Isabella Rossellini Quotes

Maybe I was intimidated by my father's talent and success.

Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world.

I've always had this crazy thought that I have to win something; otherwise, my career's a complete failure. It's ridiculous. Will a trophy change me as a person? No. Will it make me a better player? No. So what the hell am I worried about?

The problem is that right from the beginning, there was this whole pressure that I've had to make it big. I don't know if it's my fault or if someone else created this atmosphere around me, but it's been there.

The years I spent paying my dues are in the background, and so are my concerns about whether my performance is good or bad.

What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

I never think about any of my accomplishments and I always get butterflies in my stomach and I never get too comfortable with the status.

My performance level has risen - and my anxiety-level has sky-rocketed.

You're constantly trying to prove yourself, even after you've made it.

I thought I could never be the actor Dad was, so I avoided it for a while.

If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But if you take no risks, you win no victories.

To my father, business was the highest calling, but to my mother, medicine was the top profession.

The world is divided into two categories: failures and unknowns.

I watched my parents go from having very basic jobs to educating themselves, to buying a house. They set a really good bar for what they wanted their kids to achieve.

The truth is many of us have been socialized to think that if we are not the very best, if we are not at the top 1 percent of whatever it is we do, then we are not good enough. To reinforce this already pervasive mental model, society has established a competitive hierarchy for just about everything.

You don't wanna mess up what you've done. It's like Jordan coming back: You're scared to mess up the legacy.

In great attempts, it is glorious even to fail.

I've had fans and friends in the business say, 'Oh man, you've made it.' I still don't feel like I've made it. I still feel like I'm as good as my last show, as good as my last single.

I was a little bit lost in my head after winning a Grand Slam. You're like: 'So what's the next goal? What do you want now? Where do you want to be? It's not a problem if you lose.'

When you have been lucky enough to move up the ladder, all you see, really, is the slide back down. You don't see the further steps upwards.

I needed to prove to myself - to the manager, to the fans, even to my mum and dad - that I'm not just an average player.

I didn't have stage parents and sometimes I've envied people who did because I felt like, I guess, I'm compulsively worried I'm not accomplishing enough.

I do think that whatever ambition I may have had natively was amplified by my father's clear valuing of it. I knew that was what my dad really cared about.

The more professionally successful you are, the more emotionally insecure you will be.

A strange side effect of sudden success is the sense that if you can succeed in one field, then it might well be worth trying to succeed in another.