Karen Elson Quotes

Fear of the unknown is a great creative partner.

I don't know which is stronger: the thrill of winning or the fear of failure. I don't know which one affects me most. I don't know where the middle is.

I've always had that going on: "I can't," and then I do, so the voice says, "Well, that was an exception!" It's a tug-of-war between two voices: the one who knows she can and the one who's scared she can't.

To create something new is both thrilling and excruciating at the same time. It's great to have all these choices in front of you, and to have the writers in the room so you know exactly what they meant. But the downside is you want so badly not to screw it up!

I find myself going to places where I really have no business, speaking to these people in a whole other field that I have no extensive knowledge of. But I do it very often because it scares me.

To tell her that I joined the parachute club was too hard for me. I didn't want to trouble her; besides, I was not completely sure about the success of my new adventure.

Every man, through fear, mugs his aspirations a dozen times a day.

You have to have conviction and completely question everything and anything you do. No matter how much you study, no matter how much you know, the side of your brain that has the smarts won't necessarily help you in making art.

I don't understand why people say that I am full of courage. I feel terribly nervous.

I always try to keep that feeling of being on the edge. I'm afraid of knowing too well and seeming mechanical.

I wish I had less fear about creating my own parts.

When you start to doubt yourself the real world will eat you alive.

You always have nerves. And it's important to respect your nerves and your doubts. And then you have to ultimately overcome them.

Every day, I walk the streets with my head held high, but deep down inside, sometimes I'm like, 'I just hope I can get through the day.'

I constantly have a devil on my shoulder telling me that what I'm doing is really horrible, and then somehow the lightning strike happens, and everything comes together.

You have to dig deep to make great music, and it gets harder and harder. It's a difficult, painful process to reach deep in there and pull out the real gems. And you have to have that little bit of anxiety of, 'Can I really do this? Am I good enough?' You need that in the recipe to really get down in there.

I know it's strange, but I've always had a better time with other people's wild ideas. Coming up with my own is a deeply emotional and challenging thing to do.

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

The beginning of genius is being scared shitless.

Every new painting is like throwing myself into the water without knowing how to swim.

None of us understand what we're doing, but we do beautiful things anyway.

If I’m not back in a few hours…well, I don’t want to think about that. I might change my mind about doing this. I’m thinking happy thoughts. Creamed dog innards and rotten steak. Yeah. Yum! (Asmodeus)

Part of me was saying if you say that she's alive, what would everybody think? What are you going to tell everybody who followed you, who you've inspired? What are you going to say? I was scared. That's the truth. I was just scared, and I didn't know what to do.

My day-mind can endure / Upright, in hope, all it must undergo. / But O, afraid, unsure, / My night-mind waking lies too low, too low.

So it has come, the day of testing. Without warning, without fanfare, it is here, and he is in the middle of it. In his chest his heart hammers so hard that it too, in its dumb way, must know. How will they stand up to the testing, he and his heart?