Orson Scott Card Quotes

The main thing as a director, you always want to have a bit of a worry about the material you're going to get yourself into. You want to be a bit scared of it so that you have that excitement of having to climb the mountain.

I think everyone shares a fear of failure - that you're only as good as your most recent collection. That's definitely a fear, but it's a fear that fuels me, that makes me want to work harder, that makes me take on more challenges.

There were times in 'Adaptation' during the editing where I really thought, 'Okay, well, this was a noble failure. I tried to do something good, but this is not going to work.'

Always, when I do a play, there's got to be an equation of risks and potential failure. When you're working on a new play, it's like, 'How the hell do I do this, and do we have the time?' All of these huge questions engage, hopefully, the smartest part of me. And then when you're doing a revival, I went, 'Well, somebody's already solved it.'

Art is all about giving yourself these terrifying challenges, these peaks to climb. You're at the bottom of the mountain at the start of every new project thinking, 'Am I going to make it?'

The joy of art is particularly sweet, though, because it carries with it the threat of rejection, of failure, and of missed connections. It's precisely the high-wire act of "this might not work" that makes original art worth doing.

...with each new book of mine I have always the feeling that this time I have picked a lemon in the garden of literature.

It's often out of my own insecurity. If I'm picky, it's for that reason. I want to be able to bring my best to the table. So if I'm not connecting to something, then I'm not gonna hold up my end of the bargain, and that's really embarrassing.

It's a weird thing about our business: You give everything you have, and there are moments where you go back and forth in your mind about if what you're doing is brilliant or a total disaster.

Every time I do something or release something or announce a new project, there's always that fear that it won't go well.

You make one mistake and you feel like the worst person in the world.

Everyone sort of has that voice of self-doubt in their head, but as an artist, you relinquish your right to have that voice.

I get nervous before every shoot. I'm really jealous of the people that can just rest on their laurels and say, 'I'm good; this is it.'

I was playing and having a lot of success, but I also felt a lot of criticism behind it. I didn't know why.

Pressure is self-doubt when you're unprepared.

I am very self-doubting; it has come out of experience.

The only way I'm comfortable with a new album is if I'm taking a new risk.

It's always my biggest insecurity - disappointing myself or my partner.

I tend to avoid interviews, I don't have a publicist and fear of failure is still very much alive in my personal life.

Sometimes you don't play well or you don't score, and in those times, the pressure comes from all around you as well as from yourself.

The fear of mistakes is the fast track to irrelevance.

When the image that I built around the first album was crumbling, it was scary: the risk pays off, but the resonances of that risk are not always easy to deal with.

It stresses me out if I mess up.

I have no problems with failures, I'm afraid of failing within myself. At times when I know I did something wrong, I don't sleep that night. I'm scared of facing myself.

Sometimes I put too much pressure on my back.