Unforeseen Opportunity Quotes

Every once in a while, it seems like the cosmos part, and something great plops into your lap.

Serendipity. Look for something, find something else, and realize that what you've found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for.

How often things occur by mere chance which we dared not even hope for.

I don't think anyone expected me to get the BAFTA. The bookies didn't have me down. It's definitely made a huge difference in my career, but I don't dwell on it.

I suddenly realized that the fellow who didn't show up was getting about fifty-times more money than I was getting. So I thought, 'this is silly,' and became an actor. I certainly never thought I'd wind up in motion pictures. That was far beyond anything I'd ever dreamed of.

I never thought I'd end up coaching. It wasn't the plan.

Rejection is merely a redirection; a course correction to your destiny.

I was really young when I signed with Spinnin' Records, and the huge success of 'Animals' hit me by surprise. I didn't expect my life to turn like that at all. But it was a very welcome surprise, to say the least!

I will not go on a blind date.

Nothing I do is by design. It's always the result of a happy accident. I didn't have a career plan. It has just become the way it is. It's all good fun.

Acting was never on agenda.

Coincidence is a recognized element in 'real life.' All of us have anecdotes about those times when, by the merest coincidence, we avoided some disaster or stumbled onto some wonderful experience.

When great evils happen, I am in the habit of looking out for what good may arise from them …

She knocked and waited, because when the door was opened from within, it had the potential to lead someplace quite different.

I was appointed Poet Laureate. It came totally out of the blue because most Poet Laureates had been considerably older than I. It was not something that I even had begun to dream about!

Jacques Doillon wanted me to be in his film, 'La Fille Prodigue,' and there I was, expecting, for some reason, this great bearded man, when a splendid looking red-Indian style man appeared at my door. I said no to his film because I knew that if I said yes, I would run off with him.

There was never any career plan. When 'Red Dwarf' started I thought we were doing a curious little sitcom on BBC2, I didn't think I was becoming an actor. I didn't see that 21 years later I'd still be talking about it, let alone filming a new one. For me everything's always been an accident.

I don't think this show would have come to me 10 years ago. It continues to be this wonderful miracle.

Losing one's mother to a car crash at age four isn't a readily accessible idea of good luck, but I've come to accept it as the condition that was required for my luck to fall into place.

Well, a lot of successes come by mistake.

All good ideas arrive by chance.

The fact I've been in every lineup of Yes has been more by default than design.

My becoming a film actor was more a twist of tale than a chosen course because I dared not to think I could ever become an actor. I couldn't even walk up on a stage and say 'Thank you' when we were to receive trophies at our sports meets at college.

I had a blast, but I still wonder sometimes why they saw me as the perfect guy for this strange character.

I feel like a hostage to fortune. Not that I am complaining. I wanted to play the role. But in truth I didn't think the show would be such a success. OK, I thought it would fail. Not because it was bad. I was confident it was good, but plenty of good things just sort of wither on the vine.