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Who really said it

Eighty percent of success is showing up

Said by Woody Allen Born 1935 · American filmmaker, writer & comedian
Verified In copyright

Allen’s own claim. In a letter quoted in William Safire’s New York Times language column of August 13, 1989, he wrote: “I did say that 80 percent of success is showing up.” The earliest close match Quote Investigator ↗ has found is from 1977. It is credited to Allen but uses “life” instead of “success.”

Last verified 3 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Verified quote & credit

“Eighty percent of success is showing up” Woody Allen (letter quoted in William Safire’s “On Language” column, New York Times, August 13, 1989; an earlier form, “Showing up is 80 percent of life,” was printed in the New York Times on August 21, 1977)

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Woody Allen (letter text); The New York Times Company (1989 column)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Woody Allen — American filmmaker, writer & comedian. Theme: "Eighty percent of success is showing up". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Provenance

Where Allen claimed it

Document
Woody Allen’s letter to William Safire, quoted in Safire’s “On Language” column, New York Times
Published
August 13, 1989
Earliest close match
New York Times, August 21, 1977: “Showing up is 80 percent of life” (Marshall Brickman, quoting Allen)
“Success” wording in print
By 1982, as an epigraph in In Search of Excellence (Peters & Waterman)

My observation was that once a person actually completed a play or a novel he was well on his way to getting it produced or published, as opposed to a vast majority of people who tell me their ambition is to write, but who strike out on the very first level and indeed never write the play or book. In the midst of the conversation, as I’m now trying to recall it, I did say that 80 percent of success is showing up. Allen’s letter, 1989

Transcribed by Quote Investigator from the New York Times of August 13, 1989. Asked why he chose eighty, Allen said that “the extra syllable in 70 ruins the rhythm of the quote.”

Quote Investigator: Showing Up Is 80 Percent of Life

How we verified this

  • 1977: The earliest close match Quote Investigator ↗ has found is in the New York Times of August 21, 1977. In a joint interview with Allen, Marshall Brickman says: “As Woody says, ‘Showing up is 80 percent of life.’”
  • 1982: The “success” wording, credited to Allen, appears as the epigraph to chapter five of In Search of Excellence, according to Quote Investigator ↗.
  • 1989: Asked by William Safire which version is correct, Allen writes: “I did say that 80 percent of success is showing up.” Both this letter and the 1977 interview are listed under the Attributed heading on Wikiquote ↗.
  • 2008: In an interview with Collider, Allen gives the other wording: “I made the statement years ago which is often quoted that 80 percent of life is showing up” (archived interview ↗).
In copyright

The wording is documented in Allen’s letter as the New York Times printed it on August 13, 1989, and in an earlier “life” form from 1977. Both were first published long after 1931, so the source texts are treated as in copyright. Quoting the single line, with credit, is ordinary attribution.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

The wording drifts, but the credit doesn't

This is one of the rare lines pinned on Woody Allen that really is his. What wanders is the wording: the percentage and the noun change as the line is retold.

“Showing up is 80 percent of life” Also Allen’s

This is the 1977 wording, spoken by Marshall Brickman, who credited it to Allen. Allen used it himself in 2008. See Quote Investigator ↗.

Marshall Brickman Not the author

Brickman spoke the 1977 words in print, but he said “As Woody says.” He was quoting his co-writer, with Allen present at the interview (Quote Investigator ↗).

“Ninety percent of life is just showing up” Misquote

This version was printed in the Boston Globe in 1983. Safire reported in 1989 that President George H. W. Bush used it, crediting Allen (Quote Investigator ↗). In his reply, Allen said the figure was 80.

“99 percent of life is showing up” Misquote

This version was printed on a T-shirt described in the New York Times in 1978, again credited to Allen (Quote Investigator ↗).

The line is Allen’s. He confirmed the “success” wording in a 1989 letter and recalled the “life” wording in 2008. Which came first is not known: Quote Investigator ↗ notes he may have used “success” in an earlier interview that has not been found.

Context

Advice to young writers

Allen explained the line to William Safire in 1989. It came from a conversation about advice to young playwrights: people who actually finished a play or a novel were well on their way to having it produced or published, while most would-be writers “strike out on the very first level.” In 2008 he made the same point to Collider, calling it “my biggest life lesson that has worked.”

By 1982 the “success” wording was the epigraph to the chapter called “A Bias for Action” in the business bestseller In Search of Excellence. That is one route by which it moved from show business into management and self-help writing.

The extra syllable in 70 ruins the rhythm of the quote.

Read the full story

Allen’s 1989 letter also says the figure “seems high to me today,” but that “it was more than 60.” He chose 80 because the extra syllable in 70 would spoil the rhythm. So the number was picked for rhythm, not measured.

The columnist Ellen Goodman had already corrected herself in 1988, writing that Allen said “80 percent of SUCCESS is showing up,” not “life.” See the chronology at Quote Investigator ↗.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Success Work Simplicity

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator: Showing Up Is 80 Percent of Lifequoteinvestigator.com

The full chronology, 1977–2008, including Allen's 1989 letter to Safire
Woody Allen on Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Attributed section citing the 1977 interview and the 1989 letter, plus the 2008 Collider quote
Collider interview, 2008 (archived)web.archive.org

Allen in his own words: "80 percent of life is showing up"
In Search of Excellence (1982)archive.org

Catalog record and borrowable scan of the 1982 Harper & Row edition, whose chapter 5 epigraph QI cites
Woody Allen on Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the filmmaker

The author

About Woody Allen

Woody Allen

Born 1935 · American filmmaker, writer & comedian

Woody Allen is an American comedian, writer and filmmaker. He co-wrote Annie Hall (1977) with Marshall Brickman, and it was in a joint interview with Brickman that year that the “showing up” maxim was first printed under his name. Allen later explained that the remark began as advice to young writers: most people who want to write never finish the play or the book.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source (via Quote Investigator)

Woody Allen, letter to William Safire, quoted in William Safire, “On Language,” New York Times, August 13, 1989, SM18; transcribed in “Showing Up Is 80 Percent of Life,” Quote Investigator, June 10, 2013 (updated February 17, 2025), https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/06/10/showing-up/.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Eighty percent of success is showing up’?” Last verified 3 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/eighty-percent-of-success-is-showing-up/

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