Tony Judt Quotes

I've never done anything because I thought it would look cool.

Show me a guy who's afraid to look bad, and I'll show you a guy you can beat every time.

When you see something that's so excellent it can be intimidating to walk into it no matter how many people you know.

If you make decisions based upon people's reactions or judgments then you make really boring choices.

I think, as I've gotten older, I've been able to be more reckless with my choices, because practically speaking, you get less careful. Your choices become more instinctive, and you feel like if you make a mistake, it won't destroy you.

I wish I had more confidence. I think that's probably my Achilles' heel. If I had more, I probably would have felt emboldened to make more interesting music earlier on, or really go for it in an artistic or songwriting sense.

In school, I didn't speak up often in class. I was never the person to yell out an answer. If I knew it, I might whisper it to my buddy and let him answer. I kept quiet.

Women don't take enough risks. Men are just 'foot on the gas pedal.' We're not going to close the achievement gap until we close the ambition gap.

Everyone told me I could sing from about the age of ten. My mum was always telling me. But I was so shy, I didn't believe them. And the more that people told me, the more I went into the background and the less likely I was to sing.

When I get moved to write a story, I don't question the story. I dive right in, and I try to ignore the voices that are chattering away at me: 'You can't do that', 'You shouldn't do that'. I just sort of leap and take a chance and go for it.

If God had meant Harvard professors to appear in People magazine, She wouldn't have invented The New York Review of Books.

All performers get on stage because they need to feel love from an audience. I might appear confident, but those three seconds before I get out there, I'm a mess. But I have to take the risk; otherwise, I'd be miserable and would feel like I wasn't seeing through my personal destiny.

Doubt can motivate you, so don't be afraid of it. Confidence and doubt are at two ends of the scale, and you need both. They balance each other out.

So as long as I'm a working actor, I can improve. I want to work with people that frighten me and excite me, and characters that I don't believe I'm the best person for the part but I'm still gonna try anyway. Those are my favorite roles.

I'm in a 'I can do whatever' phase. I'm taking this '106 & Park' opportunity into full force. I'm really focused on doing my best with it. This is my 'Fresh Prince' moment. I want to be the black Ryan Seacrest of film, TV, and more.

I was unpopular at school just because I was an intellectual. I always answered all the questions off the top of my head but they nevertheless resented because of that.

In a high school, the norms act to hold down the achievements of those who are above average, so that the school's demands will be at a level easily maintained by the majority.

You don't have any kind of sense of being foolish when you are acting. When you're younger you don't want to look a fool, so you don't do things that might make you vulnerable.

He either fears his fate too much, Or his deserts are small, That dares not put it to the touch, To gain or lose it all.

The younger me was motivated by a need to please others, by the pressure to climb the corporate ladder and make money, and by a fear of failure - all of which became more and more intense as I navigated the competitive landscape.

I'm a writer. I'm naturally introverted, so being the public face of something, I don't think I do it well.

Sometimes I feel like I don't dream big enough.

I don't get embarrassed by the same things that other people do. I would say that probably the biggest thing that holds people back is, 'If I do this, I'm going to look like an idiot if it doesn't work out.'

My friends found out that I was writing a book on Twitter. It didn't seem worth mentioning over dinner. They're all so successful themselves.

Once you've achieved success, and you're making decisions that are working, I don't understand why anyone would be second-guessing themselves.