Cecil Beaton Quotes

Creative people are very insecure people because they don't know whether people like them or are in awe of them. That insecurity always comes out. It makes them a better actor, I feel.

But I'm guessing every actor is insecure.

I tend to be hypercritical of my performances. That's why I hate watching them with people I know.

Usually when I see myself in a film or on television, there's about a six-month period where I can't look at it because all I'll see are the mistakes. I'm just appalled by the person that I see.

I'm fairly competant as a director and actor, but I am Mr. Neurotic as a writer. I just don't have enough confidence in my abilities to take criticism well. I take it personally. Start with 'It's a masterpiece,' and then tell me what you think could be changed.

Actors are such an insecure breed.

I hate bad reviews, so yeah, every now and then I think, 'Boy I hope everybody really likes this and thinks this theme is good.' You can't help but do that. I think we all are, or at least I am, reduced to a schoolboy seeking approval.

I can just remember what I have seen, and then I often think about how I do well throughout the match, and then, if I miss one chance, everyone talks about the miss. Only that.

That's why I've never made a live album - I can't bear listening to myself!

All criticism hurts me. I'm so in the wrong business.

O why do I ever let anyone read what I write! Every time I have to go through a breakfast with a letter of criticism I swear I will write for my own praise or blame in future. It is a misery.

When you present something that you have worked on to somebody else, for some reason that is the moment when you can see everything that you have done wrong. They may or may not agree, but it is more of a personal thing for me. It is that I am looking at it because you are self conscious and suddenly there is someone in the room that is seeing it for the first time.

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.

With all of my films if I get one bad review and a bunch of good reviews the bad one is the only one that will stay with me, which really sucks!

As an actor, you can certainly, at any moment and at any time, discover 400 people who think you're stupid, fat and ugly.

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.

Every writer knows that unless you were born gifted with either supreme confidence or outsize ego, handing in your work holds, in some cases, admitted terror. If that's too strong, at least fairly high anxiety.

Part of being an artist is that you are always concerned you don't have what it takes. It... keeps us honest.

Part of me feels that I'm letting people down by not being as interesting as my books.

I never read my reviews... not even the good ones. Barbra Streisand once told me, if just one person in the audience doesn't applaud, it bothers her. I'm the same way. I'd be devastated to read that someone didn't like my work.

I'm so hard on myself. I play these sketches in my computer for friends and they say 'Gee whiz, the vocal's beautiful.' I hear, 'It needs to be better.'

I always get nervous when I watch what I'm in. Very self-critical.

I can't watch myself on screen without dying a little bit inside. And there are lots of moments when I think, 'What am I doing as an actor? I can't act!'

I'm too obsessed that the people who say critical things about me are right, even though I'm getting to do something I love.

I think all my videos suck.