Starting Out Quotes

#1. What a degraded cosmos. What a case of something starting out nice and going bad.

George Saunders

#2. On a good night, I'm just into the flow and seeing the pictures and words in my mind clearly before I say them. On a bad night, which to be honest are nowhere near as bad as when I was starting out, I just concentrate on performing the routines correctly. I focus on my delivery.

Franklyn Ajaye

#3. There are two ways to look at my publishing career. One is that I'm a novelist churning out books, who is eight into a series; the other way is that I'm a cartoonist, just starting out. Most cartoonists have long careers: Charles Schulz drew Peanuts for 50 years.

Jeff Kinney

#4. It gets super dark. I did a bunch of intense indie movies when I was starting out in my career and I was always in a bad mood because, when you're dealing with the subject matter of losing your baby, getting raped and all that stuff, it's not fun to go through. You really have to go there.

Busy Philipps

#5. Often when you are starting out in comedy, you will find that people will laugh at the things you didn't think were funny. It's important to pay attention also to what people are laughing at when you are just talking in regular conversation. Often that is when you are truly being yourself.

Natasha Leggero

#6. I mean, we did feel nervous, starting out, but I wouldnt say it was hard. We just did what we loved and thankfully it worked out for the best.

Hayley Williams

#7. I considered moving to New York or Los Angeles, but they're two of the hardest places to move to when you're just starting out in a band.

Dave Keuning

#8. When I was first starting out as a kid, I tried to pad my resume with everything I had ever done - ice-skate, carry a tune. I can't dance for my life, but I can learn, so I'll tell people I can dance. I play the piano - I'm a really good pianist, actually.

Alexandra Daddario

#9. When I was starting out, science fiction was a little genre over there, which only a few people read. But now
where are you going to put, for example, Salman Rushdie? Or any of the South American writers? Most people get by calling them magical realists.

Doris Lessing

#10. Los Angeles is where you have to be if you want to be an actor. You have no choice. You go there or New York. I flipped a coin about it. It came up New York, so I flipped again. When you're starting out to be an actor, who wants to go where it's cold and miserable and be poor there?

Harrison Ford

#11. It was a nice feeling. Like starting out on a long walk, and knowing you're headed in the right direction.

Barry Martin

#12. A lot of young people just starting out unskilled, as all Americans do when they're born here, come to this country, and so the business community is for immigration. Big businesses, small businesses, high-tech, low-tech, the communities of faith, and the Republican leadership.

Grover Norquist

#13. Being part of a team helped me so much. I know the fact that there was a man in the room with me all those years made the medicine go down. I had made the companies money. I didn't have to start, like a lot of women, from ground zero. My path was not the same as a woman starting out by herself.

Nancy Meyers

#14. Don't ever underestimate the power of mentoring someone, or helping some young actor, doing a favor for them, or introducing- everyone needs somebody to help them along when they're first starting out.

Allison Janney

#15. To make money in New York, you have to add gigs when starting out, so while I was acting quite a bit, I would do modeling.

June Squibb

#16. Since reality TV everything is much more celebrity-oriented, there are gossip magazines, people seem to be obsessed with every little detail. That's why I'm so pleased that I'm not starting out now.

Andy Bell

#17. One of the things that helped me a lot as I was starting out in my career was that I got myself to France and Europe and California, and spent time immersing myself in those culinary traditions. I'd encourage future chefs to dive into whatever culture most excites them, and that they want to cook.

Rick Tramonto

#18. When I was starting out, young actresses had the studio system to protect them. Now you have a host of sharks, from your agent to your publicist to your lawyer.

Francesca Annis

#19. When you're first starting out, there's always the temptation to hide behind distortion because it lets you get away with murder. But, when it comes to rhythm work, you've gotta back off that gain control a bit, especially if you're playing with another guitarist.

Kirk Hammett

#20. Because I also teach college, I am around a lot of young women who are just starting out, and I often see them coming up against certain expectations that may be more gender-specific.

Liza Johnson

#21. When I was a young comic just starting out, I was very cautious, as I didn't want to alienate people. George Carlin's bravery became a benchmark. I became perfectly fine with alienating some people in the audience. That just comes with the territory.

Paul Provenza

#22. I always loved the 'L.A. Weekly.' I totally looked up to it when Weezer was starting out, and I always wanted to be in it, and they always totally ignored us!

Rivers Cuomo

#23. After 34 years, I feel like I did when I was starting out. I feel excited and feel I've never been better doing what I do.

Louie Anderson

#24. When I was starting out, I did not do short fiction well, because I kept wanting to write books.

