Quotes About Perfectionism

If a story isn't working, I'm simply unable to finish it. That's what usually tells me something is wrong.

I can be unbearable sometimes asking for so many takes.

You know one of the causes of modern despair is the fact that we have had proposed to us, from various quarters, an impossible perfection.

The best people are always the worst. They drive everyone mad by being so good at second-guessing everything bad.

His brother and sister were the dearest people, but dreadfully good; they thought everything wrong. - William Price describing Fanny and Edmund to Georgiana Darcy

The all-or-nothing mind-set leads Perfectionists to transform every setback they encounter into a catastrophe, an assault on their very worth as human beings. Their sense of self inevitably suffers as their faultfinding turns inward.

It has taken years and years, starting early in childhood, for the emotional brain to acquire its repertoire of habit. Schemas like perfectionism and deprivation become ingrained through innumerable repeated episodes. It naturally takes time to undo these emotional habits and to master a healthier response.

The nature of being an artist in any field, but specifically in comedy, is that almost as soon as you finish something you hate it, and it feels dated, and not your best work.

I still like complete sentences that are grammatically correct without spelling errors. I don't always achieve this, and it is irksome to read a message I have sent and discover errors. I know I often leave out words in e-mail, not by choice, but because of the way my brain works.

I didn't become a good writer until I learned how to rewrite. And I don't just mean fixing spelling and adding a comma. I rewrite each of my books five or six times, and each time I change huge portions of the story.

I am a bit O.C.D. I have a colour-coordinated bookcase. The books are arranged by the colour of the spine. It looks cool, but people come in and think I am slightly mental.

We've spoken to a lot of friends who are stars who could be great, and they say to us, 'Look, if you were doing a movie musical, and we could pre-record and lip-synch, sure. But live? So if we hit a bad note it's there for posterity? We're not going to go out there without a safety net.' People are scared to death of that.

I'm never satisfied, man. I'm Virgo. We overanalyze and we're never satisfied. So I'm gonna keep going 'til the wheels fall off.

An artist painting a picture should have at his side a man with a club to hit him over the head when the picture is finished.

The unhappy man, who once has trail'd a pen, Lives not to please himself, but other men; Is always drudging, wastes his life and blood, Yet only eats and drinks what you think good.

It is easy to find fault, if one has that disposition. There was once a man who, not being able to find any other fault with his coal, complained that there were too many prehistoric toads in it.

Geddy once joked, 'You're the only guy I know who rehearses to rehearse!

I remember watching Mel Gibson direct himself on 'Braveheart' and he would do two takes, shrug and move on.

I love Mozart, but I often make a terrible hash of it.

My mum loved housework, she basically had OCD.

I have never gotten a B in my life. I would honestly be mortified if I got a B. I'm so academically driven.

I will say, there's not an episode in existence where whatever didn't come out the way I wanted it to or is an actual mistake that won't nag at me until the end of the time.

I never come away from a film thinking I nailed it.

There's like a little bit of a narcissism - I think there's more than a little bit of narcissism about it, but it's just that you can become so anxious and self-obsessive about whether this thing that I'm writing is good; is this joke that I'm making good?