Find a good teacher, as I found for my sons. I feel the worst thing you can do is to try and teach your own children yourself, because there is a natural rebellion that occurs.

There's always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself - whether it's Black, woman, mother, dyke, teacher, etc. - because that's the piece that they need to key in to. They want to dismiss everything else.

I've always remembered something Sanford Meisner, my acting teacher, told us. When you create a character, it's like making a chair, except instead of making someting out of wood, you make it out of yourself. That's the actor's craft - using yourself to create a character.

As a mentor, you have to be willing to put yourself in your mentee's shoes to understand their struggles that they deal with. It's not supposed to turn into a pity party by any means, but empathy speaks volumes to a mentee in need of help rather than forced sympathy.

If you want to devote yourself to the arts, you'd better do it strictly from passion, because there is zero guarantee that you'll get anywhere. The hardest thing is dealing with business people who have nothing to do with your art. They could care less that you're up at 4:30 in the morning writing a joke. Don't expect any sympathy from anybody.

Sympathy relies on a common experience. If you're clumsy, you might have sympathy for others who tend to bump into things. Empathy, on the other hand, is the ability to understand another person's feelings even if you've never experienced them yourself.

It's no good being nice and young and naive. There's no good in that at all. You've got to do it all yourself, and you've gotta learn quick. And you can't look for sympathy either.

Grieve and mourn for yourself not once or twice, but again and again.

Never mind what others do; do better than yourself, beat your own record from day to day, and you are a success.

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!

All of us are born for a reason, but all of us don't discover why. Success in life has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It's what you do for others.

Be yourself. Follow your instincts. Success depends, at least in part, on the ability to 'carry it off.'

Success depends almost entirely on how effectively you learn to manage the game's two ultimate adversaries: the course and yourself.

The secret to success is to be yourself.

I tried for a short time to be something I wasn't, and had no success with it. It's a practical solution to just be yourself.

There are no shortcuts to success. You have to believe in yourself, and never give up.

Success to me means serving a calling higher than yourself that improves the lives of everyone and is done completely in the name of service.

The hardest thing to find in life is balance - especially the more success you have, the more you look to the other side of the gate. What do I need to stay grounded, in touch, in love, connected, emotionally balanced? Look within yourself.

Success is not an accident. When you put yourself in the right place at the right time, then you're likely to be more successful because of how you prepare yourself on a daily basis.

Challenge is the pathway to engagement and progress in our lives. But not all challenges are created equal. Some challenges make us feel alive, engaged, connected, and fulfilled. Others simply overwhelm us. Knowing the difference as you set bigger and bolder challenges for yourself is critical to your sanity, success, and satisfaction.

Your success depends mainly upon what you think of yourself and whether you believe in yourself.

For true success ask yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now?

Success has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It's what you do for others.

One measure of your success will be the degree to which you build up others who work with you. While building up others, you will build up yourself.