If I'm not playing well, or I'm trying things and they're not coming off, the one thing I will always do is work hard. And I think, as a fan, that's the least you can ask for.
Sometimes you get the rap of, 'Don't always play hard,' or, 'Just doing it for the money.' But there are guys that genuinely love the game of basketball and are always playing it and are always out there. There are guys that work hard and actually understand the game and are very knowledgeable off the court as well.
All I ask is one thing, and I’m asking this particularly of young people: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism, for the record, it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.
I had a lot of success in big tournaments as well - won Masters Series in Rome - so a lot of things are coming together. I've done a lot of hard work in the off-season. A lot of physical work, a lot of work on my serve and on my return game.
What I always say with these things, when you`re trying to do comprehensive things like tax reform, there will be 20,000 lobbyists in Washington trying to work their will on that piece of legislation so, you know, people think it`s going to be a lot easier than it will end up being.
It's hard to be so mentally competitive and when you're not competing you try to turn it off but it doesn't work like that. I don't think you can just turn it off, I think you still find ways to be competitive - if it's playing a video game, if it's playing cards.
Chelsea is always hard to break into, but I believe in myself, and if I work hard, then hopefully things will go well.
Unless you already have a name well known in at least one stratum of society, I don't think trying to do things yourself will be easy - if at all possible.
When you're doing a comedy and you want to somehow satirise people who are taking themselves seriously, I think the most serious genre is the thing you're going to get the most out of. If you're trying to satirise a comedy, it's hard to do that - it doesn't really work as well. But I love the war movie genre and I'm a fan of all those movies that are part of what this movie is.
You do sometimes have to work on things where you love the cast and you love the filmmaker, and the role might not be great but it's fun. I'm totally down to do those things, and will continue to do those things, as well, but it at least has to be peppered with roles that are really interesting and that are hard.
I think when you're a fan of music - at least the way I've been a fan to artists that have really touched me - you're with them for the long haul. They might do things that you don't understand or agree with, but I think I've always tried to hold my judgment and give them the space to do what they need to do.
It is such hard work to keep your heart hidden! And worse, by the time you find it easy, it will be harder still to show it. It is a terrible magic in this world to ask for exactly the thing you want. Not least because to know exactly the thing you want and look it in the eye is a long, long labor.
In my work, I'm always trying not to put barriers up between the 'good poor' and the 'bad poor.' I'm not sure my work will change things much, but at the very least, you want to make people feel that they are not alone.
On the red carpet, I'm playing a character. As soon as I get off that thing, I think, 'Oof, wipe that gloss off.' I'm wiping and wiping and pulling my hair out and trying to change my outfit. I'm immediately trying to get comfortable. It's really a part I play.
You know, son, I don't think there's such a thing as an easy life. There's always going to be hard work and there will always be misfortunes we can't control, lurking out at the edges - storms, sickness, wolves. But there is such a thing as a good life and I think that we have one here.
I've always declined to speak about things I don't think are anybody's business, and what I always get from the interviewers is, 'Well, you know, we have to ask those things.' I say, 'Well, maybe you do, but I don't have to answer them.'
There will be some things I do well and things I do wrong. But I keep coming. Playing with heart. That's going to help me continue to grow.