Johnathan Joseph Quotes

If I had had to struggle at the beginning like most actors... I'd never have stuck it out. But having such complete success at the beginning, I was stuck with being an actor for life.

The time leading up to the 1996 Olympics was the most demanding and stressful of my career. The sport I had loved so much was slowly becoming a nightmare as I trained with Bela and Marta Karolyi the summer before the Olympics.

No matter how good a deal sounds, if your name goes on the bottom line, you need to understand it and be sure you'll be able to pay. You are responsible for yourself forever. Forever.

If you're a doctor or a lawyer or teacher, if you only get three things right out of 10, you're considered a failure.

The last two times I went to spring training, I had to win a job, and if I didn't get off to a blazing start, I'm on the bench. Now, I've proven myself, so it's not essential that I get off to a real good start.

Marriage is a financial contract; I have enough contracts already.

You learn to understand it, but if you step back, you do think it is either strange or unfair. But I know that if you don't score, play well or win, you are wrong to have a helicopter and fly home each week to see your kids. You are wrong to have a business outside of football.

My first two years in the CFL, all I thought of was getting back to the NFL - it was like 'I'll put my time in up here and go back.' Then I went and signed a nice contract in Calgary and was like, 'Hey, I can make a living up here, this is great football, and I'm having a blast.'

It's tough in the NHL; you have to produce on a high level. And everybody expects you to do it because you make a lot of money. And I never minded it. I always want to be that guy.

Oftentimes, I feel like the clock is on, and there's money at stake, and you gotta get up there and dance for grandma, and it better be great, and you better get it right.

If you're making money, and you've hit your targets for five years, you don't need to demand a new contract.

If you're the star of a show, the next one has to be as good or better, and if you're doing a series, if anything goes wrong, it's your fault. There's nobody else to blame.

Pressure is always on if you don't perform. There is no question.

There were times when I thought I had to be completely off-book and ready to give my opening night performance at the audition, but then I swung back to a more relaxed view of it. Certainly you've looked at the material and prepared it, but there's no reason to be off-book. You're not getting points for being off-book.

I've heard a lot about what second-round picks usually do - whether it's D-League or whether it's not playing - but for me, I have high expectations of myself regardless of where I'm picked.

For me, depression is very much tied to my feeling that so much is being asked of me. I have to 'perform' rather than necessarily be myself. I have to perform a perfect Margo Jefferson, at an impossibly high level.

Every time an artiste goes on stage, he thinks 'I hope today goes well and I hope I give my best.' That is important - that little bit of nervousness or tension is what makes you perform better.

Every player at a high level faces pressure and must respond, and I am ready for that, too.

As professionals, you always have to perform to the top of your ability.

At the beginning of the first season, you don't have that pressure to perform at 100 per cent, because it's always hard when you first start. But now, in the second season, people are expecting big things from you, so you can't really disappoint them.

Winning is everything, especially at this stage of my career - I'm going into Year 7. Because I've been franchise-tagged twice, I've been in a position where it's not about the money so much; it's about winning. I want to win.

A lot of guys I've seen in my career that played at a high level and were done, they moved on, never thought another day about it.

There is a specific mentality that is put into the young players at Barcelona, and from nine or 10 years old, you have to make good seasons because, if not, you are out.

When I came in at United, I'd seen what the manager set, how the players lived their lives, how they trained, how they lived with the expectation and all sorts, playing three games a week at that level. And that is when I thought 'woah - this is different, this is something else.'

You still have to go perform; it doesn't matter what the tournament is.