David Nicholls Quotes

When you're young and beautiful, you're paranoid and miserable.

When I was in high school, there was a lot of pressure on me. I felt like I had to be perfect.

There have been times I almost got a persecution complex. I felt like people wouldn't let me grow up. They always saw me as a smiling kid or goofy teenager, no matter how much I'd changed.

When you're younger, you worry about so many things that you don't need to worry about, like image, appearance.

It's not uncommon for young people to expect things. It's part of growing up.

The problem is that right from the beginning, there was this whole pressure that I've had to make it big. I don't know if it's my fault or if someone else created this atmosphere around me, but it's been there.

It always feel like people are doing more grown-up things than you are.

I've been writing songs since I was a teenager, so one kind of song I've written a lot is about, I don't know, teen angst feelings - feeling unsure of yourself and immature.

I found being a teenager quite difficult, actually. I put a lot of pressure on myself, and now, looking back at it, I really wish that I had relaxed and just enjoyed it more.

I worry that's what people are going to think about me if they kind of go backwards. But if that didn't happen to you, I'll feel better.

When I was setting out to be an artist, I said: If I can just produce one work that some people think is good, if I can become an obscure cult artist, that's all I want. Well, I attained that. I'm an obscure cult artist, and I think now, Why didn't I say I want to be another Picasso or something? What other options were open to me? But I was convinced I couldn't achieve great things because I don't have a steady-state mind.

When people said schooldays were the best days of your life, I remember thinking: 'Tell me it's not true. This cannot be it.' I don't think my life has ever been that bad again. It hasn't always been easy but at least I have been free.

I hate how people say I'm growing up fast.

I should be a success and I'm not and other people- younger people- are. Younger people than me are on TV and getting their lives in order. I'm still a nobody. When am I going to not be a nobody?

When I was younger, I didn't even know how to walk. I was so self-conscious.

If you're constantly hamstrung by worry that people aren't going to like it, you can't do your job.

And the sexes eyeing each other uneasily, for nothing is easier for a teenager to imagine than rejection.

At sixteen, I was a funny, skinny little thing, all eyelashes and legs. And then, suddenly people told me it was gorgeous. I thought they had gone mad.

Remember this: No one is looking at your imperfections; they're all too busy worrying about their own.

If you worry about what other people think of you, then you will have more confidence in their opinion than you have in your own.

When you're a teenager, a year can be crippling to maneuver through. Some things happen when you're like 13. All of a sudden you go from being this really confident, no-worry little kid to having all these weird insecurities for no reason.

I hate it when people say, "Oh, women are just jealous." I'm not jealous, but I do beat myself up about what I haven't accomplished in my own life yet - and when you meet a woman who has accomplished what you expect to achieve, and she's also dating your ex, of course it's hard!

He is already past the high point in his life and coming down on the other side. By next week he'll be nostalgia. He's 12 years old, and it's over for him.

The one thing I would like to get across about my whole feeling regarding high school is how I was when I was fifteen. Gawky. Always a hem hanging down, or strap loose, or a pimple on my chin. I never knew what to do with my hair. I was a mess. And I still carry that fifteen-year-old girl around now. A piece of me still believes I'm the girl nobody dances with.

No matter how many people are screaming your name or how many Number One hits you have, you can still wake up and feel like a loser.