Wilfried Zaha Quotes

I stress out a lot. Being a perfectionist doesn't help with that!

I'm always thinking 'Don't mess this up.'

My biggest enemy for the longest time was my head. When I first became successful, it made me anxious because I was overthinking everything, and you hear so many 'fail' stories.

Even when I had a run of successful prime-time shows, I couldn't sit down and enjoy my success. I would beat myself up and scrutinise everything. I'm a natural-born worrier.

I criticise myself an awful lot. I do worry to the point that I don't think it's very healthy. I'm always picking my flaws. It's a terrible anxiety I have. I wish I could pretend nothing fazes me, but it does.

Pressure is self-doubt when you're unprepared.

I'm really scared of failing.

It seems I make a lot of mistakes and it seems that I am not allowed any.

I'm in a complete state of panic before I begin something because I'm sure that it's going to be a complete disaster. I'm going to do a worse job than anybody could ever imagine anybody doing on the planet Earth.

Writing on assignment, with lots of money handed to you before you even began, got very scary for me. My dread of not being perfect, something I got from a childhood surrounded by powerful, successful people, began to infect everything I wrote.

We need to distinguish between stress and stimulation. Having deadlines, setting goals, and pushing yourself to perform at capacity are stimulating. Stress is when you're anxious, upset, or frustrated, which dramatically reduce your ability to perform.

I'm a bit of a worrier, to an extreme. I'll crack a joke, then worry if I've offended someone - even when they're laughing. I have a guilt complex, always worrying.

I'm totally an anxious mess all the time. There's a constant dialogue going on in my brain, and it's just reminding me of all the failures that I have had, and all of the things I need to do, and all of the things I'm not doing good enough.

Pressure is something you feel when you don't know what you're doing.

I've worried more and more as the years have gone on. The more you're seen to be doing well, the more stress there is. You feel you ought to consider things more, and be more fussy - there's further to fall. All these little worries.

For the first six or eight months at Juilliard I felt paralysed. I didn't know what I was doing.

Every faculty and virtue I possess can be used as an instrument with which to worry myself.

I'm a super-duper over-analyzer. You mix that with self-doubt and pressure, and that's never healthy.

I want to be perfect. I don't want to fail. And you always fail.

There is such a hype and a big build up to me, and it's very hard to meet those expectations. That's been a big stress in my life.

I think the stress will kill me. I think it will be the stress.

I'm always looking to the next thing. There are always hurdles, whether it's the White House dinner or hosting charity events or that night's show: Until they're over, I worry, then I move right on to the next thing. It's hard for me to enjoy the moment. I'm just thinking about not failing.

When you blow an audition that you have a lot of importance on, it haunts you for years.

'SNL' can be a stressful environment, and I am panicking constantly, but I guess I keep it pretty internal.

I find it difficult to be comfortable with anything for the same reasons that anyone gets nervous about something - because they want it to be good and they don't want to let anyone down.