A Quote by Spencer Dinwiddie

I almost went to UCLA, they were my third choice. But they only sort of wanted me. — © Spencer Dinwiddie
I almost went to UCLA, they were my third choice. But they only sort of wanted me.
I went to UCLA for a year and a quarter. There were too many students at UCLA interested in what I was interested in, and they couldn't accommodate all of us. I wasn't allowed to take voice or dance, only theater and acting. So I saved my money and, at 19, moved to New York.
Hard as it is to believe, there were three magazines fighting over me. 'Newsweek' wanted to keep me, 'ESPN The Magazine' was coming into existence and wanted me, and 'SI' wanted to bring me back. Isn't that amazing? I had a choice, like a free agent.
When I was a teenager, I wanted to be in a group, or I wanted to work for Greenpeace, or I wanted to be a Buddhist monk. Those were the only three things I really wanted to do. I was doing some sort of soul searching in life.
I am very pleased it has all been resolved. I wanted to stay at the club and they wanted me too, there was never a problem. There were only a few small matters to sort out.
A lot of scouts said I was not capable to play short. Every team that came to me, they wanted me to play third, and I wanted to show everybody that they were wrong.
Things for me really started to click right after my third year in the league. I sort of figured out that there were a few things that I needed to do if I wanted to get better - I needed to gain some more weight and add some strength.
If the UCLA teams of the late 1960s and early 1970s were subjected to the kind of scrutiny (other schools) have been, UCLA would probably have to forfeit about eight national championships and be on probation for the next 100 years.
It was always like there was no doubt in anybody's mind that I was going to UCLA, so once UCLA started recruiting me, everybody started pushing me there.
I noticed the different kids were always put down by other people and it would cause them to become almost violent with themselves. It's not really necessary; there's a way to find strength in yourself, and for me it was writing. That was sort of my release and my escape, so the term 'Knives and Pens' to me was like a choice. You can either create, or become violent, and maybe go down a dark road.
And then the line was quite but not dead. I almost felt like he was there in my room with me, but in a way it was better, like I was not in my room and he was not in his, but instead we were together in some invisible and tenuous third space that could only be visited on the phone.
The Voice did not consider itself a conventional magazine. It took me awhile to realize that it was named The Voice for a reason. They wanted voices. At the time, good magazine stories were still believed to be written in the third person based on the false belief they were more objective. Of course some conventional stories require third person, but in the really interesting stories - the ones I got do to at The Voice and Esquire - were about subjectivity, subjectivities.
I wanted to entertain and make people laugh. I think it really hit in third grade, but once I was in high school, I joined chamber choir. I wanted to do musical theater, too, but they had rehearsals at the same time. That was a bit of 'Sophie's Choice.'
I hate to say anything that may hurt UCLA, but I can't be quiet when I see what the NCAA is doing to Jerry Tarkanian only because he has a reputation for giving a second chance to many black athletes other coaches have branded as troublemakers. The NCAA is working night and day trying to get Jerry, but no one from the NCAA ever questioned me during my four years at UCLA!
It's almost an impossible task to sum up all the things my parents have taught me over the years. Whether it was how to tie my shoelaces or encouragement in whatever career choice I wanted to pursue, they have both always been there to support me.
Everyone was saying computers were going to be the future of art; everyone had to do something in this medium. And it was almost some sort of rebellion that I wanted to do these small, intimate drawings.
No kid ever graduated school and said, 'I want to go into advertising.' Advertising is almost everyone's second or third choice.
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