Early Struggles Quotes

When I was fifteen I wrote seven hundred pages of an incredibly bad novel - it's a very funny book I still like a lot. Then, when I was nineteen I wrote a couple hundred pages of another novel, which wasn't very good either. I was still determined to be a writer. And since I was a writer, and here I was twenty-nine years old and I wasn't a very good poet and I wasn't a very good novelist, I thought I would try writing a play, which seems to have worked out a little better.

Obviously we had to study Shakespeare at school, but to be honest, I was not a fan. I found the language very difficult, and I didn't enjoy watching it or studying it. I auditioned five times for the Royal Shakespeare Company early on in my career, and I didn't even get past the first rounds.

When we first began, we didn't have any hits.

Oh, how blessed young men are who have to struggle for a foundation and beginning in life.

The first role as "Fashion Show Guy" should not be on my IMDb anymore. That's the sort of thing you put on your IMDb when you have no credits and you really just want to have a line on your résumé. I had just gotten to New York and there was a massive open call for extras for Sex and the City. One of my college roommates' buddies - there was some connection - she worked in the office and saw my name in the massive stack of randoms just trying to be on the show, which was a big hit. She's like, "I know this dude. Let's throw him in there."

I was born in New York, but I grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut - that's where I went to school. I remember begging my way into choir in the 3rd grade, because you're not supposed to get in until 4th grade.

I was a waitress years ago when I was first trying to become an actress, waiting tables in New York City.

I started to play in the fourth grade and didn't score for, like, a whole year.

I'm happy with the way I did my career, I wouldn't change it in a million years. I got to do the real grafting and learning from real models when I was younger - how to open up a jacket, walk, and such.

I did apply for drama school when I was 17, and I didn't get in; I had a really bad audition.

I think I made my first short fiction sale in 2005. I had been writing unsuccessfully before that.

At the beginning of my career, I can honestly say there were a few things I was doing wrong, and I was wondering why I was going a little bit off track.

My career, definitely, the early years were a little scattershot, in terms of - it was a little regional theater, it was a lot of voiceovers, it was a lot of random day jobs. I mean, it was hard. It was hard to scrap around, and once 'Hairspray' happened, then it all kind of clicked into place.

I think it's very easy to get discouraged early on.

The early years when I was starting, blues player, you wasn't always welcome in a lot of the other places. People usually have preconceived ideas about blues music. They always feel that it's depressing and that it's just something that a guy sit out on a stool, grab a guitar, and just start singing or mumbling or whatever.

I was a complete unknown when I did 'Karate Kid.' I'd just done a pilot for a TV show called 'Call to Glory.' And I sat down with John Avildsen and brought still pictures from the show. I brought pictures! At that point, I would've been happy to be in a dog-food commercial.

I've been very lucky in the characters I've chosen. Up until last year I was a nobody. I did jobs I booked because I needed to put food in my mouth.

Growing up, I played in different bands and did a lot of self-booked touring and traveling around, and my sister was driving us on tour, and we're playing for nobody and literally begging my friends that I went to high school with to buy tickets to our shows.

I don't know if there were many pros for me playing early. I feel like I dug myself a pretty deep hole that rookie year.

I wasn't properly performing in Canada. I was just starting out, and when everyone starts out, they're terrible. I'm sure there are some Kellyanne Conway videos of me just really dying on a stage.

When I was doing 'Hot Shot,' I didn't even have an album deal.

I had two jobs coming out of school: I did a play, 'The Great White Hope.' I played the boxer Jack Johnson. And I was the lead in this indie film. Then I moved to Los Angeles because New York was cold and it was really too quiet for me at that time. I was out of school; I was hungry. The auditions were trickling in, and I was antsy and ready to go.

I remember moving out to L.A. straight after college and just starting to try to write scripts and trying to get stuff off the ground.

I started to submit when I was twelve, and obviously at that time they weren't good enough, and I suppose in my heart of hearts I knew it. But you have to start sooner or later, you have to dig in.

When Phil and I started out, everyone hated rock n' roll. The record companies didn't like it at all - felt it was an unnecessary evil. And the press: interviewers were always older than us, and they let you know they didn't like your music, they were just doing the interview because it was their job.