Quotes About Self-criticism

As a musician you're always your own worst critic and you're always digging into your songs and evaluating your own self-worth of things.

I used to write books and plays in my mind, but I doubt that any of them would have been above the level of the cheapest dime novel.

When I see my movies on the editing table, I do think I could have done them a certain way. The satisfaction is never there even when I'm directing a film. You need to have the feeling that you could have done this better.

I'm my own biggest critic, so no matter what was being said in the media or being said by fans, I feel the worst when I disappoint myself.

I don't often see the movies I'm in; I'm usually disappointed in myself and it only serves to make me self-conscious.

I'm disappointed anytime I don't play well.

I'm a little disappointed in my rebounding.

At times I am very self-critical and disappointed with my appearance, and there are other times I think, 'How lucky I am to be alive.'

My poetry is the most disappointing thing for me that I've ever written. When I say I can write everything, I don't say I can write everything well.

I do tend to wake up in the middle of the night convinced I've made a disaster.

I think my own thinking is harsher than my mom's discipline.

I am my biggest critic. Even in films where people said they liked me, I have disliked myself.

I'm very hard on myself. I think that drives me because I don't want to let people down or let myself down. That fear of failing drives me from being complacent.

I'm pretty lowbrow. It's a failing.

A lot of the time, I read something I've written, and I think, 'Well, that's competent. It's not exactly breaking any boundaries. It's not exactly transgressive. It's just a bunch of fake people in a room talking to each other. But maybe there's a value to that.'

I worry about technical details - did I mix the cello half a decibel too high? Things like that.

Much protective self-criticism stems from growing up around people who wouldn't or couldn't love you, and it's likely they still can't or won't. In general, however, the more you let go of the tedious delusion of your own unattractiveness, the easier it will be for others to connect with you, and the more accepted you'll feel.

Usually when I see myself in a film or on television, there's about a six-month period where I can't look at it because all I'll see are the mistakes. I'm just appalled by the person that I see.

I constantly have a devil on my shoulder telling me that what I'm doing is really horrible, and then somehow the lightning strike happens, and everything comes together.

The High Chair Tyrant who attacks his human host is the perfectionist; he expects the impossible of himself and berates himself (just as his mother did) when he can't meet the demands of the infant within. The Tyrant pressures a man for more and better performance and is never satisfied with what he produces. The unfortunate man becomes the slave (as the mother was) of the grandiose two-year-old inside of him.

Washington grew as a leader because he engaged in searching self- criticism. "I can bear to hear of imputed or real errors," he once wrote. "The man who wishes to stand well in the opinion of others must do this, because he is thereby enabled to correct his faults or remove prejudices which are imbibed against him."41 The one thing Washington could not abide was when people published criticisms of him without first giving him a chance to respond privately

All he could hear was a small voice inside his head that was saying you were wrong. Completely wrong. It was a voice he had heard before, but that didn't make it any easier to hear again, because he had built his whole career on hearing it fewer times than the next guy. It was like a box score in his mind, and his average had just taken some serious damage. Which upset him. Not because of vanity. It upset him because he was a professional who was supposed to get things right.

I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have.

The worst evil which can befall the artist is that his work should appear good in his own eyes.