Bruce Cockburn Quotes

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 have fear, always, on the set. Insecurity to the point where the first week I always think I could be fired. I think that's a fear most actors have.

I was kind of scared of failing at acting.

Creative people are very insecure people because they don't know whether people like them or are in awe of them. That insecurity always comes out. It makes them a better actor, I feel.

I didn't want to play these people any more songs and have them say that they weren't good enough. So my response was to just not be able to write anymore. I know that's not the healthiest of responses.

Every day I wake up afraid that I won't be able to write, that today is the day it has left me.

I always think the insecurity is going to go away, but it's always there. Only bad writers think they're good.

I was scared of failure, of being a one-hit wonder, never being able to write another song again, never being able to sing again. Maybe everything that I think I am and who I want to be never will happen.

Every single time I step into the studio, I say, 'Can I still do this? Do I still have it? Have I ever had it?' I suppose there's a good amount of self-loathing that goes into any form of artisanship.

Writers always have confidence issues - it comes with the territory. We never know where we fit in, or what the actual value of our work might be. So we hit lulls, or slogs. Throw in the idea that many creative people are somewhat manic-depressive, and it can get pretty dark at times.

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

I still believe that at any time the no-talent police will come and arrest me.

I'm so hard on myself. I play these sketches in my computer for friends and they say 'Gee whiz, the vocal's beautiful.' I hear, 'It needs to be better.'

Writers, at least writers of fiction, are always full of anxiety and worry.

Every writer I've ever spoken to feels fraudulent in some way or other.

I often think I can see it in myself and in other young writers, this desperate desire to please coupled with a kind of hostility to the reader.

I think most actors are insecure and scared of rejection.

The essential truth is that sometimes you're worried that they'll find out it's a fluke, that you don't really have it. You've lost the muse or - the worst dread - you never had it at all. I went through all that madness early on.

There's one thing now that I experience every day when I'm making a film. I get up and think to myself, 'Am I going to be able to do it today?' I figure as long as I have that fear, I'll be alright.

I have a hard time sometimes watching my own work.

If you're a writer, you're constantly doubting yourself.

I just feel like this guy who's visiting the music business over the weekend. Every time I write a song, I feel like it's never going to happen again.

My worst fear is to not able to understand what my director wants me to do. I might not be able to reciprocate to his idea or vision. I may not be able to perform before the camera. Those are my worst fears.

The fact is that blank pages inspire me with terror. What will I put on them? Will it be good enough? Will I have to throw it out?

I go into every story thinking I'm going to fail. I think about that all the time - I think it's going to be terrible. Every story is like the first I've ever done.