Neil Peart Quotes

I have to remind myself constantly to not be antisocial, because I stay to myself a lot. I'm a lot more introspective than my characters.

In real life, I'm not super-posh but if that's the stereotype, I really don't care. It could be worse.

For the better part of my adult life, I proudly avoided nerd/nimrod/goober status. I was always just cool enough.

When I first read the words 'introvert' and 'extrovert' when I was 10, I thought I was both.

All of us introverts aspire to be more outgoing, but it's not in our nature. When I was nearly 50, I discovered that the best thing to do was to tell everyone I worked with that I'm just shy. People are not mind readers - you need to let them know.

I am very troubled by the tendency to define introverts by what they lack. Introversion is a preference, not a fallback plan.

As I was writing, I realised I wasn't sufficiently extrovert to gather enough interesting souls with tall tales around me. I was no Louis Theroux. But neither was I interested in exploring my inner life in public, in the manner of a Jonathan Raban.

This friend of mine said he was surprised to find that - I don't think it's quite a majority - a bigger percentage of actors are introverts than extroverts. It was a big surprise to him. Now, I know me, and I'll do anything if I'm playing a character. Or anything that's true to the character, anyway. But in real life I'm a little more withdrawn.

For an interesting nonfiction read, I really enjoyed 'Quiet' by Susan Cain. I read it with my husband, who is a true introvert, whereas I am an introvert masquerading as an extrovert.

I had this idea that being an introvert was a negative thing, that it had a negative connotation, and I really wanted, as a young person, to strive to be the life of the party and to be really outgoing and to have a million friends. And then I realized that an introvert isn't a negative.

I guess I would like to play some more extroverts.

I was sort of a floater in high school; I feel like I tried my hand at all the different stereotypes or cliques. I'm grateful for the experience to walk in all those different shoes.

I tend to be on the quiet side. I think I would have been bigger if I had a big mouth.

People are really surprised when they meet me that I'm a recluse. People think I'm very gregarious and outgoing - and I am - I'm thinking about writing a book about it called 'The Gregarious Recluse.' How the more that you put me out there in front of audiences, the more that when I have down time I have to disappear.

I think people think I'm a extrovert but really I'm a introvert.

I'm a very introverted guy, so I don't need to be around people for as long as someone who's very extroverted to get that sort of social fix per se.

Being introverted, it doesn't mean necessarily being shy or being afraid of public speaking; it just means that it's hard for me to interact with people for too long.

I'm not shy. I'm quiet. With my close friends. I talk a lot. But if I'm at a big dinner, I'm not gonna walk in and go introduce myself to everybody.

I remember being chronically shy. I came out of my shell a bit when I went to university, but I'm still fairly shy in company.

It's taken me a long time to work out what people are thinking and what they're expecting. I am naturally solitary, and I'm comfortable with that.

Everyone is so into labeling themselves. I don't really put too much into that.

I'm an external person, I'm not than internal at all.

If you're a stranger, and you've never met me before, I'll probably be more reserved and quiet. If you're my friend, you probably see the same stuff that you see me do onstage.

People assume a lot about me. Some people come up and think I'm hard. I'm actually very, very shy. I'm bubbly in the right circumstances. But I'm a big introvert.

It's partly true that I am not seen that often in public. Well, I'm just socially awkward, especially around people I'm not familiar with. But once you get to know me, I'm quite a chatterbox.