Tom Cruise Quotes

Every single time I step into the studio, I say, 'Can I still do this? Do I still have it? Have I ever had it?' I suppose there's a good amount of self-loathing that goes into any form of artisanship.

Sometimes I panic and think I can't really write.

If you're a writer, you're constantly doubting yourself.

I think every writer doubts themselves, every day. You procrastinate because you're afraid. You're always afraid it's not going to be as good as you want it to be. But, the key is overcoming fear.

There is always a point when one senses one's lack of skill, the doubt.

When I first started with 'Twilight,' I didn't have any experience. I didn't know what I was doing. So I was pretty intimidated by the editors and the publishers, and I felt like I was a kid in school with the principal telling me what to do! It was hard for me.

All artists have insecurity.

These days I am ruled by doubt, and that is a difficult place to write from.

Pressure is something you feel when you don't know what you're doing.

Every time I start a new piece of work, I spend a long while under the duvet thinking I can't do it.

There's one thing now that I experience every day when I'm making a film. I get up and think to myself, 'Am I going to be able to do it today?' I figure as long as I have that fear, I'll be alright.

Ninety percent of the time when I'm working, there's this very palpable sensation that I'm doing everything wrong and should just give up.

I am always in self-doubt... every moment of my filmmaking. I am supremely confident when the story is being written and everything is in our head. But the moment we get into the filmmaking, I start doubting myself - from the camera angle to the re-recording to getting the actors to do their shots.

Every time I make a movie I think that it's going to be my last one, I think that no one is going to show up. I always have this sense that they're all going to fail. I am scared to death.

I was kind of scared of failing at acting.

For a long time I managed to think two things simultaneously, that I am actually a good playwright, and that the next time I write a play I will be revealed as someone who is no good at all.

I sometimes have a horrible fear of turning up a canvas of mine. I'm always afraid of finding a monster in place of the precious jewels I thought I had put there!

In a way, I'm always trying to do something I'm not qualified to do. So I feel that lack of qualification. And I'm scared. And I have a tendency to think things may not/probably won't work out. That's my basic mindset.

As a writer, you live in permanent self-doubt; you're on permanent trial.

I second-guess myself all the time. I make a decision and then wonder if I made the wrong choice.

Self-doubt kills talent.

Pressure is something you feel when you don't know what the hell you're doing.

Assume nobody else has any idea what they're doing, either.

I'm intimidated every day I go on the stage and everyday I go on a movie set. It's terrifying and I always want to reshoot the first day or the first week, I'm so terrified.

I know when I am on stage and I'm kind of on the right track - hopefully most of the time. But a lot of time I'm not.