Ellen Barkin Quotes

Actors are no strangers to self-doubt, fear, and rejection.

When I like someone a lot, I get scared that I'll let them down. My fear of sucking is worst when I feel like someone thinks I'm good.

I still assume that, any day, I'm going to be exposed as a fraud. That, like I once heard Gene Hackman say, the acting police are going to burst in and take away my card.

Some people play very, very well just so they won't get embarrassed.

I am lazy, but for some reason, I am so paranoid that I end up working hard.

I'd been shy since childhood, constantly full of self-doubt. And as an actor, I'd been so scared of failing that I made my career - and myself - a big joke.

There are several times when I walked into a room and just felt like such a sham. That's the problem with auditioning.

All of my friends are really good dancers, which was initially why I never danced - we'd go out, and they would kill it, and I'd be like, 'Yeah, I'm just gonna sit at the bar.'

The thing that helped me come to terms with performing was an anxiety, a desperation for acceptance. There was never enough positive motivation in my life.

As far as I can tell, most actors' main motivation is self-doubt and neuroses.

Even Karaoke needs higher standards than I can reach, so I have gone great lengths to avoid being bullied into it.

I love readings and my readers, but the din of voices of the audience gives me stage fright, and the din of voices inside whisper that I am a fraud, and that the jig is up. Surely someone will rise up from the audience and say out loud that not only am I not funny and helpful, but I'm annoying, and a phony.

Despite my confidence and self-belief, I've always wrestled with feelings of insecurity. To be honest, I think most people in show business are insecure.

I always think that I've embarrassed myself.

That's why you find a lot of entertainers are insecure, because it's the perfect camouflage for insecurity.

I play with a fear of letting people down. That's what motivates me.

As actors, we tend to usually have some issues with self-esteem and some need for validation, and it takes awhile for that fear of not having a job to go away.

I used to get nervous just going to the stage door, seeing people waiting to talk to me. I was afraid of being caught out in some way or not being right.

It's frightening to be facing an audience. There is always the fear of what they think of you, what they are saying about you.

Every time I do something, I worry it's my last job.

I never had trouble within the audition room. That is a room that I control. So while I certainly experienced versions of what Titus Andromedon was going through, I never experienced the self-doubt.

I write good songs out of fear... fear of failure. Because if they're not good enough, you feel yourself starting to fall.

I panicked in my 20s and 30s about whether I was doing the right thing. I was an excited puppy, wanting to please people and feeling guilty that I'd had a privileged education and an acting career.

Falling in front of an audience - that's, like, my biggest fear.

I constantly think I'll be found out any second. Some of the crazy stuff that goes through your head. Once you've moved on from the scene, that's it: it's going in the telly and there's nowt you can do about it! It's really scary.