All the aggressive actions I do to myself I would never dream of doing in my own life - I am not this kind of person. I cry if I cut myself peeling potatoes. I am taking the plane, there is turbulence, I am shaking. In performance, I become, somehow, like not a mortal.
I tend to deal with characters who are sort of at that same point of wrestling with, 'Who am I going to be as an adult? What do I believe? How am I defining myself in the context of my culture and my peer groups, my family?'
I was a highly sensitive kid, sort of an old soul, and I felt like a lot of people in my peer group didn't fully understand me, or I couldn't fully be myself. I just wasn't engaged in a way that was fulfilling me.
I write about myself with the same pencil and in the same exercise book as about him. It is no longer I, but another whose life is just beginning.
I was this little blond girl with a guitar case bigger than me - it was pink and sparkly at the time. But I always took myself seriously, and I think that people took that seriously. I would tell them about my goal list, and they listened. I was like, 'I want to be the one that swings the pendulum.'
What happens to people like myself, who have been involved with computing for a long time, is that you begin to see how many of the 'new' ideas are simply old ones coming back into view on the swing of the pendulum, with new and faster hardware to back it up.
I think the face of the franchise is kind of how you take it. I know that's been said about me, and that's been said about me at Penn State. But, I think it's kind of how you view it. I really never viewed myself as that. If that comes along with the things that I'm doing, then so be it.
I like to think of myself as a people person.
What people say isn't going to stop me. I have to do things for myself.
Bulking up for the Twilight films was one of the hardest things I've done... I had to give myself a lot of pep talks, as there was just so much gym time.
I was perceiving myself as good as a man or equal to a man and as powerful and I wanted to look ambiguous because I thought that was a very interesting statement to make through the media. And it certainly did cause quite a few ripples and interest and shock waves.
From the time I was ten, I thought of myself as 'good with words,' thanks to a perceptive and supportive fifth grade teacher.
I felt within myself that I needed to change what I was doing. I needed a new stimuli. So the interest from Manchester United was a perfect fit.
When I started writing a business column 15 years ago, I knew I'd found the perfect job for myself. As a columnist I could pick my own topic, do my own analysis, say what I wanted to say and attribute it to myself. Best of all, I could write in my own voice.
I still do believe in carrying yourself a certain way, and I do my best to be somewhat of a role model. I'm not a perfect person. I'm a human being. I'm not the Lord, but I do accept that responsibility, and that's why I do try to carry myself with confidence, with poise, with grace, and with class.
In this perfect world, there are certain imperfections that catch your eye. That's what works for me. I don't concentrate on being perfect, but instead put that effort behind my craft and being true to myself. I don't conform to pressures outside of me. I am confident about myself.
Perfectionism kills art. I find that if I criticise myself, it spoils the fun. You can get paralysed by analysis - it takes all the playfulness away.
Perfectionism is really a challenge for me, and it causes me to be super-critical of myself in so many ways: about body image constantly; about parenting; about being a mother.
I've struggled a lot in my life with feeling like a failure. I lived in a 'prison of perfectionism,' holding myself to a standard I couldn't possibly live up to. Then I became a mom, and all of a sudden, there arose even more opportunities for failure.
I'm a perfectionist. I can't help it, I get really upset with myself if I fail in the least.
