Jerry Spinelli Quotes

I don't really know if I want to do acting as a career. I really don't know what I want to do yet.

Not sure of my place in the world (still up for debate) and not sure what I wanted to do with my life (not really up for debate).

I was in college that first semester, and I was like, 'Wow, this isn't who I am. This isn't what I want to do.' I was like, 'Oh God, I'm going to have to go out and make something of myself, and I have no clue what that is.'

I was a confused young man. I didn't know what I wanted to be.

Every decade of my life I attempted to write a novel. But I had nothing to say. I was far too self-absorbed, and now I realize I was writing for others, so that they'd applaud me, see my genius, tell me how wonderful I am, or be jealous of my success.

I didn't think I was an actor and fought it for a long time. Nobody paid for that but me.

I've always felt like an imposter, in the whole, as a musician.

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.

I was never really sure what I wanted to do - I'm in awe of these people who knew at age 10 or 12 they wanted to be a brain surgeon, and they did it, and they still are.

I think that half of us feel fraudulent in our lives anyway. There's that strange disconnect of not really knowing what we're doing sometimes, or why it matters. It's our existential crisis.

I auditioned in Chicago for Juilliard and didn't get in. I was basically living in a back room of my parents' house, paying rent and not doing anything with my life. I'd like to say it was patriotic to join the Marines, but it was also that I was doing nothing honorable with my life and spending too much time at McDonald's.

Sometimes, I wonder what I'm doing here.

There were times when I wondered if I was doing the right thing, studying when I could have been going to auditions.

I have never really been confident about my career at any stage.

As a writer, you live in permanent self-doubt; you're on permanent trial.

I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. It's funny - people ask me that, and I don't know what to tell them.

I have a lot of sympathy for young people because I realize how disturbed I was. How would I deal with life in the future? What would I do for a living?

As the sun sets, we've all had those nights where you question your choices and where your life is going.

I used to think I had ambition... but now I'm not so sure. It may have been only discontent. They're easily confused.

Sometimes I panic and think I can't really write.

Sometimes I wake up and think, 'How did I get here?'

Writers are always critical of themselves and I'm no exception. I always feel that maybe I could have done better.

Siren voices tell me, 'You don't have to keep going on.' And then you think, 'I'm a writer. What do I do? Sit there watching my wife clean up?' I don't know. I like being a writer.

Some mornings you wake up and think, gee I look handsome today. Other days I think, what am I doing in the movies? I wanna go back to Ireland and drive a forklift.

After 'Raymond,' there was this big feeling of, 'What do I do next?'