Professional Struggle Quotes

The main reason I didn't work in Bollywood was due to the tremendous pressure on me in Bengal.

It's taken a while for me to convince people that I can do something other than Scully. And it still takes effort.

There is part of you as a female - no question - that feels like you have to be overprepared and outwork the men because people are automatically going to look at you and say, 'Well, you didn't play football,' or, 'You don't know what you're talking about,' because you are a female.

I had no release in 2013. I worked on four films; none of them saw the light of day.

At one point, in one of the kitchens where I worked, I was the only American pastry cook. They treated me poorly. 'You're stupid. You're American. You don't get it.' They'd speak French all day. At one point, my boss said to me, 'You learn French or get out right away.'

I got out of university and there was a general panic throughout my family as to what I was going to do. For about six months, I did this job in recruitment and I was just so awful at it. I jumped before I was pushed.

I told CBS, 'My career is going down the toilet, and you're pulling the chain.'

Never, ever become a writer. It's a nightmare.

I think that, as an actor, you fight so hard to get work for years that when it actually comes, you just are so grateful. I am so happy to get to do what I love.

My lowest point came when I shifted to Mumbai in 1993. Nothing was happening. This is right after I did 'Bandit Queen.' I had no way to tell people that I know my job. There was no casting department here. All the commercial films that were happening in those days did not have any place for me.

I was still thought of as a kid actor even though I was in my mid twenties.

The competition is so fierce once you become an adult. I'll probably move on to something else.

It's tough being out there doing what I'm doing in what they call a man's world.

I've always considered myself an actor, but I wasn't making a living as an actor.

When you first start, you just want to get a job. It goes from that to really deciding what kind of work you want to do and what kind of actor you want to be - and it only gets harder.

Somewhere along the way, things got confused, and the pop-star side of my career got in the way of my musician side.

It's hard dealing with day to day disappointments and feeling like you can't find success. Especially when your best friend is Pixar.

I've spent my career fighting the worst practices of insurance companies.

I didn't really have to struggle in the industry, but I've never shied away from hard work.

There was a solid six-month period where I was going out on castings and I was laughed out of the room because I'm much more petite than other models.

Ninety percent of my roles, I've had to fight for. It's only a really small percentage of people who get handed roles.

I can't complain. I'm making a living out of what I do, which is really rare for a lot of actors. The hard part is staying confident and staying with it.

Since I've started to star in pictures I have always managed to retain my singularity of purpose when I got into the business, which was to be an artist, as an actor, more than anything else. But to get the certain kind of role you want, you have to be in a certain position in the business and it's dog-eat-dog and it gets very hairy and you can lose your point of view sometimes.

In film school, you get skills, but then you get lackey jobs, working on projects that you probably don't care about. And there's something in me where I just couldn't bring myself to edit some misogynistic rom-com or movies that I would have hated to be a part of. So I knew I just wouldn't get any work because of that.

I have been tested. I have beaten breast cancer. I have buried a child. I started as a secretary. I fought my way to the top of corporate America while being called every B word in the book. I fought my way into this election and on to this debate stage while all the political insiders and the pundits told, "it couldn't be done."