Quotes About Validation

We are all yeses. We are worthy enough, we passed inspection, we survived the great fetal oocyte extinctions. In that sense, at least—call it a mechanospiritual sense—we are meant to be. We are good eggs, every one of us.

We must become writers who accept things as they are, come to love the details, and step forward with a yes on our lips so there can be no more noes in the world, noes that invalidate life and stop these details from continuing.

Writing can be very lonely. Who's going to read it, who cares about it?

In politics people build whole reputations off of getting one thing right.

To attain "success" without attaining positive self-esteem is to be condemned to feeling like an imposter anxiously awaiting exposure.

If my aim is to prove I am "enough," the project goes on to infinity—because the battle was already lost on the day I conceded the issue was debatable.

She delighted to hear words of admiration from a man's mouth, a delicious but never surprised delight, for she was sure something in her was worthy of admiration.

you are the one who confuses just doing the job with testing your worth, where one possible mistake would feel like the end of the world.

In extreme cases of perfectionism, there is no distinction between judgment of one's work and one's sense of value as a person.

Because he did not have time to read every new book in his field, the great Polish anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski used a simple and efficient method of deciding which ones were worth his attention: Upon receiving a new book, he immediately checked the index to see if his name was cited, and how often. The more "Malinowski" the more compelling the book. No "Malinowski," and he doubted the subject of the book was anthropology at all.

Never try directly to diminish or minimize something which is important to another person. By making a direct challenge to a crucial criterion you are more likely to strengthen it than to diminish it. Your best strategy is to begin by accepting

Never try directly to diminish or minimize something which is important to another person. By making a direct challenge to a crucial criterion you are more likely to strengthen it than to diminish it. Your best strategy is to begin by accepting that the criterion is legitimately important.

Then again, no matter what your point of view may be, you can always find someone with a Ph.D to support it.

Vanity often roots itself in insecurity

To literary critics a book is assumed to be guilty until it proves itself innocent.

People who worry about what others think of them would be surprised at how little they did.

El hombre, sin saber que su mundo es su conciencia individual exteriorizada, en vano se esfuerza por ajustarse a la opinión de los demás en lugar de ajustarse a la única opinión existente, es decir, su propio juicio de sí mismo.

I said 'Brian, no one is going to respect me as a mother after this.' He said, 'oh no, yes they will, this is a movie, don't worry about it.' But they're not.

I would rather be called funny than pretty.

I thought I was attractive when I shot 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding.' Studio executives and movie reviewers let me know I had a confidence in my looks that was not shared by them.

As long as you look for someone else to validate who you are by seeking their approval, you are setting yourself up for disaster. You have to know who you are — what others say is irrelevant.

As long as you look for someone else to validate who you are by seeking their approval, you are setting yourself up for disaster. You have to be whole and complete in yourself. No one can give you that. You have to know who you are—what others say is irrelevant.

Because how much weight would be removed from his shoulders if he just stopped expecting their praise?

The trouble with my generation is that we all think we're fucking geniuses. Making something isn't good enough for us, and neither is selling something, or teaching something, or even just doing something; we have to be something.