Quotes About Perfectionism

In order to go on living one must try to escape the death involved in perfectionism.

I don't know, those ice-cream balls could be a little tighter," he says, a serious look on his face like he actually means it. Noel's chuckling, which is a relief because it means it looks okay to him, but I'm ready to lose it. I can't believe I'm letting this coke-snorting new guy get the best of me. "Yeah," I say, "like marbles. We could name the dish after you.

My attitude to writing is like when you do wallpapering, you remember where all the little bits are that don't meet. And then your friends say: It's terrific!

I'm just not one of those naturally funny, relaxed actors who enjoy the spotlight and are so good at it.

I giggled and he took it very seriously and wrote everything down. I thought it was going too well, I was doing too well, it was going to look like nothing was wrong. I'm not this great! I wanted to say. Really, I'm a wreck, help! But I couldn't speak up. I smiled and tried to look brilliant.

When he went to college he wrote me letters which I answered within four days. Each letter took at least five drafts before I thought it suitable to send to Cambridge.

What Martha Stewart-like demon of a Stepford wife is possessing me?

Having OCD, and tending to see things as either black or white and in perfectionistic terms, as well as being overconscientious, he was extremely hard on himself and insisted that he somehow be guaranteed that he would not one day snap and act on his thoughts. At one point, Frank told me that he was now concerned that he was feeling too little anxiety, which made him think that perhaps he was a sociopath without a conscience after all and would end up like Jeffrey Dahmer!

I did a documentary on Farrah for Lifetime. Actually, a do-over documentary, because Farrah didn't like the way she looked in the first one. And she was right.

anyone who is so picky about a hot fudge sundae should make it themselves.

every minute i spend talking to you is a mnute i could spend practicing the violin, and when you're a musical genius like me, every minute counts.

The siblings' father stood in the doorway of the library and said something they never forgot. "Children," he said, "There is no worse sound in the world than somebody who cannot play the violin who insists on doing so anyway.

If you look for perfection, you'll never be content.

Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.

What should I do with your strong, manly, spirited sketches, full of variety and glow? How could I possibly join them on to the little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush, as produces little effect after much labour?

I can't leave the studio until everything is as it should be. And I can't put a record out unless I am completely happy with it. I never want to be at a signing and hear my album playing and think, 'Oh no, I could have done that top note better.'

I have been very hard on myself and strived for unrealistic goals of perfection.

Until I have a season where I do feel like I'm the best, I don't think I'm really going to be satisfied with it. And even when I do have a season where I feel like I'm the best, I'm sure I'll find something that I'm unsatisfied with it. That's kind of how I am.

I'm constantly unsatisfied with any situation, which is both good and bad, because never being fully happy drives me to better every day... but I don't enjoy the things that I do even when I do them great.

I put a lot of pressure on myself. I think something's not good enough, and I won't stop until I feel like I've made it. I'm never satisfied.

Everything I write goes through a lot of drafts. A hundred rewrites is not unusual for me to go through - the last fifty maybe just going back and forth on a single line or word selection.

I'm tortured because I care. I'm always upset about not doing things as good as I think I could have because I care.

I still get upset if the pasta is not cooked how I like it, but I've learned to put things into context.

I'm always upset about not doing things as good as I think I could have because I care.