Julius Erving Quotes

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

I'm very competitive by nature. And I like to be the underdog - It's the best way to win. To come from behind and win is a great feeling!

If you think about where I'm from, I'm not supposed to be singing in the first place. I'm not supposed to be alive right now.

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

I liked coaching in an underdog situation.

I like being the underdog so they don't expect what's going to happen. It pushes me to work harder and do the things I'm not doing better.

You're going up against the billionaire boys' club or trying to find your way into something you have no basis for, and it's bigger than anything you ever imagined - and then actually having that work. Having that risk pan out. It taught me to be very fearless - maybe too fearless in the end.

I am a five-foot six-inch, dark, ordinary-looking man. People didn't imagine that I would make it.

I know that a lot of people take inspiration from the fact that I was just a common man with no film background who turned into a star.

It's a great challenge to come from little New Zealand and beat the odds in Hollywood.

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.

A misfit like me getting anywhere in Hollywood as I somehow have, seemed, certainly at the time of 'Spanking The Monkey,' kind of out of reach, or not a very realistic take.

Today's accomplishments were yesterday's impossibilities.

My mom was the first African-American woman to graduate from the University of Chicago Law School, in 1946. She had leadership roles in the law, in government and the corporate world. She was a great role model in that she felt anything was possible.

I have no credentials. I have no money. I literally come from a poor place. I was a servant. I dropped out of college. The next thing you know I'm writing for the 'New Yorker,' I have this sort of life, and it must seem annoying to people.

I love when people underestimate me and then become pleasantly surprised.

It feels good when guys reach out to be inspired - and you have shown people an example of how you can come back and be better than you were before when adversity strikes; and when the world predicts the opposite, you show them you not only can be successful but be great.

Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible.

You don't have to be the biggest to beat the biggest.

Hard times always lead to something great.

I feel like, in some level, in our biggest moments of success we were always the underdog.

People always put me completely out of the game, and that's even nicer because nobody expects you to do a good job and then you do a better job than everybody thinks and it's nicer.

People told me it was impossible to beat the Americans at their own game; there was a lot of politics involved and outsiders didn't stand a chance. But if you're good enough, nothing else matters - I'm living proof of it!

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

People think that you're gonna come out, be a one hit wonder, and finished. You gotta prove 'em wrong.