Quotes About Self-doubt

One year, I was nominated for entertainer of the year, and I didn't think I deserved it.

I mainly read non-fiction, and that's probably because I have a huge amount of insecurity about my lack of education and the things I don't know.

I'm a lot of things, but none of them are great.

I'm boring. My beliefs are neither here nor there.

When my friends started to care about getting girlfriends, I really didn't. I started to think, literally, 'What's wrong with me?' and, 'Why can't I be normal like everybody else?'

Sometimes I think, 'Why couldn't I have been normal?'

There were times I felt I'd never get my life back. Am I ever going to be normal and go out with my friends and have a beer and not think I am going to wake up at 3 A. M. and have anxious thoughts about what normal people are doing?

I normally don't listen to my instincts because I'm so full of doubt.

I always wanted to be a Broadway girl. But once I got Tony-nominated, it really messed with me, because it was like, yes, I'm getting this affirmation that you're right where you're supposed to be, but there was still this voice saying, 'You're not good enough.'

When I was growing up, I wasn't particularly great at anything. I was in my own world, and my teachers felt I'd never reach my potential. Even in sports, I'd only play team games because I felt I was not good enough to outshine anyone.

I can't do all that riddly diddly stuff. I'm not good enough. It's all about not playing.

My voice is not good enough for me to sing a song.

I never thought I'd be good enough. I really didn't. There's probably some fans out there who say I'm still not good enough, and that's OK.

Every time I looked in the mirror, it was like, 'You're not good enough.' 'There's always someone more popular.' 'There's always someone more gifted in music.'

I do believe I'm not good enough to be a professional dancer. I believe that in my heart.

My songs are about not knowing who to be and not knowing how to act.

Writing takes gall. I like to think that's true even for writers with several books under their belt, writers who have been doing it for years. It takes something - guts, gumption, self-delusion - to ask for a reader's time when we all know there's nothing new under the sun; that it's all been said, or written, before.

A novel is often a longer process in handling self-doubt.

Every decade of my life I attempted to write a novel. But I had nothing to say. I was far too self-absorbed, and now I realize I was writing for others, so that they'd applaud me, see my genius, tell me how wonderful I am, or be jealous of my success.

I knew I'd always be a second-rate academic, and I thought, 'Well, I'd rather be a second-rate novelist or even a third-rate one'.

The thing about the 'Melrose' novels is that I have to feel they're impossible when I set out.

Sometimes I ask myself if writing novels is even respectable.

I've always scribbled, and I still do it. I've written numerous scripts for films for which I think I'd be perfect as the complex, intelligent and, yes, modern heroine. Embarrassingly bad, all of them. I've had to come to terms with the fact that I'm not a writer.

I'm really bad at knowing if something I've done is any good. I can't work it out; I can't be objective about anything I do.