The glory of being a carrier pilot has certainly worn off.

Throughout my career, I fed off the fuel of people not being able to understand me.

Never get married in college; it’s hard to get a start if a prospective employer finds you’ve already made one mistake.

I believe that God’s dream is that we be successful in our careers, and that we be able to send our kids to college. I don’t mean that everyone is going to be rich, and I preach a lot on blooming where you’re planted. But I don’t have the mindset that money is a bad thing.

All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.

Have you ever asked yourselves what you are going to do when you grow up? In all likelihood you will get married, and before you know where you are, you will be mothers and fathers; and you will then be tied to a job, or to the kitchen, in which you will gradually wither away. Is that all that your life is going to be?

In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: They must be fit for it. They must not do too much of it. And they must have a sense of success in it.

I became an actress because my mom wanted me to become an actress. It took me until my mid-30s to realize I actually didn’t. I actually wanted to write and direct and be more involved in politics and humanitarian issues.

On a career level, I always advise people to look ahead and be open to changes in direction. That job that seems so good now can easily turn into a nightmare if you do not see the possible corners it can land you in.

I think that once you’ve had a few No. 1s in your career that you’ve kind of proven yourself, and I don’t feel the need to prove anything anymore.

I think music is something that can, and should, be used to get you into different things because eventually what goes up must come down – we’re not going to be the number one group in the world forever – so you have to have something else to fall back on.

Few men would dare to read their own autobiography if all their deeds were recorded in it; few can look back upon their entire career without a blush.

Throughout my career, I learned plenty about war on the battlefield, but I learned even more about the importance of finding peace. And that is what the State Department and U.S.A.I.D. do: prevent the wars that we can avoid so that we fight only the ones we must.

In my career as a director, there’s always been some point where you get halfway through it, or three-quarters, and you go: ‚What is this thing all about, and why am I telling the story? Does anybody really care about seeing this?‘ At that time you have to say: ‚OK, forget that and just go ahead.‘

The man with the best job in the country is the vice-president. All he has to do is get up every morning and say, ‚How is the president?‘

Dreaming about being an actress, is more exciting then being one.

Doing music to pay bills is an uncomfortable situation. I never wanted to be in that situation.

The day I think I’m not enjoying the game and contributing the way I would like to, I’ll hang up my boots.

Climbing to the top demands strength, whether it is to the top of Mount Everest or to the top of your career.

You learn to know a pilot in a storm.

I knew when my career was over. In 1965 my baseball card came out with no picture.

Really I feel less keen about the Army every day. I think the Church would suit me better.

The answer to all writing, to any career for that matter, is love.

If you’re working for a good company and you’re happy there, and you’re being compensated accordingly, and your work satisfies you, you should stay there.

You want to play another kind of character in another genre, and it’s been something I’ve been trying to do if I can in the career so far, and it’s something I hope to continue because it’s interesting to me and you get to do different things as an actor.

If my mother knew I did this for a living, she’d kill me. She thinks I’m selling dope.

I like to work.

I have an expression I use as I’ve gone around the world through my career: ‚You never tell another man or woman what’s in their interest. They know their interest better than you know their interest.‘

People have asked me, ‚What would you have done if you hadn’t gone into the Army?‘ I’d say I’d probably be a bus driver. I don’t know.

Nashville is my home, and the reason why I get to do what I love.

I actually started off majoring in computer science, but I knew right away I wasn’t going to stay with it. It was because I had this one professor who was the loneliest, saddest man I’ve ever known. He was a programmer, and I knew that I didn’t want to do whatever he did.

It’s very important to like the people you work with. Otherwise, your job is going to be quite miserable.

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.

If I’d had good discipline, I might have gone into music.

In any profession it gets to be a grind.

I don’t want to wake up and be bored. That’s probably my greatest fear is to have nothing to do. What better job is there than to play quarterback for an NFL team, and certainly one that I’ve been on for a long time and had success with? I don’t plan on giving it up any time soon.

I could do nothing but Brooklyn shows for the rest of my career, and I could die ignorant.

Every time I try to retire, or even think of retiring from acting, my agent comes up with a script.

In my school, the brightest boys did math and physics, the less bright did physics and chemistry, and the least bright did biology. I wanted to do math and physics, but my father made me do chemistry because he thought there would be no jobs for mathematicians.

I actually started off majoring in computer science, but I knew right away I wasn’t going to stay with it. It was because I had this one professor who was the loneliest, saddest man I’ve ever known. He was a programmer, and I knew that I didn’t want to do whatever he did. So after that, I switched to Communications.

ESPN is a great organization to work for.

As a comedian, I found this thing, this profession, that suits my mind and life force. To drop it to do something else? I just don’t get that.

As I followed my dream – stayed in-Spirit, that is, inspired – I made more money in the first year after I gave up my employment than I had made in the previous 35 years of my life.

Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.

It’s not essential for me to have a big debut week; it’s not essential for me to have big radio records.

I booked my first studio at like 12 or 13. Somewhere in that season of my life, singing along with the radio became me wanting to be on radio, you know.

I don’t think I’m bad for people. If I did think I was bad for people, I would go back to driving a truck, and I really mean this.

Find a job you like and you add five days to every week.

Even though I’ve been putting out bodies of work for years, ‚Beauty Behind the Madness‘ felt like the beginning.

Work is a necessary evil to be avoided.

When I was young I felt really overwhelmed and confused by the desire not to end up in an office, doing something I didn’t believe in.

I did stand-up, weird and ignorant stuff about my career – anything for a laugh.

I worked for Xerox for 4 years and after that I knew I was never going to be a corporate person. It wasn’t my environment.

I was a journeyman chef of middling abilities. Whatever authority I have as a commenter on this world comes from the sheer weight of 28 years in the business. I kicked around for 28 years and came out the other end alive and able to form a sentence.

I think everyone should experience defeat at least once during their career. You learn a lot from it.

A career is wonderful, but you can’t curl up with it on a cold night.

My whole life and my whole career, even through my music, I tell people: let’s unify; let’s show more love.

Madonna and I are very different. Just saying. We’re very different. I wouldn’t make that comparison at all, and I don’t mean to disrespect Madonna: she’s a nice lady, and she’s had a fantastic, huge career – biggest pop star of all time.

If I could have worked from the time I was born until I was 18 and never had to work again, I would have done it.

My family didn’t have a lot of money, so I worked my heart out to get my degrees. But the minute I graduated, suddenly everyone was asking me, ‚Well, when are you going to get married and start having kids?‘ And the truth is I had no idea how I would balance the expected role of wife and mother with a challenging career.

I love my job, but it’s more than that: I need it.