yourself.

The great thing about America is that you can come from the worst circumstances and become something remarkable.

I’m not Russell Crowe. I’m not going to do a period piece.

Morgan Freeman is so class. He’s so cool. He’s so scary.

The Sisters of Notre Dame at St. Aloysius Grade School influenced my life tremendously. This was due to the fact that they encouraged you always to make sure that God is the focus of your life, and they didn’t allow you to do anything except to the very best of your ability.