Turned Down Quotes

• After being Turned Down by numerous Publishers, he had decided to write for Posterity.

  George Ade

  Writing, Belief, Publishers

  Fables in Slang (1900) p. 158

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• You can prepare all you want, but if you never roll the dice you'll never be successful.

  Shia LaBeouf

  Successful, Yale, Want

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• I was turned down by every record label in L.A. Perseverance is three quarters of the game. Talent's only a quarter. Being able to withstand the word 'no' over and over can build you a pretty tough skin. I knew if I just kept at it, at the very least I'd get better at my craft.

  Sheryl Crow

  Perseverance, Games, Skins

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• ... you just turned down the woman who put a marshmallow duck in your hot chocolate. I hope you feel like a real asshole now.

  Rachel Vincent

  Real, Ducks, Chocolate

  Rachel Vincent (2013). “Oath Bound”, p.243, Harlequin

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• As I became very defined in my personal politics, I turned down some films that I slightly regret now; I'm not going to say what they were.

  Julie Christie

  Regret, Film, Defined

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• I wanted to play roles which offered new ways of viewing black women and black people in general- and I have done that. And I have always, whether I needed to pay the rent or not, I've always turned down roles which I thought were stereotypical. And so when I look at my body of work in that respect, I am really happy. Because I feel my work does say something positive and that was what I always set out to do.

  Naomie Harris

  Play, People, Black

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• A couple of guys won Academy Awards for the things that I turned down. Today, after coming to terms with everything, after being in therapy for a long time-there are areas where I will compromise.

  Mickey Rourke

  Couple, Awards, Long

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• I've turned down projects based on raunchiness before.

  John Ratzenberger

  Projects

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• I've never been turned down for a role because I'm gay. I'm a character actor, and that's probably why. I don't find Hollywood, in my own experience, to be homophobic. ... But I do think the straight folks will continue to play the straight roles.

  Jane Lynch

  Character, Gay, Thinking

  "Jane Lynch: Studios Won’t Cast Gay Leading Actors". www.huffingtonpost.com. January 13, 2011.

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• Personally, I have already turned down the Downing St thermostat by 1 degree

  Tony Blair

  Degrees, Global Warming, Downing

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• ...if we all turned down the thermostat in our house by just one degree, we would save over £650 million worth of energy and nearly nine million tonnes of carbon emissions every year. That would be the equivalent of taking three million cars off our roads...we can bring about a Green Consumer Revolution in this country to improve our lives, enrich our economy and protect our environment.

  David Cameron

  Country, Years, Carbon Emissions

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• I called it ignose, not knowing which carbohydrate it was. This name was turned down by my editor. 'God-nose' was not more successful, so in the end 'hexuronic acid' was agreed upon. To-day the substance is called 'ascorbic acid' and I will use this name.

  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

  Success, Knowledge, Science

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• In Hollywood a girl's virtue is much less important than her hairdo. You're judged by how you look, not by what you are. Hollywood's a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for kiss, and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty.

  Marilyn Monroe

  Girl, Kissing, Soul

  Marilyn Monroe (2006). “My Story”, p.53, Taylor Trade Publishing

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• And I hear nothing because it's like the volume button has been turned down on our lives and nobody has anything to say anymore." "I want to be an adjective again. But I am a noun.

  Melina Marchetta

  Buttons, Adjectives, Nouns

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• When I was forty, I was getting divorced, living in a low-class, dirty hotel in New York. My mother was dying of cancer. I owed $20,000. That was about the lowest. I came back to show business, and I couldn't get a job. I was turned down by every small-time agent in New York.

  Rodney Dangerfield

  Mother, Jobs, New York

  "Rodney Dangerfield: What I've Learned" by Cal Fussman, www.esquire.com. January 29, 2007.

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• When I think about the stuff I turned down it's kind of insane.

  DJ Shadow

  Thinking, Insane, Stuff

  Source: pitchfork.com

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• I turned down a contract with a major network in New York my senior year of college in order to move to Los Angeles and pursue my acting career. But so far it's working out.

  Justin Hires

  Senior, New York, Moving

  Source: lasentinel.net

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• I'm not a crazy horror fan. At that time i wasn't really looking to do something like that. But I thought to put a twist on it to put a werewolf versus vampire... 'What's the best opponent for a werewolf?' Became the idea of vampires and what about putting those two together? And ultimately it got turned down. But we loved the idea and shopped it around.

  Len Wiseman

  Crazy, Ideas, Two

  Source: collider.com

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• Both HUD and the Department of Justice began bringing lawsuits against mortgage bankers when a higher percentage of minority applicants than white applicants were turned down for mortgage loans. A substantial majority of both black and white mortgage loan applicants had their loans approved but a statistical difference was enough to get a bank sued.

  Thomas Sowell

  Black And White, Differences, Justice

  Thomas Sowell (2011). “Dismantling America and Other Controversial Essays (Large Print 16pt)”, p.163, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• I often wonder how different the world would be if Hitler had not been turned down when he applied to art school.

  George Carlin

  Art, School, Different

  George Carlin (1998). “Brain Droppings”, Hyperion

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• Please don't think that I am one of those squishy types who can't handle reality. I have plenty of real-world things to deal with all the time. I have deadlines, meetings, I answer the phone, I get turned down, I wait in lines and am forced to pass for normal all the time.

  Henry Rollins

  Real, Thinking, Phones

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• I don't want anything. I don't want a job. I don't want to be respectable. I don't want prizes. I turned down the National Institute of Arts and Letters when I was elected to it in 1976 on the grounds that I already belonged to the Diners Club.

  Gore Vidal

  Art, Jobs, Diners

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• When the New Yorker turned down work, they turned it down in such an elaborately gentlemanly way making apologies for their own shortsightedness. Undoubtedly it was their fault but somehow for some reason this fell short of the remarkably high standard that you by your own work have set for yourself. They had a way of rejecting my work that made me feel sorry for them somehow.

  Garrison Keillor

  Sorry, Apology, Way

  "Humor has to surprise us, otherwise it isn't funny". Interview with George Plimpton, blankonblank.org. November 28, 1994.

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• I would only take a role that I know I'm comfortable in and I can do. I've turned down plenty of things because I'd feel it's not me, and I wouldn't want to come on someone's project and flip that.

  J. B. Smoove

  Roles, Want, Flip

  Interview with Joel Keller, www.avclub.com. January 9, 2011.

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• I've turned down shows offering large amounts of money.

  Kevin Hart

  Offering, Shows, Amount

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