Chuck Close Quotes

As a person, I learned that I could push myself.

Learning what all you can overcome as a person, as a human being, is very important. It's very important to understand your strength. Which is not to say you become hardened or bitter.

I was in special ed, but I felt like I was a caged bird. I felt like I could do better. I made sure I mastered my special ed lessons. I made sure I listened to my teacher. I made sure I did my homework, but I had to do a little extra.

You always try to fight for yourself, isn't it? You try to do the best possible job.

The best are led to make greater demands upon themselves. As for those who succumb, they did not deserve to survive.

Growing up in a group home, and with an undiagnosed learning disability to boot, the odds of success were not on my side. But when I joined the high school football team, I learned the value of discipline, focus, persistence, and teamwork - all skills that have proven vital to my career as a C.E.O. and social entrepreneur.

What people say isn't going to stop me. I have to do things for myself.

You can look for external sources of motivation and that can catalyze a change, but it won't sustain one. It has to be from an internal desire.

Dyslexia, though, made me realise that people who say 'but you can't do that' aren't actually very important. I don't take 'no' too seriously.

When you don't have people in your life pushing you, can you push yourself?

For me, I think that I don't like feeling pressure from outside sources. I'd rather put the pressure on myself and push myself to do it as good as I can.

Build up your weaknesses until they become your strong points.

If I'm the weak link or whatever, I guess that means I've got something to prove. I've always had something to prove.

To make big steps, you've got to take action yourself and not listen to other people.

You know, it sounds corny, but I believe in myself. And I work hard.

After becoming deaf, I realized that I'd better get an education if I was ever to do anything with my life.

They, that unnamed 'they,' they've knocked me down but I got up. I always get up-and I swear when I went down quite often I took the fall; nothing moves a mountain but itself. They, I've long ago named them me.

I constantly push my body to meet what my mind wants me to be able to do.

I get stubborn and dig in when people tell me I can't do something and I think I can. It goes back to my childhood when I had problems in school because I have a learning disability.

I am my own cheerleader. I am the one who puts my goals, who pushes myself to get to the next goal. I don't have someone next to me saying, 'Here you go, now do this, it's your next step, go for it.'

It's a kind of philosophy of my own life, to create the energy enough to keep on going.

I invented my life by taking for granted that everything I did not like would have an opposite, which I would like.

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.

I've been through a lot of things in my personal and family life. That turned me into a fighter. I always strive to be the best I possibly can.

You just have to keep believing in yourself.