Elizabeth Moon

#25. When I was starting out, William Goldman took me under his wing, and he's still the person I show pages to.

Aaron Sorkin

#26. I think when we were starting out, it was more about imitating our songwriting heroes. We would try to write songs like Neil Finn, or we would try to write songs like Ray Davies, or we would try to write songs like Glenn Tilbrook.

Adam Schlesinger

#27. The most important characteristic that has allowed me to succeed is confidence. I have always been comfortable in my own skin, and even when I was just starting out in my career, had the strength and self-assurance to ask tough questions and push for answers.

Heather Bresch

#28. I loved 'Truly Madly Deeply' and all those 1990s romcoms because you had great actresses like Juliet Stevenson and Emma Thompson starting out.

Helen George

#29. When I was first starting out, if you were acting on television, it was a real stigma.

Christine Lahti

#30. When I was starting out in 1988, I was doing cartoons on President George H. W. Bush, Iraq and the fall of Soviet Union.

Steve Breen

#31. When you're starting out, every line in a show or a commercial is like a huge success.

Emmanuelle Chriqui

#32. He has once built his fortune, starting out with empty hands; now he had to rebuild his life, starting out with an empty spirit

Ayn Rand

#33. Everything about starting out in comedy is pride-swallowing, from handing out fliers to bombing in front of audiences.

Mike Birbiglia

#34. When I was starting out, when I put aside my career as an economist. I looked at every book, went to every show, did my first stories, developed my first films. A fabulous time.

Sebastiao Salgado

#35. When you're starting out as an actor, there isn't much food around. I was lucky to have a hit pretty early on. I didn't starve too long.

Steve Guttenberg

#36. The polishedness and the sophistication were what I was interested in. I mean, give me a polka dot, a floral print, a pleated dress, a big fur coat, that was always my language, and it wasn't very "in" when I was starting out, so I had a difficult time in the beginning.

Jason Wu

#37. Cultural listening is the skill of being able to see beyond the symptom to the underlying dynamic. It's an extremely powerful tool to develop as a leader, whether you're the CEO, a team leader, or a solopreneur just starting out.

Jonathan Raymond

#38. Help each user personally. Sure that won't scale to a very large size, but when a startup is just starting out, it really helps you have an advantage as a small and nimble company.

John Collison

#39. I tried to be just a singer of standards when I was starting out. And there was nothing special enough about my voice to make it that far. So I feel a bit like Rod Stewart. Once you've had that rock career, people will give you that chance where otherwise they might not.

Nellie McKay

#40. I think what I would say to my younger self, and probably to younger, just starting-out writers is that a lot of times you're just afraid to put yourself out there, and it's uncomfortable because it's working up the courage to do something, to push yourself to do those things.

Carol Leifer

#41. 'Justice League' takes place in the past, and Aquaman has a lot more to prove. He's just starting out. The perception is already beginning, and all these super humans are just showing up, and here's Aquaman. The perception is, 'What's next? Now we've got a guy talking to fish. What can be next?'

Geoff Johns

#42. At one point when I was very young, when I was first starting out, I thought, 'Well, one day I'll be able to put all the music away and become a real comedian.' But then I realized there are amazing musical comedians out there, that musical comedy is probably something I'll always want to pursue.

Bo Burnham

#43. Creative people, especially those who are just starting out, feel that they have to conform and be a mass-produced product in order to be noticed. The truth of the matter is that genuineness and unconventionality is often what helps make a mark on the world.

Veronika Carnaby

#44. I would say take any work you can get. Don't pass on something if it's a commercial. Take it. Work really does lead to other work. Especially if you're just starting out, work begets work.

Allison Jones

#45. I do like to write about characters who aren't just starting out, who have had adventures before, who have had a past they aren't that happy looking back on.

Martha Wells

#46. I've learned that asking ourselves not just what we want to be, but who we want to be is important at every stage of our lives, not just when we're starting out in the world. That's because in a way, we're starting out fresh in the world every single day.

Maria Shriver

#47. Starting out to make money is the greatest mistake in life. Do what you feel you have a flair for doing, and if you are good enough at it, the money will come.

Greer Garson

#48. But I think that any young drummer starting out today should get himself a great teacher and learn all there is to know about the instrument that he wants to play.

Buddy Rich

#49. Epic things start with small humble steps. Pay respect to your beginnings. And if you're just starting out, know that it's OK to be sucky. To be small. To be messy and chaotic. Just make sure to never ever stop dreaming.

