Brenda Ueland Quotes

Every really able man, in whatever direction he works - a man of large affairs, an inventor, a statesman, an orator, a poet, a painter - if you talk sincerely with him, considers his work, however much admired, as far short of what it should be. What is this Better, this flying Ideal, but the perpetual promise of his Creator?

I have a tendency sometimes to get too logical with what I'm writing, just because I want it to be kind of perfect.

I quarreled with every word, every phrase and expression, every image and letter as if they were the last I was ever going to write. I wrote and rewrote every line as if my life depended on it, and then rewrote it again.

As an artist, you're never happy with anything you do. It's part of the process.

I've spent so long on some paintings that I no longer know what to think of them, and I am definitely getting harder to please; nothing satisfies me.

You'll never write anything that really satisfies you though it may satisfy other people.

Everything I have written up to now is trifling compared to that which I would like to write and would write with great pleasureEither I am a fool and a self-conceited person, or I am a being capable of becoming a good writer; I am displeased and bored with everything now being written, while everything in my head interests, moves, and excites me-whence I draw the conclusion that no one is doing what is needed, and I alone know the secret of how it should be done. In all likelihood everyone who writes thinks that. In fact, the devil himself will be brought to his knees by these questions.

I will never fix my architectural style and never be satisfied with my works.

If I keep coming back to a painting and there's a little something that bothers me, I know I'm not going to get away with it. I'm going to have to fix it, change it, whatever it is, to something that I'm comfortable with, that doesn't make me itch when I look at it.

What is it men love in Genius, but its infinite hope, which degrades all it has done? Genius counts all its miracles poor and short. Its own idea it never executed.

It took me 10 years to write a story that pleased me - that I could look at after it was published and not cringe.

Just because you're perfectionist doesn't mean you're perfect.

I'm a perfectionist - I could rewrite forever.

Right through to the end of the last World Cup game, I still couldn't bear the thought of not being perfect or letting people down.

I've learned how my own perfectionism can cripple me.

I am a kind of competitive person. I am competitive with myself. I won't let anything go until I am satisfied with how it is.

As an artist, you're always going to be yearning and wanting and never satisfied. I never feel like I've really achieved something.

I'm never happy with anything I've done! If you sat me down and played everything I've ever recorded, I'd just sit there going, 'No... that could be better.'

I'm such a perfectionist and I want to do everything right, kick every goal, do everything perfectly, but that is not reality.

I am a perfectionist and the only reason why I started producing is because I didn't want to argue with a producer.

I'm never happy with any record, never truly been happy.

I'm very picky; I'm never happy with anything. It's so hard to give the record away and accept that you're done.

As the days progressed, I felt as if YNK' was my first film. That is because the director was hellbent on perfectionism. He was insistent about getting the best out of me.

I don't look at 'Deadpool' and think, 'Oh, that's a perfect movie.' I look at it and go, 'Oh, God, there's so much stuff I could do better.'

I know as soon as a game is finished if I have done well. I don't need people to tell me. I want to achieve perfection.