Quotes About Perfectionism

I have to say that I've always believed perfectionism is more of a disease than a quality. I do try to go with the flow but I can't let go.

When you try to do everything perfectly, it gets very tiring.

I must always try to do better because perfectionism, and the need to always have new goals and achieve them, is a state of mind that brings profound meaning to life.

I'm trying to be more organized, put together, and be more kind to myself. I'm really hard on myself and really just self-critical and always striving for this perfection which doesn't exist.

I'm a bad guitar tuner. I have to pay somebody to tune my guitars.

When I was first getting into the guitar, I played it incessantly. I lived it, breathed it, ate it, and slept it. I was also extremely self-critical, so from early on, I made sure to develop good playing habits - I constantly strove to sound in tune and have a great tone, and to play cleanly and in time.

Instead of thinking that's a nice tune, you start thinking is it the right pace, is it the right tempo? That is the death nell for artists.

I always hated watching bands: the guy would break a string or be out of tune, and I have perfect pitch, so it would always tick me off when a guy is up there, and he'd break a string.

The whole thing with recording is you have to know when to turn off the tape machine and just stop recording because you want to keep fixing, fixing, fixing, you know?

I think I am becoming obsessive-compulsive. David Beckham apparently turns all the Diet Coke cans in his fridge to face the same way every morning, and I nerdily sharpen all the pencils in my pot before sitting down to work.

When I start writing songs and it turns into an overly belabored intellectual process, I just throw it out.

I'm very driven by what I do. I am certainly very competitive. I like people who represent the best at what they do, and if that turns you into a perfectionist, then maybe I am.

The problem with all-or-nothing thinking is that it stops people even taking the first steps. The thought of never having pepperoni pizza again somehow turns into an excuse to keep ordering it every week.

Writing for myself and writing for another artist are two very different experiences. When I handle both the story and the art, I have full control. I can endlessly tweak every word and every line.

My toughest criticism usually comes from myself. As my editor can attest to, I'm never done tweaking a book until the production department has to rip it from my hands!

If you don't feel right, you're going to try to tweak every pitch, every little thing, things that probably don't even need tweaking.

This is not a screenplay. I don't do twenty drafts. I'm not going to show this to you until it's published or accepted for publication. You can make whatever suggestions you want, but I probably will ignore them entirely.

I'm never a person who likes anything I've done. It's just the way it is. Twenty years later, I can look at something I did, and I'm still thinking, 'You know, that could have been better if you had done it this way or that way.

I let everyone have [the] space to do what they want, but I think I'm still a bit of a perfectionist.

I will make myself sick on films, just because you want everything to be right. I can't sleep if something hasn't been done or is out of place.

I've learned that, I wouldn't say I've made that mistake, but I've learned on some of my other movies, like, you always want to show everything that you feel works

Sometimes if you're a director, you want to believe that you're great and capable at all aspects - the technical side, the lights, everything - but I'm not.

Maybe when it comes to my music, or my performances, I'm a little more aggressive because I want everything to be perfect. But not in normal, day-to-day life.

There's nothing harder than making a mellow, clean record. It's really scary. I can see why people would never want to do it.