Quotes About Perfectionism

Perfectionism is the enemy of the author. There is a difference between good writing habits and perfectionism. The author who displays good writing habits delivers on time. The aspiring author who is prone to perfectionism will likely never fin...

I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.

No matter how careful you are, there's going to be the sense you missed something.

I'm a little bit of a control freak when it comes to my music, unfortunately.

In the production, it's my job to find every flaw and the ones that can't be fixed, and that's why my job kind of sucks. My first reaction to everything is: here's the 20 things that are wrong with it. Unfortunately, that's how I have to live.

I love how passionate Elder McKinley is about his faith, but he's a perfectionist in a bad way... to the point he denies his true feelings. It's a common story, unfortunately.

I am very harsh on myself. I can point out a list. My nose is very strange. I have a very round face. I sound so ungrateful. Obviously I'm being hard on myself. Whether it's body dysmorphia, or whatever it is, I can always find something wrong.

Even I would be unhappy if the final track did not sound good to me, which is why I stay in the loop with the music team till the song is ready.

I'm not good at being a picture-perfect pop star, happy all the time. If I'm having a bad day, I can't pretend. I'm always a bit unhappy, but that's just me. I like dwelling in my sadness.

If I make a mistake and finish 10th when we should have finished ninth, then I will be unhappy.

I'm not very good at watching myself. I look at it and I think, 'Oh, they've used the wrong take.' My job is over and it's not healthy to sit there and scrutinize your work as you're invariably unhappy!

I am obsessively bent on quality - to an unhealthy degree.

I mean, I love L.A. - I love living here. But I wish that we could make things without the need to hit a home run every single time. It's a unique thing to Hollywood that if you don't do that every time, then you're considered a failure. But it's like, 'Well, are you making movies to be successful? Or are you making movies to learn something?'

I went to Columbia University because I knew I wanted to go to a school that was academically rigorous. I prided myself on getting good grades, but I also hated it.

As far as pacing the shoot is concerned, I know when I've got it. I don't think there's any reason to take ten takes unless you need them.

You don't get to be a good screenwriter unless you do 20, 30 drafts: fact.

Women are hard on themselves.

It is hard for women not to be overly self critical, I am no exception!

Well, when you're nitpicking every little detail... with digital, you're seeing what the finished product is, right there on set, and that's when you start to lose a lot of time. You lose time staring at that image trying to make it perfect.

However, don't let perfectionism become an excuse for never getting started.

I don't even know why I'm saying this in an interview situation, but I always feel like I'm not good enough for some reason. I wish that wasn't the case, but left to my own devices, that voice starts speaking up.

I'm never happy with what I've written. You imagine, before you start, there's a cathedral, and the moment it starts on the page, it's a garden shed. And then you just try to make it the best shed you can.

With every job I watch, I can't find peace with what I've done. It's never good enough in my mind. I will never be happy if I'm in that mindset, unless I get a review that starts: 'Once in a generation.'

I revise constantly, as I go along and then again after I've finished a first draft. Few of my novels contain a single sentence that closely resembles the sentence I first set down. I just find that I have to keep zapping and zapping the English language until it starts to behave in some way that vaguely matches my intentions.