Quotes About Perfectionism

I didn't go to university, and I always had in my mind that I hadn't studied properly.

I'm a serious student of music, a perfectionist in the studio, and I take the arrangement and production of it very seriously, down to the mixing and mastering even. But at the same time I'm having so much fun with it. I try not to take myself so seriously.

I don't listen to my own records a lot. Once in a while - to check out my mistakes. Because you can always see a spot or two in the record where you could have done better. So you more or less study this way.

If you look up every last detail on your subject, you'll never finish.

I am not a perfectionist, but still I seek perfection. I am not a great romantic, but yet I yearn 4 affection

Many people think of perfectionism as striving to be your best, but it is not about self-improvement; it's about earning approval and acceptance.

I am my own biggest critic ... I'm constantly criticizing myself, constantly trying to find ways to better myself and ... compete and, you know, just be the best.

The act, when vacuuming, of running over a string at least a dozen times, reaching over and picking it up, examining it, then putting it back down to give the vacuum one more chance.

In cleaning up the ills of the world, Edith Pritchet eradicated, not merely objects, but whole classes of objects. Probably, at some remote time and place, she had been annoyed by a honking car. Now, in her pleasant fantasy version of the world, such things didn't exist. They simply weren't . Her list of annoyances was undoubtedly considerable. And there was no way to tell what was included.

Striving for perfection can get in the way during the early stages of the creative process.

My ambition is to not embarrass myself--which, if you know me, is a pretty serious ambition.

If I'd been burned alive because of bad grades, my parents would have killed me, especially my father, who meant well but was just a little too gung ho for my taste.

If you write a phrase and think, 'Wow, that's really poetic, that's really pretty, I really nailed it,' you get rid of it [because] you've overdone it.

In the case of On Beauty, my OPD spun completely out of control: I reworked those first twenty pages for almost two years. To look back at all past work induces nausea, but the first twenty pages in particular bring on heart palpitations. It's like taking a tour of a cell in which you were once incarcerated.

I could not write on 'Downton Abbey'.

Ive definitely got a sense of not being very good at stuff. Its sort of absurd because, you know, Ive done really quite well for myself, but I still really doubt myself. Its just the way I am.

'Good enough is good enough' - that's never been acceptable for me.

I've got an addiction to this game. An addiction to being perfect.

I don't try to be difficult. I just care so much about these albums that I get crazed sometimes when I'm making them.

Unless you sell millions, I think it's very hard as a writer not to feel anxious about what you put out. I always feel I could do better.

The handsome things she had admired from her youth up she suddenly suspected of age and absurdity. In short, she felt that fear which takes possession of nearly all authors when they read over a work they have hitherto thought proof against every exacting or blase critic: new situations seem timeworn; the best-turned and most highly polished phrases limp and squint; metaphors and images grin or contradict each other; whatsoever is false strikes the eye.

I don't have a single complete show or movie or anything else that I could look at and say, 'Nailed that one.' But endless dissatisfaction is, I suppose, what gets us out of bed in the morning.

perfectionism is a slow death. if everything were to turn out just like i would want it to, just like i would plan for it to, then i would never experience anything new; my life would be an endless repetition of stale successes. when i make a mistake i experience something unexpected.... when i have listened to my mistakes i have grown.

Perfectionism is a slow death....If everything were to turn out just as I would want it, just as I would plan, I would never experience anything new. My life would be an endless repetition of stale successes. When I make a mistake I experience something unexpected.