Sally Mann Quotes

Every day I do something that freaks me out.

Auditioning for something you already know and love is terrifying.

I'm not going to take a show unless I'm not sure I can do it. You have to have that sort of adrenaline.

I approach each project with a new insecurity, almost like the first project I ever did, and I get the sweats, I go in and start working, I'm not sure where I'm going.

I'm always nervous when I start a new picture.

I spent a good amount of time with David Bowie, and I was talking about getting the band back together. He said, 'Does it make you uncomfortable?' I said 'Yeah,', and he said, 'Good. It should. You should be uncomfortable.'

Like most writers I spend a lot of my time sort of thinking, "It's such agony, I can't do it."

I've never had a writer's block, but still I think: 'Is it going to happen this time?' You never know what you're going to get; you just put your fingers on the keys and hope.

As a younger player, you always kind of play with that fear of failure.

To tell her that I joined the parachute club was too hard for me. I didn't want to trouble her; besides, I was not completely sure about the success of my new adventure.

When I first started as an editorial cartoonist, I was terrified on a daily basis. Filling that hole the next day, knowing that tens of thousands of people were going to expect something funny. There is still that pressure, but you kind of learn how to cope with it a little better.

If you'd have told me five years ago that I'd have done all this - two books, some television and everything - I'd panic, I'd be scared.

I always feel scared and insecure on a film set. I don't know any other way.

I want to keep pushing myself so I never feel settled. I don't really know if it's going to end up working. I'm stressed out most of the time.

People think that if you've written a book and somebody's given you a pat on the back then, you know, it's all - you're all settled, you know? You're going to be fine. I know that if I'm not confused, and really afraid, my work isn't going to be any good.

I tell you it's no joke to paint a portrait. I wonder that I am not more timid when I begin. I feel almost certain that I can do it. It seems very simple. I don't think of the time that is sure to come when I almost despair, when the whole thing seems hopeless.

The truth about filmmaking is you have all these ideas and you're trying to convince everybody that they should buy into this idea, but at two o'clock in the morning when you're all on your own you're going, 'Geez, I hope I know what I'm doing. I hope this idea is gonna work.'

We really only have two choices. Play it safe, or take a chance. For me, pulling back because of fear has always made me feel worse.

I know when I am on stage and I'm kind of on the right track - hopefully most of the time. But a lot of time I'm not.

Anytime you write something, you go through so many phases. You go through the 'I'm a Fraud' phase. You go through the 'I'll Never Finish' phase. And every once in a while you think, 'What if I actually have created what I set out to create, and it's received as such?'

Sometimes, if I allow time to be creative, it doesn't show up.

I think every part's a challenge, and you also never know if you're going to pull it off.

Every time I do a project, it always comes with a level of discomfort and not knowing how to do it.

We all take from our artistic endeavors what we as individuals need, to make the process unique and fulfilling to ourselves.

I probably get a deeper satisfaction of having taken a very good photograph than of having written something very good, a very good story. Maybe it's because the element of magic is so present in a good photograph - luck and magic, but also hard work and being ready and all that.