Paul Rudd Quotes

I felt inferior. I had this tremendous need to perform. I wanted to be acceptable to my peers. I thought if I could just be a big star, I'd feel like somebody, too.

If I wasn't so insecure about myself I wouldn't work as hard as I do. I am constantly seeking approval.

Being an actor somehow can be a perverse extension of that feeling we generally all have as children, that feeling of wanting to please. Of course you're looking for affirmation, encouragement.

You're constantly trying to prove yourself, even after you've made it.

Am I really cool? You're telling me I'm cool? Well, that's good to hear.

Everybody is looking for validation, no matter who you are, and I think that's a need of the human condition - to look for affection or recognition or validation.

Half of my anxiety is about whether people are going to like me.

When you come from where I come from, you're trying to get approval for something - you don't know what.

I'll always have something to prove.

I always felt like I had something to prove. It's always been, 'I gotta show them that I can still rap. I gotta show them I can still make a hit or sell out a show.'

I am an insecure person. I have my own insecurities about lots of things, but I am pretty secure as an actor.

I was never going to be the one to get recognition because of my looks.

I always question whether people are going to know who I am, and I'm always blown away by the love and reaction I receive.

I feel I have to earn everybody's respect.

Maybe that's why there's an insecurity sometimes in acting, because it's not like there's a correlation between hard work and how people receive you.

I'm the type of person who feels I have to prove myself first.

This weird thing that musicians have... it's got something to do with approval, and not feeling good enough, and therefore going out and being great somehow makes your life valid.

I think high self-esteem is overrated. A little low self-esteem is actually quite good. Maybe you're not the best, so you should work a little harder.

I have to prove myself five times over.

I hear my friends and my mom tell me I'm special, but honestly, I still don't get it.

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.

For people to come to you and say, 'Would you like to be a part of our show?' after years of 'Please tell me I'm good enough,'... I can't tell you how wonderful it feels.

I'm sure if you dig deep, Joe and Ralph Fiennes do it because they want to be noticed.

It's a career that's enticing because you go on stage, for example, and people clap. You get that affirmation, but you can't go into acting for that because it's really your own self-belief that's going to get you through.

Because I now realize, after all this time, I have never truly felt worthy of all that I have been given.