Hisham Matar Quotes

I had a thick accent, and people didn't understand me, and I was ashamed, and I fumbled. I radiated an uncertain energy; sometimes baristas sensed this and wouldn't try to talk to me, and then an insecure voice in my head would cry, 'He's racist!'

I had to struggle with the language. I can understand Hindi now, but I still can't communicate. And things get lost in translation; I feel rejected all the time.

The last thing in the world I should have done was go into the theater because was inordinately shy as a young man. I couldn't open my mouth. At a party, I was the one stuck up against the wall. I was embarrassed about talking. I felt that I couldn't talk well.

In the past when I was in Hollywood, I was like a dog. I felt humiliated. My English was not good. People would even ask me 'Jackie Who?'.

What I never overcame is a kind of shyness.

I mean, sometimes I hate interviews because I always feel like I sound stupid.

I was just terrified in front of the camera. I couldn't even say my own name. I walked out of a handful of auditions. I mean, ran out in cold sweats. I was just so nervous and insecure.

I never really wanted to be a singer, because I was a super-shy kid. Singing made me feel awkward, and I was really insecure.

I've always been a slow starter. My first date was with a girl called Cessi. We had a beautiful relationship over the phone all summer, and then when we met, I couldn't look her in the eye.

I think I've developed, as many people do, this sense of, 'Don't say the wrong thing, or else people will point at you and laugh.'

My problem on 'Safe' was that when I liked something, I would giggle.

Oh, I'm not a very good singer, and that's 'cause I was always embarrassed about my singing.

I'm not exactly an example of how to learn English; I just can't get it into my head. I'm learning hardly anything, truth be told.

Truthfully, I'm incredibly shy, and I'm very awkward around boys.

For years I would sit on the side when my friends swam in the water. There is no feeling worse than that, to be afraid of what people will say about you, or to be embarrassed by who you are and what you are.

I don't know if I want to walk down the street and have everyone staring. I think that would be awful. I'm a pretty shy person, really.

I can't learn Swedish to save my life. I tried, but I'm not very good at it.

My first interviews, I didn't know what to say. I was really, really shy. It's overwhelming sometimes.

But I studied art in Belgium from the age of 17 to 18, and I learned French when I was there. Very reluctantly so. I didn't do a very good job. For the first six months I was very depressed and couldn't speak to anyone, and then it kinda hits you.

I worry that's what people are going to think about me if they kind of go backwards. But if that didn't happen to you, I'll feel better.

I am very sorry, but I cannot learn languages. I have tried hard, only to find that men of ordinary capacity can learn Sanskrit in less time that it takes me to buy a German Dictionary

I was so self -conscious, every time football players went into a huddle, I thought they were talking about me.

I never wish to offend, but I am so foolishly shy, that I often seem negligent, when I am only kept back by my natural awkwardness ... Shyness is only the effect of a sense of inferiority in some way or other. If I could persuade myself that my manners were perfectly easy and graceful, I should not be shy.

Who shall ever tell how much an unmerited disfavor crushes a shy person? Who can ever depict the misfortunes of timidity?

Things that I'm afraid to do are always about being afraid of being exposed. Every time, that's what it's always about.