Transforming Challenges Quotes

I just read about John Le Carre, the great spy novelist. He had an absolutely miserable childhood. His mother deserted him when he was young. His father was a playboy and a drunk. He was shifted around to many different homes. He knew he was a writer when he was about nine, but he was dyslexic. So here was a person with an absolutely messed-up childhood and a symptom that prevented him from doing what he wanted to do most. Yet that very symptom was part of the calling. It forced him to go deeper.

How great it is when we come to know that times of disappointment can be followed by joy; that guilt over falling short of our ideals can be replaced by pride in doing all that we can; and that anger can be channeled into creative achievements... and into dreams that we can make come true.

I've always been able to transform happiness and pain and sorrow and tears into positive energy.

Our attitude can turn our problems into blessings.

I lived in the projects and the ghetto, and turned the negative into a positive.

It takes a lot of people years to turn a negative into a positive. It takes me, like, an album.

I converted a problem into an opportunity.

For a true artist, difficulties become opportunities and clouds become solid present.