Robertson Davies Quotes

I'm shy at public speaking, which is tough.

I failed public speaking in grade school, 'cause I was so nervous and scared.

If I have to do a speech, if there's no way I can get out of it, or if it's something I really should do, I won't sleep the night before. I'll feel ill the entire day leading up to it. I won't be able to eat if it's after a dinner, which makes things even worse.

I'm suffering from stage fright. I don't like making speeches. [...] I'm the kind of introvert actor who likes putting on other people's clothes and pretending to be somebody else, which is completely crazy choice of profession. So, I don't enjoy public speaking and I have every sympathy for anyone who has to do it and doesn't enjoy it.

Ninety percent of people's nightmares is standing in front of 1,000 people. Did you know that? And having to speak. You would have thought it would have been a madman tying you up and taking your eyes out.

I'm terrified by speaking in front of people!

I'm a horrible public speaker.

I had a bad experience doing public speaking at school. I had to talk about a pen for five minutes and it was really hard work. I couldn't wait to get off the stage.

I was in sixth grade the first time I was required to speak in front of an audience. I had terrible stage fright and felt quite ill, in fact, by the time I had to give my little talk to students in another class across the hall.

I don't like giving speeches. It makes me nervous.

Like most people, I hate public speaking.

When I went to Los Angeles right after high school, I got some acting jobs, and I never, ever wanted to be an actress! Public speaking and acting make me want to vomit. But I have never been nervous singing. When it comes to public speaking, I stumble on my words, sweat, and pull at my clothes.

Although I was entirely relaxed on camera, if I had to stand up and say something to an assembled group of people, I was rendered all but inarticulate.

I think my worst nightmare is standing up in front of a group of people.

I would just sweat so much. I'd be dry when I run on the stage. By the time I got in front of the microphone, it just, just like a river pouring out. I don't know what made that happen. It took five years for that to stop happening to me.

The first time I got up in front of an audience was terror, abject terror, which continued for another four or five years. There still is, a little bit.

For the Oscars, I had a speech in my hand, and I just knew if I opened the piece of paper, I was going to be unable to read it. So I just thought, 'I'm going to say, as coherently as I can, whatever I can.'

I am not a public speaker and never will be.

I'm terrible at speaking extemporaneously about my work - I get completely tongue-tied and consumed with fear.

I do still get extremely nervous before speeches. My biggest fear is that I'll be standing there in front of hundreds of people and be incapable of talking. I'm afraid that I'll make a complete fool of myself and be unable to go on.

I find doing speeches nerve wrecking.

I can't stand up in front of people. It just fills me with horror.

If I have to speak in public, I am terrified.

I just have this fear that I'll get on stage and there'll be that brief moment of adrenalin and I'll forget my line.

I can't talk on the radio at all. When the red light comes on, my hands go up in the air: I think they're trying to get to my face, to shut me up. I don't talk on stage for the same reason.