I Paid My Dues Quotes

#1. I was in New York for a little while, doing some really bad theater. I did some great stuff, too, but there were Saturday morning theater performances in one-third-filled church basements. So, I paid my dues.

Silas Weir Mitchell

#2. I paid my dues. I have crawled to gigs. I have served people coffee. I worked hard selling all these records out the back of my car. Girl, I'm ready to sell one the real way now.

Valerie June

#3. Whatever luck I had, I made. I was never a natural athlete, but I paid my dues in sweat and concentration and took the time necessary to learn karate and become world champion.

Chuck Norris

#4. I paid my dues at drama school and worked backstage in every Theatre in London.

Richard O'Brien

#5. I won't say, 'I have two degrees; I shouldn't be getting your latte.' Because I paid my dues when I got to the table, I actually had something to say.

Dana Fox

#6. Well, I thought, last night I paid my dues. I faced death. Now I can stay.

Mark Vonnegut

#7. Just know that I was once considered just a dreamer ... Then I paid my dues and turned so many doubters to believers ...

Big K.R.I.T.

#8. I was a prodigy who learned how difficult writing was only after getting published. I paid my dues later.

David Quammen

#9. I did my time for the rape. I paid my money to Las Vegas. I paid my dues.

Mike Tyson

#10. If I hadn't had the talent, the networks wouldn't have televised my fights. No one has made me; I made myself. I paid my dues.

Sugar Ray Leonard

#11. I've paid my dues in the classical trenches.

Laila Robins

#12. Lord knows I've paid my dues getting through, tangled up in blue.

Bob Dylan

#13. I haven't had to struggle very much. I haven't paid my dues. I think I have been lucky.

Colin Firth

#14. Over the years, I was never really driven to become a solo artist, but I was curious to find out who I was as an individual creative person. It's taken some time, but now I feel I've truly paid my dues. I guess I'm at a point now where I'm more comfortable in my own skin.

Annie Lennox

#15. I've paid my dues. I've earned your votes. Send me.

Jesse Jackson

#16. Johnnie Cochran hasn't spent 20 years serving people in low-income, minority neighborhoods, ridding them of gangs and narcotics. I have. He hasn't been shot at and punched. I have. I've paid my dues to be able to say I'm not a racist.

Mark Fuhrman

#17. I really have paid my dues. When I get to stay in fancy hotel suites these days, I remind myself of that.

Rita Ora

#18. In this business, if you take too long, the landscape changes. So the opportunities that were there when I decided to take a break weren't there when I came back. It's like, 'Wait a second - what happened here?' It was a real learning experience. I've paid my dues, I will tell you that.

Chris O'Donnell

#19. In life, if you are refused membership to a club, you get a refund check for dues paid; what happens to your tithes if Jesus denies you entry to God's Paradise? Mal. 3:10.

Felix Wantang

#20. I've only half-admitted I'm a professional. I know I am, I've paid my dues, but one of the things I could do better when I'm acting is to really be rigorous and to think I know how to do it. To use my brain.

Emily Mortimer

#21. And whether or not we had now paid our dues, he was my blessing, and I was his ...

Anne Fortier

#22. People say, You paid your dues, but I never paid any dues. It's always been a great trip.

Richard Donner

#23. I don't understand this phrase 'I've paid my dues.' We didn't have any money and lived on peanut butter and jelly, and I loved it. I don't regret any of it. We never expected to make it this far, but we worked hard to get here.

Ronnie Van Zant

#24. People think that I reached the top overnight; well, it took me fourteen years. I was twenty-nine before I really made it. I've had my jaws and hands broken. One arm is out of place. I've paid my dues in this business.

Larry Holmes

#25. When I cook, I generally stick with what I know, what I'm comfortable with, and what I feel I've paid my dues learning, and am good at.

Anthony Bourdain

#26. I'm a New Yorker; I've paid my dues.

Zoe Kravitz

#27. Has he paid his dues? Is he black enough? ... John Lewis and I were out there marching and organizing sit-ins back in the '60s so that his children and my children would not have to do it ... We would have been failures if had to do the same things we did.

Jim Clyburn

#28. I think I've paid my dues. I've really put in a lot of time on set.

Victoria Pratt