Quotes About Self-worth

It's impossible to be perfect, and you won't do a good job if you're too focused on proving yourself to others.

I was so adamant about proving myself for so long and I've gotten to the point where I don't have to do that as much.

I still need to go through the process of proving myself.

I don't believe in proving myself, ever. I'm in the school of thought where if someone is a curious person, they can find whatever they want.

People say, 'You're overweight'; they question your heart and character. It's a challenge again, proving to myself and to other people that I'm still here, I still have what it takes.

My story is all about proving myself, no matter what level I'm on.

When you live in an environment where you aren't allowed to be fully who you are, you aren't taken seriously, and you aren't respected. What that actually does to a person's confidence and psyche is really fascinating to me.

I think that you can take things personally or get hurt feelings as a result of something not working out just because your psyche said it should or you deserve it, or whatever it is.

I think if you're in this business, like any high-stakes business, the highs and lows can make you a manic-depressive person, if you weren't that way to start with. 'Cause it's just so crazy on your psyche. A lot of it has to do with people thinking they're greater than someone else.

I think you can write a psychological profile of me that says I found a way to immerse my insecurities in a cause large enough to justify whatever I wanted it to.

Because there is something psychologically wrong with you on some level if you want to be on TV, if the only way you can fulfill yourself is by literally going from three dimensions to two dimensions.

The way we function in society - it doesn't make sense sometimes because it's all based on how you look and then how badly you should feel after you eat the food we just advertised. And then when someone in the public eye goes up or down, it's like a major moment.

I went through my entire public school career going to bed crying because I was getting Ds.

I went to public school, and I didn't do well in school. And it wasn't until, actually, I got into school at Juilliard - it was the first time in my life that I thought, 'Oh, maybe I'm not stupid,' because I was so inspired and passionate about what I was learning, and it was the first time in my life I had felt that.

I didn't like my hair and makeup one time on a photo shoot, and my publicist told me, 'You should just be happy with it - they haven't had a black girl on the cover since forever.' She's no longer my publicist.

Up until my first book was published, I had all this potential, people would say, and I screwed up. After it, I could say: 'No, I didn't screw up.'

I wasn't entitled to dream so big. The idea of me being a writer wasn't even possible in my mind. Even when I began to write and first published, I couldn't call myself a writer.

The Pulitzer has nothing to do with me; it's more about people's perceptions of me, whatever they may be. I'm not being humble - I honestly do not and cannot think about that. It's a lovely piece of crystal on my bookcase, but that's all it is to me.

Nobody can pull you down more than you.

One of the things people learn with me is I don't need to pull someone else down to build myself up, and I will live and die by that rule.

I'm not a bling-bling guy; I can't pull it off. I just look like an idiot.

When you're down on yourself, and when you are hunkering down and pulling back, you're not going to make any better decisions than when you were aggressively, belligerently putting yourself forward.

No one can insist me to wear skimpy costumes and to act in steamy scenes just for the sake of pulling more audience to cinema halls.

If somebody tells you to lose weight, it is like a punch in the face.