Chris Ofili Quotes

I have social anxiety. It's easier up on stage because there's security in being there. When I'm off stage I'm trying not to be a manic freak. I'm quite shy.

I still get very uncomfortable and flushed on the street if somebody recognizes me or stops me. I don't know what to say. It's uncomfortable and strange.

I hope people don't get tired of looking at me.

I take Wellbutrin because I'm afraid to go into stores. I'm afraid people are going to yell at me.

I don't go to the mall a lot 'cause girls scream and run at me, and I get shy.

I think it would collapse my heart if I was super famous. I don't have the nerve for it, I'm too anxious. I don't know how you're not obsessed with how people perceive you, because they're real people, you know? You can convince yourself that they don't really know you, and that's true, but how can it not hurt your feelings?

Going to parties usually makes me feel depressed, just because I have such social fear after meeting people.

Watching people see your picture for the first time is such a public agony.

We were at this point of recognisability where we couldn't even walk around anymore... I was really socially anxious and strange.

I have never dated. I have no experience. It's terrible, and I'm scared to death of it, too, at the same time.

Some girls love to go to the airport and have 50 paparazzi on them. I go to the airport and have a mental breakdown.

I grew up very self-loathing. I was a phobic. I had anxiety. I had panic attacks.

I hadn't even released my first proper single when I started to feel the strain of attention. But I don't believe that it was the attention that was giving me panic attacks. I think it was everything in my life colliding at the same time. It really did get to a serious point where I couldn't even walk down the street without getting the pain.

I usually get freaked out if I'm in a situation where a lot of people recognise me at once.

Sometimes I don't want to stand around a room full of strangers, chitchatting about nothing, so I'll come late to a party - and leave early. Though now that I'm saying this in a magazine, I'll probably never be invited to another one.

I'm anxious about work, the future, friendships, past relationships... I'm just one of those people that, whatever I'm doing, it's a big worry.

I'm not a very gregarious person. I can't bear attention being called to me in a public place, which is ridiculous in a business that pays you to be noticed.

I was very, very shy as a younger girl, just petrified of people.

I thought I'd get over being insecure if I became famous, but it hasn't happened. It just gets worse, really. You get more and more on edge, more nervous. These are all the things I'm dealing with. You think if you get famous, fear will go away and problems will go away. But they don't.

I have this complex that if I walk into a place wearing a colorful shirt someone will stop me and say, 'I'm sorry, but the Latin band comes through the other door.'

As much as I'd love to be a successful actor, the thought of being recognised in the street is petrifying.

The 'public' scares me, but people I trust.

When the eyes are on you for the first time, you can't believe that people aren't criticising you.

I can look back at different times in my life when I felt I could not find my way out of whatever it was. I'm not necessarily talking about marriage, but I wanted to pack it in. I wanted to disappear. A lot of that has to do with being in the public eye.

I'm a very self-conscious person; I think we all are, but I'm especially not very comfortable in my body. I always feel really weird and awkward on the street or on the stage. It has nothing to do with circumstances; it's just an ongoing psychological state, like white noise.