Lionel Shriver Quotes

I think Valentine's Day is one of those holidays like New Year's where people develop such high expectations that even if it's a decent day, it doesn't live up, and it's disappointing.

We don't want people to have expectations of us, but then we have expectations of everybody else.

Everyone's expecting you to be playing fantastic football, winning every game, and course it doesn't happen like that.

But I think it is always difficult to have high expectations of yourself or anyone else.

Building outrageous expectations about the next big thing - be it a personal video chatting service or venue-based photo sharing app - can create all sorts of complications when things don't go as planned.

Nothing seems to come up to your expectations. But nothing I had heard about Hollywood was enough.

Holidays in general breed unrealistic expectations. The minute you start wondering, 'is it going to be wonderful enough?,' it never will be.

I don't like when people expect too much, because then I'll only be disappointed if things don't work out.

I had these kind of unrealistic expectations that were fueled by romantic comedies, and it has both helped me and hurt me in many ways. It helped me because, in general, they've made me hopeful. I just figure things will eventually work out for me. But nobody is like any Tom Hanks character. Nobody is Hugh Grant. No one is Meg Ryan!

If you have a level of expectation in your life that you have to be a quote-unquote star, whatever that means, you might be setting yourself up for failure.

Being a princess isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations.

When you're with someone, you want everything to be great. And that's the pressure that you put on, and what you just can't do.

False expectations take away joy.

I fear that the public at home expect too prompt results.

I looked up at my mom, and I was like, 'Well, Mom, uh, when you really think about it, C's aren't really that bad. C's are average.' And I've never seen my mom so upset, to this day. I just saw this flash of fire in her eyes, and she yelled, 'Average? You are never allowed to be average, because you look like me.'

With one or two children at home, I feel that parents concentrate too much on them and hence children lose touch with reality. They get whatever they desire and fail to understand that in real life you may or may not get what you wish for.

I'm such a perfectionist and I want to do everything right, kick every goal, do everything perfectly, but that is not reality.

A lot of times you can fall into the trap of expecting too much before things actually happen.

Perfectionism rarely begets perfection, or satisfaction - only disappointment.

The dangerous thing about platform introductions is that they tend to create unrealistic expectations.

You know the old adage: Plant an expectation, reap a disappointment.

It's better to not set your expectations high. And that's what happens when you have a long career - not every album is going to be record setting.

Expectations are just disappointments waiting to happen.

If you expect perfection from people your whole life is a series of disappointments, grumblings, and complaints.