Willa Cather Quotes

I too have my own demons, and I have struggled. I've made my own mistakes, and I'm not proud of them.

Somewhere deep down there's a decent man in me, he just can't be found.

Some of the greatest battles will be fought within the silent chambers of your own soul.

I would say that playing this character has caused me to think about a lot of things. He's always questioning himself and trying to get back to something he lost touch with and trying to find forgiveness. Everybody struggles with these things to some extent in their life.

When I read profiles of myself, I sometimes think: 'I have spent my whole life struggling to understand my motivations and impulses, and I've never quite sorted them out.'

I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope, Self.

I had discovered that I'm much less special than I thought I am. So whatever I find true for myself, other people might also relate to.

I was amazed and upset by the looks I got just walking around the studio... It illuminates the ugliness and the beauty that exists within each of us, and that's what this story represents to me.

People assume when they come into a church and see a person up there speaking, 'That person must be a good person.' My challenge through the years has been believing that: 'I guess I must be a really good person.' I struggle with it. It just helps me to keep that confessional posture.

I'm in competition with myself and I'm losing.

I like to play people who are deeply flawed, and I want to find the good nature in them. I even try to be kind to myself when I've made big mistakes.

Pride is a thing that I have tried to abandon completely. Try as I might, pride still creeps into many of the things I do.

Life isn't always black and white. You're not always sure you're right. At least I'm not.

As we wrestle with questions of identity, we imitate those actions we think best fill an ambiguity we have within ourselves. And that goes for everyone; no one is free from this condition.

I don't want to sound self-righteous, and I don't want to act like I have it all put together.

My biggest opponent was 'me.'

Every fight is personal, but with myself.

A struggle in my life is to feel like I'm a good person and to feel like I'm a nice person. I try to be and anytime I fall short of that it feels really bad.

I have never met a man who has given me as much trouble as myself.

A conscience is a troublesome thing at times. I woke up at 4 o'clock this morning and I spent the time feeling what a nothing I was, and wishing I was so very different. Then the morning's post brought me a letter from a friend, saying I was so this, so that - it made me really cry, I was so grateful.

My toughest opponent has always been me.

The only virtue on which I pride myself is my self-doubt; when a writer loses her self-doubt, the time has come to lay aside her pen.

Great men suffer hours of depression through introspection and self-doubt. That is why they are great. That is why you will find modesty and humility the characteristics of such men.

I doubt about myself. I think doubts are good in life. The people who don't have doubts I think only two things-arrogance or not intelligence.

I think the biggest obstacle I still have to overcome is myself, and just kind of struggling every day with what to do with the work and where to go next.