Vishen Lakhiani

#50. If you had told me when I was starting out that I would be coming down to Nashville, kind of weaving in and out of the country scene, I never would've thought that in a million years.

Kid Rock

#51. The most important thing when starting out with essay writing is to find a voice with which you're comfortable. You need to find a persona that is very much like you, but slightly caricatured.

Anne Fadiman

#52. The only way to avoid disruption is to constantly do what you would if you were just starting out.

Aaron Levie

#53. Even while starting out I took things very seriously; I wasn't the sort of kid that would do a doll commercial or do a series for Nickelodeon. They asked me to do silly things, and I wasn't a silly kid.

Kristen Stewart

#54. I always send new writers to 'Writer's Digest Books' line-up of how-to books. I read them all when I was starting out, and they were very helpful.

Gail Z. Martin

#55. But a girl starting out in life might well say to herself: 'Is this it? You worked hard and denied yourself things and what you got at the end was hard work and self-denial?

Terry Pratchett

#56. Every day feels like just starting out because I still have so much more to learn.

Tony Bennett

#57. I think that the idea of reaching young girls that are in college is something that we are strongly open to because who better wants to know how to live a more purposeful life than people who are starting out?

Oprah Winfrey

#58. My advice to writers just starting out? Don't use semi-colons! They are transvestite hermaphrodites, representing exactly nothing. All they do is suggest you might have gone to college.

Kurt Vonnegut

#59. I was never strategic really, but back when I was starting out no one cared. In the acting community, box office didn't matter. I really think it was a mistake when they started paying people like $20 million to do a movie because now it's all people think about. Is she worth it? Is he worth it?

Winona Ryder

#60. Especially when writers are just starting out, the emphasis should be not only upon what they write, but equally upon the process of writing. A successful class is a class where no one feels that 'writer's block' is a high-priority subject.

Mary Oliver

#61. Omens. If I were beginning again, starting out in life, I would ignore all omens, neither heeding them nor trying to disable them. If we chose to pass them by, then perhaps they would lose their power, as old gods and goddesses, no longer worshiped, fade away and lose their grip on us.

Margaret George

#62. I used to go to open mics in New York when I was starting out, and it was mostly just people who wanted an audience to look at them for eight minutes on a stage.

Kristen Schaal

#63. When I was first starting out, I drove myself around the country in my Honda Civic, playing anywhere that would have me. This is a chance to strip the songs down to their roots and let the audience hear them the way I write them.

Eric Hutchinson

#64. I love the studio system. Love that studio system and all their money. They're great; I think they're fabulous . You know, what it is right now is I feel like I'm still learning as a filmmaker, I'm still starting out.

Katie Aselton

#65. If you're just starting out as a writer, you could do worse than strip your television's electric plug-wire, wrap a spike around it, and then stick it back into the wall. See what blows, and how far. Just an idea.

Stephen King

#66. Dustin Hoffman was the greatest. He had so much information to give and he mesmerized me. He really feels for actors who are just starting out and remembers his early days like they were yesterday.

Amy Weber

#67. For you in the West to hear the phrase 'All men are created equal' is to draw a yawn. For us, it's a miracle. We're starting out at rock bottom, man. But South Africa does have soul.

Athol Fugard

#68. To my mind, the best investment a young man starting out in business can possibly make is to give all his time, all his energies, to work - just plain, hard work.

Charles M. Schwab

#69. The key, I would say to any fledgling humorist starting out, is to make sure that sloppiness is part of your recipe. That way they come to expect fumbling and clumsiness and they say, "Oh, it must be a charming part of his personality."

Nick Offerman

#70. When I was a young filmmaker starting out, I was really snobby about all the affirmative action for women filmmakers because I felt it should be about your talent, and I made a film that won awards, and people wanted me.

Gillian Armstrong

#71. For an author just starting out, you've got to deliver the goods every year or sooner or people will forget you or you will lose momentum. There is a contract that exists between author and reader.

Jasper Fforde

#72. You can't just tell your team, 'Think long term.' It doesn't work that way. When you are starting out, you have to always think about trying to build something of value for the customer: something they can use all the time, something of use.

Ram Shriram

#73. I grew up with 'The Denver Post' and the 'Golden Transcript.' There was never a moment that I thought I'd work at the 'New York Times.' My goal, starting out, was just to see if I could be a journalist.

John Branch

#74. When I was starting out, I followed along the path that seemed to be marked out for me - from high school to college to law school to professional life.

