Steven Spielberg Quotes

I'm so hard on myself. I play these sketches in my computer for friends and they say 'Gee whiz, the vocal's beautiful.' I hear, 'It needs to be better.'

Every day I wake up afraid that I won't be able to write, that today is the day it has left me.

It's a phobia I have. I never assume I'm going to be able to write another album after I finish one.

With all of my films if I get one bad review and a bunch of good reviews the bad one is the only one that will stay with me, which really sucks!

For a long time I managed to think two things simultaneously, that I am actually a good playwright, and that the next time I write a play I will be revealed as someone who is no good at all.

Part of being an artist is that you are always concerned you don't have what it takes. It... keeps us honest.

Creative people are very insecure people because they don't know whether people like them or are in awe of them. That insecurity always comes out. It makes them a better actor, I feel.

I don't know if I ever feel totally great about a record when I put it out. With every record that I put out, someone has literally got to come pry it from me because when I listen to my own music, I just hear flaws in it.

Writers, at least writers of fiction, are always full of anxiety and worry.

As a writer, you live in permanent self-doubt; you're on permanent trial.

I'm such a coward that unless I get a good writer, I don't want to make a picture.

I was like, 'Josh Tillman, you are not a songwriter. You are an ape. Stop thinking of yourself as a songwriter.'

The movie industry is very competitive, and if you're like me and you suffer from your own insecurities about whether or not you're any good, that can be troubling.

Every writer I've ever spoken to feels fraudulent in some way or other.

Most artists think they're frauds anyway.

The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.

Any artist always has misgivings about calling himself an artist.

I always think the insecurity is going to go away, but it's always there. Only bad writers think they're good.

I like to write and draw and paint, and my mom's an artist, so I think I get caught up in thinking, 'I'm afraid it's gonna be bad,' and it's hard for me to start sometimes.

The essential truth is that sometimes you're worried that they'll find out it's a fluke, that you don't really have it. You've lost the muse or - the worst dread - you never had it at all. I went through all that madness early on.

There's one thing now that I experience every day when I'm making a film. I get up and think to myself, 'Am I going to be able to do it today?' I figure as long as I have that fear, I'll be alright.

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

I have a hard time sometimes watching my own work.

If you're a writer, you're constantly doubting yourself.

At certain points, I was afraid there was something - a missing chink of skill - that was going to prevent me from having a movie that was financially successful. That frightened me.