Quotes About Actually Doing Something

#1. Do you remember back when you felt you could actually do something to make the world better?" "You're talking to the wrong man. I work for central government, remember? Actually doing something is the mistake we're trained to avoid.

Chris Cleave

#2. Between being able to and actually doing something lies an ocean, and on its bottom rests all too often the wreck of willpower.

Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach

#3. We're actually doing something scripted that's totally, you know, we kind of know what's going on, however, we're having to live life and death as the art.

Josh Holloway

#4. Do you think I'm somehow healthier because I don't know how to repress? Is it possible that constant fear is the natural state of man and that by living close to my fear I am actually doing something heroic, Murray?"
Do you feel heroic?"
No."
Then you probably aren't.

Don DeLillo

#5. If the only side effect of the criticism is that you will feel bad about the criticism, then you have to compare that bad feeling with the benefits you'll get from actually doing something worth doing. Being remarkable is exciting, fun, profitable, and great for your career. Feeling bad wears off.

Seth Godin

#6. Mental simulation is not as good as actually doing something. But it's the next best thing. And the right kind of a story is a simulation.

Chip Heath

#7. You are actually doing something. You are getting into this process without making sure that what you're doing is okay. Things are actually taking place, almost of their own accord, very simply and directly. That is meditation.

Chogyam Trungpa

#8. I think fame comes from actually doing something big with your career.

Leah LaBelle

#9. Videogames make you feel like you're actually doing something. Your brain processes the tiered game achievements as real-life achievements. Every time you get to the next level, hot jets of reward chemical coat your brain in a lathery foam, and it seems like you're actually accomplishing stuff.

Chris Hardwick

#10. Any person who has spent time outdoors actually doing something, such as hunting and fishing as opposed to standing there with a doobie in his mouth, knows nature is not intrinsically healthy.

P. J. O'Rourke

#11. A bunch of unearned trophies around the house would make me hooked on awards, which is bad in general, but especially bad if you don't deserve them. The whole experience made me want to win another trophy, but win it for actually doing something great.

Mindy Kaling

#12. Talking about the problem had replaced actually doing something about it.

Rick Yancey

#13. For me and most of my friends who are comedians, if you've been doing comedy for a while, your tolerance for things actually moves. I find it very hard to be shocked, and when other people aggressively take offense to something, I'm sometimes confused.

Demetri Martin

#14. Actually, you can be bad at something ... but if you love doing it, that will be enough. - August Boatwright

Sue Monk Kidd

#15. The only person who ever called me Paul was my father, so I always associate it with doing something wrong, you know. So, you know, occasionally, people will come up to me on the street and try to, you know, ingratiate themselves and call me Paul. I don't like it, actually.

Bono

#16. We have to make a disciplined effort to find out what our governments are doing in these various parts of the world and what is actually happening. We have to learn to listen to each other's stories. Something we are not very good at.

Karen Armstrong

#17. When you start creating opinion, and you start creating difference of opinion, you're doing something. People are actually sitting down and critiquing. A lot of the stuff people hate, they really don't. They only look at the outer shell. They don't really get into it.

Lupe Fiasco

#18. A lot can change between planning something and actually doing it. But maybe all that really matters is that anything is different at all.

Sarah Dessen

#19. If someone is doing something crazy - or what I think is crazy - I'm watching, but also am I keeping the actual seriousness of someone actually running for president in my mind all the time?

Maria Thayer

#20. Sometimes in my class I have people come in and do monologues inspired by people they know and I always find that to be useful to do specifics about somebody and then you're actually doing a character and not doing some random old lady or something.

Amy Poehler

#21. I like helping children. I have a big thing with children. You can correspond with the child, send something to them as a gift. You know it's actually getting there and you are doing something to help.

Lisa Marie Presley

#22. Knowing you want to do something isn't the same as knowing how to do it, and even knowing how to do something isn't the same as actually doing it well.

Meg Jay

#23. If you don't know what to do, there's actually a chance of doing something new.

Philip Glass

#24. I like to take out the recycling because I actually feel like I'm doing something.

Mike Quigley

#25. The goal, then, isn't to draw some positioning charts and announce that you have differentiated your product. No, the opportunity is to actually create something that people choose to talk about, regardless of what the competition is doing.

