Andrew Shue Quotations

Life is the most exciting opportunity we have. But we have one shot. You graduate from college once, and that's it. You're going out of that nest. And you have to find that courage that's deep, deep, deep in there. Every step of the way.

The biggest lesson from Africa was that life's joys come mostly from relationships and friendships, not from material things. I saw time and again how much fun Africans had with their families and friends and on the sports fields. they laughed all the time.

I have amazing friends who have led inspirational lives.

We started a movement... to build character, citizenship and confidence in young people.

Community service has taught me all kinds of skills and increased my confidence. You go out there and think on your feet, work with others and create something from nothing. That's what life's all about.

The most important role models should and could be parents and teachers. But that said, once you're a teenager you've probably gotten as much of an example from your parents as you're going to.

Try to have as diverse group of friends as possible and don't get into the the clique scenario.

When you start suppressing feelings at an early age, it hurts you down the road. Full expression of anger and pain is very important.

I'm just kind of taking a break now and enjoying the freedom of making my own choices. When you're on a television show for six years, they run your schedule.

Winning isn't everything, but playing and competing and striving and going through things can be a lot of fun and really important. As long as you're doing it in a way that's healthy, sports can be an incredible opportunity.

If you can get a teen leader in each sector of a student population, you can pull people in. Everybody wants to get involved, but most are too afraid. When they see a person they think is cool leading it, they're first to join.

There are 80 million moms in the United States. Forty million stay at home with their children.

A good balance of winning and losing is important. If you just win all the time, you won't get anything out of it; having some tough losses can be really important.

People who dream of something bigger and better are good role models.

With my new venture, Club Mom, we want to empower moms to feel their value and also build their collective power to make their lives better and easier. We want to bring them together as a community to share experiences and information.

When we're young we have a very clear vision of how life is supposed to be, and it all seems very neatly packaged.

It's easy to say young people should believe in themselves, but the number one thing is recognizing that it's a journey, that you have to build confidence in yourself.

Unfortunately, there are so many people who live their whole life in a place that is safe and protected and simple and they don't really have that strength inside to fly.

Michael Sanchez and I grew up in New Jersey, not far from here, playing soccer together. When I was in high school, I worked to start an organization to help senior citizens, which I learned a great deal from.

Teenagers too often have to deal with loss and death. You had to cope with the untimely death of your brother; how can young people deal with such tragedies?

I found at an early age the times when I learned the most about myself was when I got thrown out there on a stage in front of a microphone when you didn't really want to be out there, where you're kind of afraid.

I was on Oprah's show recently talking about the people who impacted me the most. One was a teacher and one was my soccer coach. I didn't even go into my family, who had the most influence.

I'd never been a teacher before, and here I was starting my first day with these eager students. There was a shortage of teachers, and they had been without a math teacher for six months. They were so excited to learn math.

I'm a big fan of Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty, they're my two favorites.

Fear is that thing that keeps you up there on that other plateau. Fear is that thing that just keeps you closed down, and quite frankly, alone.

When you have a tough loss, go through it and agonize. I had one loss that I still want to change, but at the same time I realize it is an important part of who I am.

You need to make relationships to help you.

I can pretty much call anyone, whether at the White House, in a company or in the media. I have access, because of the silliness of the entertainment world and how people react to it. It gave me an enormous opportunity to do anything I really want to.

If I want to continue to build the kind of effort we have with Do Something, being in a public office would help. I wouldn't rule it out, but it's not something I feel determined to do.

The money was good while it lasted. The best part was clearly that it changed my view of what's possible, as far as thinking how you can have an impact on a national level.

You start to think bigger when you see how quickly a TV show can catch on in a whole country. That confidence, and thinking big, opened a lot of doors.

When I was in high school... I had to measure up to my older brother, who is an Eagle Scout. And that's not a good thing.

When you decide that you're really going to go out there, if you think about it, it's not that safe. It's not that easy... You have parents, siblings. You've seen people struggle. You've seen what's going on in the world. It's a challenge.

I got too competitive... But if you have different friends; maybe you are in the higher-level classes and have some friends there, and you have some friends from sports or others from a club. The more kinds of real friends... you can have, the better off you'll be.

I created an organization to help senior citizens. How many high school kids are out there helping senior citizens?

There are so many times in life-and I've had them-when I was really afraid. I was kind of a closed-in, self-involved person who was just trying to stay in that safe place and that nest where I had good friends and people who are just like me.

I was lucky, because of Student Council, my classes, sports and social life, there were different people I had friendships with.

I think the key to both high school and junior high is everybody is trying to find their way, trying to stand out.

It gives them an opportunity to engage with each other, talk about ideas and then figure out creative ways to take their ideas to the next step where they can then take action to make something happen,

I think the most important element here is getting that young person ... to think about helping somebody else, ... Like my father, I believe in the power of young people to change the world.

When something tragic happens, it's a rude awakening that life doesn't go exactly the way we plan. You grow up faster and realize part of life's beauty is that it isn't all planned, that there are many unknowns. Nothing's guaranteed, but you have to live. You can't just walk through life, you have to actually embrace it and go after it.

We wanted to make it cool and fun and interesting for young people to get involved, and we wanted to figure out what kind of programs would give them the structure to want to get involved,

After a devastating loss, your whole perspective shifts, and you're kind of in a blank space. You feel like on one side nothing matters, and on the other side a freedom because nothing matters.

There's no quit in our family. Our dad was the chief proponent of that. [On the set] we were constantly telling each other, Stay true to the story, we know that we love each other, keep communication open. We knew how unique this was-you're doing a movie that really could be put out there all over the world, and you're telling this personal story about your family.

Life is the most exciting opportunity we have.

Young people can be the catalyst for starting the effort to redefine what's important in America.

We often think the exterior things-being good at sports or really smart -translate to feeling great about yourself.

We've raised a lot of money, and learned how different it is raising money for a profit venture versus a non-profit one.

At some point in their lives, people deal with tragedy. It's just a question of when.

You're going to have to take a chance: you're going to have to reach out to touch people to make things happen. And it's not going to be easy, because there's going to be all kinds of adversity against you and people who are going to say things that make you feel like you aren't capable.

There's do something people and there's do nothing people. We wanted to make sure young people knew the difference.

It's been quite a battle for my wife to get me to buy clothes, I just wear the same ones all the time, I don't care.

It's important because young people need to be motivated and inspired and then channeled into community building because they are the ones who have the most energy, the most time, the most to lose,

I've learned about the strength of being an individual and standing up for what you believe in... saying what you believe.

The dumbest thing I ever did in high school was when a kid challenged me to a fight... I did show up, and it was just a little scuffle.