Tim Minchin Quotes

I've had a very unusual background in science - not the usual route of planning on being a scientist from age 3. I think my story shows that success is more about personal motivation and determination than it is about where you were born or what your economic status was.

I've always been an underdog. I feel like I beat the odds.

I have to work extra hard because I am dyslexic. People said that I couldn't be an actress, but I'm proving them wrong. Acting has helped me overcome the challenge.

The hardest struggle of all is to be something different from what the average man is. I don't believe in 'super-men,' for the world is full of capable men, but it's the fellow with determination that wins out.

Somebody once asked me, 'Melvin, how'd you get to the top?' It was simple. Nobody would let me in at the bottom.

I like being the underdog. I like turning around and shutting people up when they tell me I can't.

I feel like I've been proving people wrong all my life.

We had so many obstacles. We had a lot of sexism and misogyny, there's a lot of things that were against us. But we've just pushed forward and we showed everybody.

I try and tell all the kids that I meet that hope to be amazing one day and be a professional athlete or a doctor or a lawyer or whatever they want to be. I tell them they can do all that because Tourette's won't stop them.

Rejection is part of the process, so you can't let it crush you. My first three novels never made it into publication, but my fourth, 'Sheltering Rain,' was translated into 11 languages.

There aren't many hits like 'Kinky Boots,' so when you get one, the gratitude that comes with it fuels your energy. From the time I started in this business, everybody told me that who I was and what I represented would never work. Well, I get to stand on stage every day and prove the naysayers wrong by doing exactly what they told me not to do.

I want to be an example of a guy who made something of himself out of nothing. A guy who overcame the odds of a tough childhood, who worked hard, who didn't let his surroundings get the best of him and lead him to jail or the graveyard. Where I ended up - being a comedian, a TV star, and a movie actor - might be unique, but my story is not.

My first book was rejected nine times. It turned out to be a best seller, Battle Cry? in 1953.

When I started getting so many haters and closed doors, I decided to prove that it could be done. I was a divorced single mother of three at the time and a size 12 - not your typical model artist that labels feel work for the music industry.

I remember when I was in college, people told me I couldn't play in the NBA. There's always somebody saying you can't do it, and those people have to be ignored.

You have to lift your head up out of the mud and just do it.

I was told millions of times that I was never going to achieve what I set out to, but I decided to do it, and I did it.

Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.

You can make your own way. It's about getting out there and not letting rejection get you down.

I always feel like rejection is my petrol. That's what keeps me going.

The world was not supportive. They look at me as a joke for 13 to 14 years until I could prove feasibility; then I had competitors. Those that laughed at me became my competitors.

If I went by all the rejection I've had in my career, I should have given up a long time ago.

Basically, all my life I'd been told you can't do that because you're female. So I guess I just didn't pay any attention. I just went ahead and did what I could and then, when the stars aligned, I was ready.

I have a lot of respect for my fellow young actors. It takes a lot to push forward after being told no a million times, and that was what we all have to go through. So those who push deserve respect.

The starkest rejection letter might be followed by a million-dollar advance. Don't let rejection start to look the same as failure.