Amy Poehler

Be yourself. No one else can be you.

You know, it sounds like I’m bragging in some way, but as far as career stuff, there’s not that much stuff that scares me. I know what I can do well.

[a metaphor for the end of her marriage] The process of divorce is about loading a blanket, throwing it up, watching it all spin, and worrying what stuff will break when it lands.

If you can find a way to be truly ambivalent about what people think about you as an artist you’re completely freed up because you just end up doing things that turn you on creatively, and then as a person you really try and drown the noise.

Sometimes Tina Fey is like a very talented bungee-jumping expert. All it takes Tina to softly say, ‘We can do this, right?’ and I suddenly feel like I can jump off a bridge.

I just love bossy women. To me, bossy is not a pejorative term at all. It mans somebody’s passionate and engaged and ambitious and doesn’t mind leading.

Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make me feel important.’ Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.

Sometimes you need conflict in order to come up with a solution. Through weakness, oftentimes, you can’t make the right sort of settlement, so I’m aggressive, but I also get things done, and in the end, everybody likes me.

I have learned that what is essential can sometimes be invisible to the eye. That’s where discernment comes in.

Every obnoxious act is a cry for help.

My first professional job was to sell heavy-duty waterless cookware.

Fortune sides with him who dares.

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day

Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

Someone has defined genius as intensity of purpose: the ability todo, the patience to wait. Put these together and you have achievement.

If you have a dream, don’t let anybody take it away.

Get going. Move forward. Aim High. Plan a takeoff. Don’t just sit on the runway and hope someone will come along and push the airplane. It simply won’t happen. Change your attitude and gain some altitude. Believe me, you’ll love it up here.

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.