Amanda Shires Quotes

I think anytime you work on something, even if you feel really good about it, you're never really sure. Once it's in the public space, it's out of my hands.

If you show someone something you've written, you give them a sharpened stake, lie down in your coffin, and say, ‘When you’re ready’.

Writing songs is not something I wanted to share with people for a long time. It was precious to me. I didn't want someone to crush it. I waited until I felt strong enough to take the criticism.

I always feel terrified whenever I put my work out there to be seen, to be scrutinized. I think it's a very vulnerable thing that we are asked to do.

I'm a nervous sharer. I'm nervous to share things in their unfinished state just because, I mean, it's kind of embarrassing. You know what it could be, but you can't explain what it's going to be.

It's weird to take your work into a room and everybody reads it. Then comes the terror part, the dissection.

You're reluctant to give too much away when you're going to put it out there for other people. It's harder writing your truest fears and loves and guilts, because you're not sure when you're writing the right story.

You are never really prepared for criticism.

You can't be the vulnerable, transparent, raw person required to be an artist, and then cover that stuff up and meet the world with some kind of armor on. It just doesn't go.

Maybe I could have been good as a drawer if I had done it as much as I did writing, but it's more scary to draw. It's more revealing. You can't disguise yourself in drawing.

When you sit down and play your music for someone you respect, you get that feeling in your stomach of like: 'Oh my God...' You know if it's not great because you start to feel sick.

I'm even embarrassed at times when my friends come upon my pictures.

I don't even like showing my stuff to publishers and editors much.

The only thing I can do is act, but it's not something I even feel comfortable doing. It costs me a lot, because I'm a shy person, even if I don't look it.

There's something really vulnerable about playing something that you like for someone. You don't know what their reaction will be.

I'm only human, and therefore, there's a part of me that's waiting for people to say, 'Enough of you!'

All creative people have to have vulnerability because those nuances are what move people. So I'm deeply insecure - but I'm good at hiding it.

In terms of fitting in, you know, I don't have a lot of armor up. I'm a raw nerve and it's really uncomfortable for a lot of people.

Somehow when I express my voice, I feel that much more vulnerable. For instance, if I used the wrong word, or if I said something and somebody could take the word and misinterpret it.

I don't think there's any artist of any value who doesn't doubt what they're doing.

We live in a constant fear that our shortcomings will be exposed to family, to friends and to the world.

That's what it is every time you walk into the room to write with someone new. It's like, oh god I have to take my clothes off 'my creative clothes' and let them see all of my flaws.

An awful lot of actors shy away from the uglier aspects of the human condition. They want to be liked, which is a cop-out. You've got to go for it.

I got more shy as I got older and realized people could be laughing at me or judging me.

I can't stand to ask anyone, 'How was that?'