Seth Godin

#26. Whatever I was doing, even when I was at school, I never repressed anything that I felt. I wasn't flamboyant; I was actually quite reticent most of the time. But if I felt I had to do something, I did it.

Robert Smith

#27. I want to make a drug. I want the science to be more than imaginary, where I think, 'We're learning these fundamental principles, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.' I think we are doing that, but I want to do something really practical. I want to actually, in my lifetime, help people.

Bonnie Bassler

#28. What I really love is touring on a bus with my band playing shows every night and feeling the audience, feeling the presence of people actually listening to my music. Feeding my soul is what touring feels like for me and I absolutely refuse to have a bad time doing something I really, really love.

Christina Perri

#29. I love making movies. I love writing. I love acting. I love it, and I feel really blessed to be able to actually make a living with something I love doing.

Julie Delpy

#30. I've been doing this long enough that you can tell when people have seen you in something they didn't enjoy, and when they have seen you in something they actually enjoyed.

Robin Tunney

#31. I never thought I'd end up doing comedy, but actually, it's been something I've really relished the challenge of and ended up doing quite a bit of.

Emily Berrington

#32. For a couple hours, I was a kid, doing something simple that I had never done when I was actually a kid. For a short time, I lost myself in doing something for no other reason than that it was fun.

Mia Sheridan

#33. Vanity is something that will only get in the way of doing your best work, and ultimately if you're truly vain you care more about your work than how you look in your work. I actually consider myself a pretty vain guy when it comes to that.

Philip Seymour Hoffman

#34. Passion isn't something that lives way up in the sky, in abstract dreams and hopes. It lives at ground level, in the specific details of what you're actually doing every day.

Marcus Buckingham

#35. Well, Grimm is important to me for obvious reasons. I'm lucky to be able to do what I love to do for a living. I never, ever forget that. And charity work just helps me feel like I'm doing something to support my belief that we are all one. I'd like to actually do more in the future.

Reggie Lee

#36. Sometimes people with strong ideology, whether left-wing or right-wing, refuse to do something simply because they believe it is wrong, when doing it actually benefits them. For some people, it's not just about money and political power.

Ha-Joon Chang

#37. It's a kind of meditation, especially when you wake up before everyone else. And it gives my hands something to do while I scheme." "Is that what I've been doing wrong?" Maeve wondered aloud, stirring a lump of sugar into her coffee. "I've never actually set aside time to deliberately scheme.

Gabriella Pierce

#38. We have an idea that if something we're doing isn't actually earning money, or spending it, then it's completely worthless. But if you start to work less, you can actually start to give more to society, but on a local level.

Tom Hodgkinson

#39. But as long as you think, "I am doing this," or "I have to do this," or "I must attain something special," you are actually not doing anything ... when you do not try to do anything special, then you do something. When there is no gaining idea in what you do, then you do something.

Shunryu Suzuki

#40. After all those years of doing remote detonations, where we just push a button and something explodes, to actually see a nice big fat line of black smoke heading toward something that will blow up is very satisfying.

Adam Savage

#41. It's always scary when you're doing a sequel to a film, because you don't want to just repeat the first film in a different location like most sequels. You want to do something totally different, and something that actually expands the world of the main character.

Efren Ramirez

#42. One good and bad thing about New York is there's so much exciting stuff and so many people doing something interesting. I actually find in New York that you become more careerist and more focused on what's the newest, hippest thing.

Mike Mills

#43. You try a lot of things and you don't know what the hell you're doing. If you're actually inventing something you shouldn't know what you're doing.

Caterina Fake

#44. Doing something that you love regardless when it's a blockbuster movie or you're writing a pop song or trying shamelessly to succeed in something is not selling out. I think that's actually fine, and I would encourage that all the time.

Adam Levine

#45. At first glance, you read something on the page and it can seem one way, and you can have your decisions before you wind up on set about what that set is supposed to mean, but until you're actually there doing them, there's really no way to understand it.

Leonardo DiCaprio

#46. I've always loved reporting from the field most of all. There's something about doing live TV and being there as it happens that's always appealed to me. I think there's great value to bearing witness to these events as they're actually happening.

