Quotes About Perfectionism

Our flaws are what makes us human. If we can accept them as part of who we are, they really don't even have to be an issue.

No matter how proficient we are at what we do, most of us are able to find a way to draw comparisons with some ideal or existing yardstick that keeps us from recognizing the value of what we are doing.

The world feeds us a steady diet of it's-okay-if-you-are-a-nice-person sprinkled with a bit of if-you-try-your-hardest and topped with a strong drink of you-meant-well.

Given the conflicting messages we receive about what it takes to be "good enough," it's not surprising that Christians are as plagued by depression and anxiety as the general population.

A work is finished when we can no longer improve it, though we know it to be inadequate and incomplete. We are so overtaxed by it that we no longer have the power to add a single comma, however indispensable. What determines the degree to which a work is done is not a requirement of art or of truth, it is exhaustion and, even more, disgust.

I edit with a pen, I write on a computer. I've always had trouble with pencils because they get dull so quickly, or they just break, and then there's that ­awful shuddery feeling when you're trying to write with a couple of scraps of wood poking out.

Sometimes I'll spend an hour writing a tiny email. I work on it until I've created the illusion that I've dashed it off in three minutes. If I make a typo, I let it stand. Sometimes in fact I correct the typo without thinking, and then I back up and retype the typo so that it'll look more casual. I don't know why.

If you seek and accept only the best, you are a maximizer.

I once saw an elaborate landscape in a gallery, drawn in pencil, that took my breath away. Then I realized the artist probably didn't have enough confidence to use a pen.

I'm a big perfectionist! I'm trying to channel super-confident women like Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey and Beyonce, because I realized that if you want something, you really have to go for it, just like they do.

There's no worse feeling than seeing my buildings and realizing the mistakes.

I've never told anyone this before, but I'm an obsessive-compulsive. I go back to my hotel room every evening and put the coat hangers back in order and open my bag and rearrange it. It takes a lot of my time, but if I don't do it I can't sleep.

No perfectionist has ever met his own benchmarks, and no one so famished for admiration has ever received enough of it.

More women have come out of the changing rooms slagging off their knees than any other body part. I recently developed a complex about my own knees, so I totally get it.

It's not easy to work with me, I recognize that. It's not easy if those people aren't as perfectionistic as I am.

When I was 13 I'd record myself on my karaoke machine and if I didn't like it I'd record it again. I'd do that for hours, making sure each line sounded just right.

First of all, you have to understand that I'm like anybody else. When I hear my voice on a record I absolutely loathe my voice. I cannot stand my voice.

I'm never happy with anything I've done! If you sat me down and played everything I've ever recorded, I'd just sit there going, 'No... that could be better.'

Once I finish something, if I don't feel that it's absolutely fabulous, there's no way I would ever let it be recorded, I wouldn't even present it to a producer.

I hate re-recording. I like singing, but I don't like recording a song over and over, making it too perfect.

I know some bands that are precious about their new ideas. They're conscious of the fact that people can - even from mobile phones - begin to get clearer and better recordings of the songs... so they're a lot more hesitant to play them.

I hardly ever watch my own work. I just end up picking myself apart! I can't even stand to hear myself on voicemail. the sound of my own voice is like nails on a chalkboard. The same goes for my records.

I don't really like to sit around the house listening to my own records. They're not that good.

I'm like a recovering perfectionist. For me it's one day at a time.