Misty Copeland Quotes

It feels like the more I'm out there in the public eye, the more criticism I get. You need to have confidence - that's what it takes to walk out there and sing a song in front of a huge group of people.

I always felt like my future was at stake every time I stepped on stage and that was kind of hair-raising. At some point I just went, don't be frightened, you can't do anything wrong, it's your show.

I feel like more than 80% of the world wouldn't get up in front of 40 million people and dance on national television, and if I have the confidence to do that then that's a step ahead in my life for me in terms of personal goals. I will gain a lot of confidence on all aspects right there.

I can sing in front of people. I can go on a TV show, live, and not feel like I'm going to throw up.

I'm still finding my legs, performance-wise, being up there by myself. I think I have a bit of proving myself ahead of me.

For most entertainers, there is a single experience, one defining moment, when confidence replaces the self-doubt that most of us wrestle with.

In high school, I was too shy to perform. It's one thing to get laughs from your family, to be funny at parties and in class. It's another thing to get up on the stage.

As a kid, I was really shy. Technically I am still, but when I'm performing I want everybody to listen.

If I could borrow anything from Miley, it would be her stage confidence. For me, that's just going to come with time.

It took me a long time to be alright with smiling onstage.

As a little girl, I was always shy, but in front of the camera I wasn't.

I still sweat bullets if I go on The Tonight Show, but I tell myself, You can either have fun tonight or you can be shy and miserable. You ask my friends or anyone I work with now - nobody would say I was shy.

I was terribly shy and never said anything in class. Then I started getting into school plays. When you've got words to say, you've got a sort of armour.

I conquered my stage fright a long time ago. In my line of work, it's kind of a pre-requisite that you not feel bad about looking stupid in front of a lot of people.

I don't feel nervous or fearful when I'm on stage.

For many years, I didn't even like the idea of doing a one-person play. Public speaking got me past that. I've always been good at public speaking, but I never really enjoyed it. Then I started to really enjoy it, and that's made all the difference.

I can never remember being afraid of an audience. If the audience could do better, they'd be up here on stage and I'd be out there watching them.

I realised a little bit to my astonishment that I can give a lecture for a thousand people, and there will be this tumultuous applause, so, you know, I have the feeling well, it can't be all that bad.

I'm not a natural born performer.

I didn't grow up jumping in front of the class and performing, but I definitely had a hunger to be creative.

I've always been pretty reserved, but after taking drama classes in middle school to get more comfortable performing in front of people, I thought I should try out for television.

I had big problems with stage fright in the past. I think, slowly, as I've gotten better at it, I've started to enjoy it. It's made me a more confident person in my normal life. I can open up and be myself in situations that used to be abject terror.

Fundamentally, I was a very shy and quiet person growing up, so it was just really difficult getting up on a stage. It was a perverse career choice really.

I used to hate touring, I used to absolutely hate it! I think one of the reasons why was because in between songs I found it difficult to talk to the audience, and now I don't care, I say what I want!

I know I'm no glamour girl, and it's not easy for me to get up in front of a crowd of people. It used to bother me a lot, but now I've got it figured out that God gave me this talent to use, so I just stand there and sing.