Quotes About Perfectionism

It's a very insular world, ballet. I feel if I had stayed much longer, it would've consumed me. I performed six days a week and rehearsed 10-plus hours a day. And you only see the people that you work with.

If I walk into the editing room, it's six hours lost. I'm massaging frames. I'm, like, 'Oh, take six frames off that shot. Hit the music cue right there.' I will drive everybody crazy if left to my own devices in that room. So I try to do everything I can by staying out of the way.

One thing that stays the same is my passion for music. Other than that, I've become more dedicated. I think that I really work much harder than I ever did when I first started at my craft; I'm more dedicated, and I have become a perfectionist.

As an athlete, I know that I'm such a perfectionist that I'll want to go out and keep working on something over and over until it's perfect. Part of growing up is learning to take a step back.

I had Ibra at Milan, who every day would get angry about a misplaced pass, and I told him that if everyone was as talented as him, there would be no problems.

I realized why directors are such horrible people - in a way - because you want things to be right, and people will just not listen to you, and there is no time to be nice to people, no time to be delicate.

Some directors don't say much. Michael Mann, for example. I remember on 'The Insider' he never had much to say. He would do a scene, just kind of nod, and then set it up to do it again. And you might do a scene 10 or 12 times or more, the same little 31-second bit. And you could tell he wasn't satisfied, but he wouldn't say much.

It is my opinion that Norman Rockwell and his ilk have done more to make already anxious people feel guilty than anyone else.

There are reasons that bands and musicians make demos and outtakes - because they are not good enough to make the record. A lot of people forget that.

Comments like 'he's not committed' or 'he's not good enough' appear as soon as you are not 110 per cent. I find it quite annoying how people read into stuff and form their own opinions.

I'm pretty hard on myself when it comes to my voice, and certain notes I'm afraid to hit because I'm afraid I'm going to sound bad.

The worst words I could ever hear as a bass player was, 'Can you play the root notes?'

Every concert I've finished with the knowledge I've played a fistful of wrong notes.

As a director, we work ridiculously hard on every detail, and we do everything to the billionth degree, and mostly people notice nothing.

That's what happens nowadays with people working on computers. They can so easily fix things with their mouse and take out all the, 'Oh, somebody coughed in the background; we need to take that out' - or somebody hit a bad note. Those are all the best moments.

I used to think that deadlines should be ignored until the product was ready: that they were a nuisance, a hurdle in front of quality, a forced measure to get something out the door for the good of the schedule, not the customer.

I had such high expectations of myself. I was going to be the best mother, the best housewife, the best entertainer, the best nurse, you know - what it was, I was going to be the best. And I could never live up to my expectations.

I often obsess so much about things that I can't get done, that I ruin other things.

One of the hardest things for me to do is watch myself. The first time I see it, I am obsessed with my left ear or my right ear or some other physical attribute, or the fact that I'm 60 or whatever shallow ego thought is running through my head. I'm just destroyed that I'm not Cary Grant or whatever.

What moves those of genius, what inspires their work is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.

The obsession that you have to manage everything - it's really bad.

I do want people to have a sense of just the extreme level of meticulousness and care that goes into everything. I wouldn't expect anybody to catch all the details of what I'm doing. The level of obsession is so extreme.

I still don't think I'm a fashion guy. I think I'm a clothes guy. I'm a little obsessive.

I was obsessive and made my parents take me to the hairdressers way more often than I needed to.