Anderson Cooper

#47. I want to go to Harry Potter Land! I actually should text Emma Watson to see if she can hook us up with a backstage pass or something. That's the perk of doing a movie with Emma called 'The Perks Of Being A Wallflower.'

Nina Dobrev

#48. A baby's existence for the first three months is a one-way street. One person is doing all the work and the other is crying, sleeping and pooping. So the first moment when you're actually able to do something and they acknowledge your presence, that's a big deal. A very big deal.

Colin Hanks

#49. If you dream you do something, it's as if you actually are doing it from your brain's point of view.

Stephen LaBerge

#50. When you envision yourself doing something, you'll be surprised at how much that helps you to actually do it.

Selim Nurudeen

#51. I have learnt through doing interviews throughout my life that the way that somebody can write about something can change entirely how it was meant, or what actually happened.

PJ Harvey

#52. I'm actually very ordinary, except people get to pay their money to come watch me work. The same way that we go to McDonald's.. we don't care about the guy behind the counter, but if he was doing something special, we'd pay our money to go watch him cook that hamburger.

Samuel L. Jackson

#53. We can let ourselves enjoy life. If we want something and can afford it, buy it. If we want to do something that is legal and harmless, do it. When we're actually involved with doing something that is recreational, don't find ways to feel bad. Let go and enjoy life.

Melody Beattie

#54. Have you ever tried to stop her from doing something she wants to do?' Desiderio asked.
Mahdi sighed. 'Yeah, actually, I have,' he said. 'No further explanation needed.

Jennifer Donnelly

#55. Do as little as necessary to appear to be doing something without actually committing to a cause or course of action.

Garry Kasparov

#56. I actually don't have a great surplus of ideas. Some evolve very slowly, over many years, but I sort of trust that all of the interesting ones will become something that I eventually end up doing.

Miranda July

#57. I think when you've had success, publishers and reviewers and readers are willing to let you try something new if you've already proven yourself. They're excited about what you're doing, you have people interested in it, and actually waiting for it. It's empowering.

Lois Lowry

#58. For me, being onstage for an hour and a half, my confidence was really huge for me. Doing eight shows a week for a run, I was like: "I'm actually doing this." And now I feel more confident going into something.

Agyness Deyn

#59. Third, for people who aren't doing it already, take classes - they're worthwhile. Workshops or classes - a workshop is where you do actually get feedback on your work, not just something where you go and sit for a day.

Octavia Butler

#60. That's why I love road trips, dude. It's like doing something without actually doing anything.

John Green

#61. In fact, a case could be made that worrying about a problem actually prevents you from resolving it, because it deceives your mind into thinking that you're doing something when really you're not.

Sarah Strohmeyer

#62. After doing 'Firefly' and moving on, I always wanted to be part of a series again. I love doing films, too, but there's just something special about being part of the team and feeling like you're actually a part of the family, and I always look to re-create that.

Summer Glau

#63. I think to actually be an Olympian to me means that you've trained most of your life, or you've dedicated most of your life or a big chunk of your life into doing something that you believe that you can accomplish.

Bryan Clay

#64. My dream guests are really not so much celebrities. They're people who are actually interesting and they're doing something interesting with their lives or had an interesting experience in some way. I really enjoy talking to regular, everyday people.

Ellen DeGeneres

#65. I actually wanted to be a doctor. But doing all those horrid rat dissections made me faint. I studied science till the 12th standard and later took up commerce. I was planning to do chartered accountancy, but fate had something else in store for me.

Bipasha Basu

#66. If you consider the definition of authenticity, it's saying something and actually doing it. I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It's all authentic.

Lana Del Rey

#67. By doing something positive in this world, you're helping people and the future. We're all trying to help the world ... make it a better place to live. We're actually still changing the world, aren't we?

Rick Danko

#68. When we know something that needs to be done but isn't currently getting done, we often say, I just need more discipline. Actually, we need the habit of doing it. And we need just enough discipline to build the habit.

Gary W. Keller

#69. Often your 'fixes' are actually removing capabilities that you had, because they were 'too confusing to the user'. GNOME seems to be developed by interface Nazis, where consistently the excuse for not doing something is not 'it's too complicated to do', but 'it would confuse users'.

