Jennifer McMahon Quotes

I tend to write about my anxieties - it's what I'm afraid will happen. And I write a story working it out.

I have a tendency to face my bad fantasies in my books.

I had wanted to be a novelist for so long, but I didn't have a story. That story came from the death of my father, and wrestling with how to help my mother. Writing it allowed me to work through my fears, frustrations and desires. I wanted control over the situation. And I wasn't sure I would have any in real life.

Onstage was where I felt the most confident and in control and free, and as I've gotten older, it's gotten more and more daunting. And I think that's also part of my desire to keep confronting that and pushing through to find that childlike or youthful ignorance against fear and keep at it.

Usually, I use writing as a way to figure out things about me, and I get scared pretty easily about everything. I deal with a lot of depression, so I usually use it as way to find some relief from that.

A lot of my work has been about stuff I've been frightened of: cliffs, explosions, meteorites, that kind of stuff. I would have been this trembling blob of fear if I hadn't got into making art, which is a good way of deferring it.

A lot of my fears come out in my work rather than life.

I write a lot because, if I don't, I start to panic, and I calm down when I write.

If I'm afraid of something, I'll deal with it and get past it.

Whatever you fear most has no power--it is your fear that has the power

Normally, we push away the things we're scared of.

One of the reasons that I think I do love to write is because I did have a difficult childhood and not so great teenage years. It always helped me escape from my problems.

My music started as a way to break through weaknesses - like anxiety, which was completely taking over my whole life, where I could barely function.

I have always loved to use fear, to take it and comprehend it and make it work and consolidate a situation where I was afraid and take it whole and work from there.

But I love being scared. I think you're brave only when you do things that scare you. I've always used fear as a motivator. I'm not sure why.

I was a scared kid... I think I was born a nervous wreck, and I think movies were one way to find a way transferring my own private horrors to everyone else's lives. It was less of an escape and more of an exorcism.

I think I'm attracted to subjects that I'm afraid of. It's a way to approach things I am afraid of, things that bring fear in my heart, and try to understand them, try to deal with them. It's like demons. I try to approach it and understand it... I'm just visiting fears.

'House of Leaves' is certainly about the unsettling nature of fear - and it was my aim to address that - but it's also about recovering from fear.

I was haunted by a bear attack that happened in Algonquin Park in 1991. The problem was that I don't believe in ghosts, so that ruled out an exorcism. My other choice was to start writing.

I think fear is unavoidable and that, when recognized and embraced, it's something that can work for you - especially in the audition room.

I've always felt that if you back down from a fear, the ghost of that fear never goes away. It diminishes people.

Fear and I were old buddies, despite my best efforts to the contrary.

I'm sure the feeling of fear, as long as you can take advantage of it and not be rendered useless by it, can make you extend yourself beyond what you would regard as your capacity. If you're afraid, the blood seems to flow freely through the veins, and you really do feel a sense of stimulation.

I start with something that makes me angry or confused, and then I write about it. It's a form of self-help.

We all have a fear of the unknown what one does with that fear will make all the difference in the world.