Peter Thiel

#75. Starting out in Kid's Cove, Mangle is mostly endoskeleton, as his suit is in pretty rough shape. He does have a pink bowtie. Mangle will lunge at you from the ceiling, so keep an eye out for him! Balloon

Hayley May

#76. I call it 'new forms'. When you're starting out, they ask you to do four or five minute sets, but once you're a headliner, you do like 90 minutes. I try to think of different things to divvy up the show, like doing drawings, playing music ... I gotta carry the show, that's the problem.

Demetri Martin

#77. Most people who are successful don't keep their money. One of the rarest things in the world is to maintain success and integrity - the kinds of things that seem so easy just starting out. But that's the human predicament.

Sophie B. Hawkins

#78. You can use WordPress as your blogging platform which is really easy to use and it has many good free theme designs for those starting out. You can also use Blogger or Tumbler, but WordPress is brilliant because of the many plugins which are available.

H. Jayne

#79. I remember when I was starting out as a young actress, thinking, 'Oh my God, I have the fattest face.' Now I look at those pictures and I think, 'So much collagen!'

Anne Hathaway

#80. If I could, I would live in Houston, and I would encourage any comic starting out looking for a good place to develop to move there.

Joe Rogan

#81. I think being eclectic is bad when you're just starting out.

Jerry Harrison

#82. I worked more intensively hour after hour when I was starting out [writing]. More laboriously. I'd say quantity is important as well as quality, and if you're not producing enough, make a schedule and stick to it.

Lydia Davis

#83. We're so used to it that we don't think twice about it. For somebody who's starting out in ice hockey it would be heavy, but it's protection. It's everything you need so you do have to get used to it.

Gerad Adams

#84. I have some amazing fans! They're just so dedicated and so nice and so sweet. I'm, like, no one and I'm just starting out, and these people appreciate your work and it's nice to hear that.

A. J. Cook

#85. You have 'listeners' ears' when you're just starting out, and your 'listeners' ears' tell you what will work. You lose those ears later, when you break songs down into production elements too much.

Gene Pitney

#86. I remember the Food Network when it was first starting out: Emeril Lagasse and all those people who helped make it when it was on a shoestring budget. It actually encouraged me to start cooking.

Robert Battle

#87. You get to a point where you have to start planning, when you cross that line where you have enough value to get someone's movie made if you attach yourself to it, you have to be very thoughtful and have to plan. When you're starting out, you're willing to do anything.

Chris Pratt

#88. The closest I came to doing anything that I wanted to do was to try and check and see what industries were just starting out. There was plastics and television, and I figured television had to be more fun than plastics.

Chuck Barris

#89. It's funny, 'cause it seems like just yesterday that I was the youngest player just starting out. But now there are young players all over the league, and they'll ask me questions about playing overseas or finding an agent.

Sue Wicks

#90. The best thing anyone can do is be himself. Everyone was made different by God, and that's the way it should be. And if I were a writer or an announcer starting out, I don't think I'd imitate anybody. I'd try to be whatever I am.

Ernie Harwell

#91. Well, for Blow I had to age from 20 to 60, starting out in shape and then later putting on fat pads.

Ray Liotta

#92. My advice for an entrepreneur just starting out is to differentiate yourself. Why are you different? What's important about you? Why does the customer need you?

Sara Blakely

#93. A new writer starting out today, whether it's for TV or film, they have to remember that they're telling the story to themselves first of all, and they have to tell the story so that their life depends upon it.

Tony Grisoni

#94. Starting out, iRobot was not an economic rocket ship. It took six and a half years before we had enough money in the bank at the beginning of each month to make payroll. We always made it - we paid salaries at the end of the month, and I always had four weeks to figure things out.

Colin Angle

#95. I'm not as I was but at this present moment I have to say, I feel very envious of someone who's young and active and starting out in the argument. Just think of the extraordinary things that are waiting to be known

Christopher Hitchens

#96. It is so weird to be on this side of that, because when you're starting out, and it seems like you're starting out for so long, you look up to the people who have made their mark. And you sort of want to be that.

Bob Odenkirk

#97. When you are starting out you're inspired by so many different things, you just want to be the best, man ... and you're just so ambitious; your drive is just at a million!

Ginuwine

#98. A man of nothing who has started out from nothing starting out from an unassignable place: these are, for Machiavelli, the conditions for regeneration.

Louis Althusser

#99. It was more freedom than I think most people get when they're starting out - or even when they're not starting out. He [John Cassavetes] did his thing and I did whatever I thought.

Gena Rowlands

#100. I know that starting out as a young band, it's really easy to get lost with bands that sound the same or with the plethora of music that's out there.

Kellin Quinn