Linus Torvalds

#70. You want the song to be at least at the same level of goodness throughout. Whereas with something you're doing live, a song dips and rises and that can actually be worked to the song's benefit.

John Darnielle

#71. Boredom is actually the feeling of being trapped doing one thing while wanting to do something else. If we have no sense of being stuck, we simply leave the dull situation

Unknown

#72. I just happen to think people are better off doing something they actually like.

Leonardo DiCaprio

#73. There's a big difference between trying to do something and actually doing it. We often say we're trying to do something-losing weight, getting more exercise, finding a job. But the truth is, we're either doing it or not doing it.

Tina Seelig

#74. I have a dark side; it's been pretty well documented. It wouldn't be bad to show that in some light in my work ... It's something I no longer fear doing and am actually excited about doing.

Matthew Perry

#75. I never think of this business as fun. I don't know why. I think I've actually said something about it being fun, but I don't think of it that way. It's not fun, doing it. It's joyful, it's passionate, it's rewarding, it's a pursuit of truth, but I don't think of it as fun. It's not a game.

Donald Sutherland

#76. I had dreams. And I had to pursue them; otherwise my soul would have shriveled. The hardest part was allowing myself to want something other than what was socially acceptable, telling myself to go after it, then actually doing it.

Connor Franta

#77. I started conducting lessons and I realized that this is actually something I like doing.

Esa-Pekka Salonen

#78. Music actually meant something when I started doing it. Too bad I wasn't mature enough to write anything that meant anything.

John Mellencamp

#79. You're going to be way happier doing what you actually love and finding other people that love the same thing than doing something that other people love so you're just cooler and you have cool friends.

Afrojack

#80. I scared myself, because once you've thought long and hard enough about doing something that is colossally stupid, you feel like you've actually done it, and then you're never quite sure what your limits are.

Laurie Halse Anderson

#81. close your eyes, count 1 through 10 and then open your eyes again. Those ten seconds will allow you to eliminate the itching sensation of doing something else. This technique is actually a form of quick meditation that can make you become a more focused person in due course.

Mark Haldin

#82. Being judgmental about your own behavior is actually another cop-out because it makes you feel as though you're doing something virtuous.

Barbara Sher

#83. Unless somebody's actually creating something and doing something spontaneous I wouldn't find it at all interesting, to watch or to create, so, I'm trying to make my solo shows something different altogether.

Thighpaulsandra

#84. Sometimes the criticism is actually useful and constructive and actually informs what I do, but most of the time, it's sort of mindless, or they're receiving something on a different frequency than I was sending it. They're just not getting what I'm doing, and that's fine.

Michael Ian Black

#85. If every kid who said he was going to the library, when he was really off doing something else, actually went to the library, they'd have to send out for more books.

Ron Koertge

#86. Then again maybe there's something that I've been doing in the privacy of my own bedroom my whole life that I think is perfectly normal but is actually illegal in thirty-two states.

Megan McCafferty

#87. I'm not opposed to doing a fashion line, but I want to make sure it's the right thing and make sure its something people actually want instead of putting out a bunch of stuff that's already been done.

Brad Goreski

#88. Jim Rohn's law of diminishing intent says that the longer you delay something, the less probability you have of actually doing it.

Michael Hyatt

#89. I've been a professional actor now for 38 years. A long time. And it's wonderful to earn your living doing something that you love. To think people actually give you money for it!

Derek Jacobi

#90. Theoretical webs, dirty webs, fusty webs, old and shrivelling away into nothingness, a fine dust.Who needs that kind of stuff. Far far better getting out into the open air and doing it, actually doing it, something solid and concrete and unconceptualisable.

James Kelman

#91. Do you think I could keep bees one day?" I asked. August said, "Didn't you tell me this past week one of the things you loved was bees and honey? Now, if that's so, you'll be a fine beekeeper. Actually, you can be bad at something, Lily, but if you love doing it, that will be enough." The

Sue Monk Kidd

#92. Something like riding a horse - which I've recently started doing - requires courage, especially for me, as I started out being actually scared of horses.

Mary Gaitskill

#93. If you pick something you actually enjoy doing, you have fun every day of your life.

Heidi Klum

#94. Often my characters don't know what the issues of the play are. They think they're doing one thing, but something else is actually orchestrating their lives.

David Rabe