Quotes About Validation

I remember being really hurt by a relative of a good friend of mine when I mentioned that someone was a great wrestler - she said, 'What do you mean? How can you be great at wrestling?' I stopped them and said, 'Do you think that what I do takes no talent whatsoever?' She realized how hurtful those words were.

The fans are the ones that really tell the tale, and I think they speak very loudly about where I stand in pro wrestling. I don't think that there are too many people who would tell you that I don't deserve to be there.

When you cry out in pain from a broken wrist, no one questions it. You just go to the hospital and take the necessary steps. Mental illness is just as real, even if it can't be seen.

Don't pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches.

It's not easy to filter out all the negative things people say and/or write about you.

Anytime you write something, you go through so many phases. You go through the 'I'm a Fraud' phase. You go through the 'I'll Never Finish' phase. And every once in a while you think, 'What if I actually have created what I set out to create, and it's received as such?'

The idea that you're not a writer until you're published is a lie.

There is no greater compliment for a writer than to have pleased a troubled child.

Usually, as a fiction writer, you get e-mails saying, 'I liked your book,' or 'I didn't like it.' You don't get something saying, 'I'm really glad this is in the world.'

Every writer I've ever spoken to feels fraudulent in some way or other.

When I got recognized as a writer, when I got the Emmy, I was more excited than the Emmys I had gotten as an actor.

I'm not ever getting a Pulitzer prize and my books aren't on high school reading lists, but for better or worse I'm a working writer.

All writers want to know that someone is reading their work, taking them seriously. It provides a kind of moral support.

I started out as an actor, where you seek to understand yourself using the words of great writers and collaborating with other creative people. Then I slid into show business, where you seek only an audience's approval whether you deserve it or not.

In fact, I think for a lot of writers, it's so hard to be read.

I've heard from writers and musicians and fans that they think I'm underrated.

I think the criticism that I take to heart is from other writers that I respect.

I'm hugely affected by what people think. It could be a million people saying, 'Great.' And then one person writes, 'What the hell is this kid doing?' and starts slagging me off, for some reason, and then I have to join in the blog and sign in under a different name and go,'Why don't you like him?'

No person writes to win awards.

I didn't feel the need for anonymous affection, for people in the dark applauding. To me, it would be like writing a novel and then getting up every night and reading your novel. Everything I did is on the record and, if you want to hear it, just listen to the record.

You can't be said to have properly established yourself in a place until you have been seen there.

It isn't enough to love; we must prove it.

Being taken for granted is an unpleasant but sincere form of praise.

If you are a guru or an expert, people will know it. If you aren't one, no one is going to believe you. In