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Who really said it

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing

Attributed to Walt Disney 1901–1966 · American animator & film producer
Attributed In copyright

Widely — and, unusually for a feel-good internet quote, correctly — credited to Disney. It traces to a July 1957 interview with Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper, in which Disney said “I found the way to get started was to quit talking and begin doing it” while describing how he pressed ahead without bank financing. The famous one-liner is a lightly trimmed paraphrase of that documented statement, so the attribution is sound even though the exact popular wording is not verbatim.

Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Unconfirmed quote & credit

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing” Walt Disney, paraphrased from a July 1957 interview with columnist Hedda Hopper ("I found the way to get started was to quit talking and begin doing it")

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Hedda Hopper's estate / the newspaper syndicate that published her 1957 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 Walt Disney — American animator, film producer & studio co-founder. Theme: "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing". 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.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The documented source

Speaker
Walt Disney
Documented in
Hedda Hopper syndicated newspaper column
Date
July 1957
Original wording
“I found the way to get started was to quit talking and begin doing it.”

I didn’t have the money to get this thing going, but I found the way to get started was to quit talking and begin doing it. July 1957 · via Snopes

Disney was recalling how he launched his ventures without waiting on bank credit — a specific business-financing context that the modern motivational meme drops entirely.

Snopes: Did Walt Disney say this?

How we verified this

  • Snopes traces the line to a July 1957 interview of Disney by columnist Hedda Hopper ↗, in which he said “I found the way to get started was to quit talking and begin doing it” — and rates the attribution as substantially authentic.
  • The polished aphorism — “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing” — is the version circulated on quote sites such as Goodreads ↗ and Disney’s own social channels, trimmed from Disney’s first-person original.
  • Notably, the quote does not appear in any sourced, attributed, or disputed section of Disney’s Wikiquote page ↗, so the 1957 Hopper interview remains the earliest documented origin.
In copyright

The line is documented in a July 1957 syndicated newspaper column by Hedda Hopper — first published well after 1931, so treated conservatively as in-copyright to its publisher/syndicate. (Short quotations like this are generally freely quotable, and the exact popular wording is a paraphrase not found verbatim in the column.)

Fact-check

What actually happened

This is not a case of the wrong person — Disney really did say essentially this. The distortion is subtler: the wording was smoothed and the original meaning stripped away.

Walt Disney (paraphrased) trimmed paraphrase

Disney’s documented words were first-person and past-tense — “I found the way to get started was to quit talking and begin doing it” — per Snopes ↗. The meme form recasts it as a timeless imperative, dropping “I found” and “it” and shifting to the present tense.

Motivational reposts missing context

Disney was describing how he pushed his ventures forward without waiting for bank credit, not offering generic life advice; Snopes ↗ notes this financing context is absent from modern uses.

The attribution is sound: Disney genuinely voiced this idea in a July 1957 Hedda Hopper interview ↗ — the popular version just tidies his words and forgets he was talking about money.

Context

Why it resonates

The line endures because it compresses Disney’s entire biography — a career built on launching before the money, the studio, or the certainty was in place — into six blunt words. Stripped of its 1957 banking context, it reads as universal permission to stop deliberating and act.

That universality is also why it travels so well and why the original financing story vanished: the phrase works as pure motivation without it.

Quit talking and begin doing.

On the wording drift

Disney’s recorded statement — “I didn’t have the money to get this thing going, but I found the way to get started was to quit talking and begin doing it” — is a memory of a specific business decision. The aphorism it spawned keeps the punch and discards the particulars, which is typical of how first-person anecdotes harden into quotable maxims.

Explore

Filed under

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

Work Courage

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.

Did Walt Disney Say This?snopes.com

Fact-check tracing the quote to Disney's July 1957 Hedda Hopper interview and its banking context
Walt Disneyen.wikiquote.org

Wikiquote's Disney page — the line is absent from all sourced/attributed/disputed sections
Goodreads quote pagegoodreads.com

Shows the trimmed popular wording as circulated online, credited to Disney
Walt Disney quotebrainyquote.com

Representative example of the polished one-liner attributed to Disney
Walt Disneyen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the animator and studio co-founder (1901–1966)
Hedda Hopperen.wikipedia.org

The Hollywood gossip columnist whose 1957 interview is the documented source

The true source

About Walt Disney

Walt Disney

1901–1966 · American animator, film producer & studio co-founder

Walt Disney (1901–1966) was an American animator, film producer, and entrepreneur who co-founded The Walt Disney Company with his brother Roy in 1923. He pioneered the animated feature with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), created Mickey Mouse, opened Disneyland in 1955, and won a record 22 competitive Academy Awards. His early career was marked by financial struggle and gambles made without secured funding — the very experience behind this quote.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Hedda Hopper, syndicated Hollywood column, July 1957, quoting Walt Disney: “I found the way to get started was to quit talking and begin doing it.” As documented in Snopes, “Did Walt Disney Say ‘The Way To Get Started Is To Quit Talking’?”

MLA (9th ed.)

Hopper, Hedda. Syndicated Hollywood Column. July 1957.

APA (7th ed.)

Hopper, H. (1957, July). Syndicated Hollywood column.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/the-way-to-get-started-is-to-quit-talking-and-begin-doing

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