Maya Angelou Quotes

I still bite my nails.

It's not onstage as often anymore, but whenever I got anxious, I used to talk a lot more, and I wouldn't even know what I was saying... it was so bad. If I just talk myself through something, even if it's just talking about nothing, it usually gets me out of it.

The only way I seem to be able to keep going while I'm writing is to munch my way through boxes of chocolates.

Individual writers have different postures, different stances, even different physical attitudes as they stand or sit over their blank paper, and in a sense, without doing it, they are crossing themselves; I mean, it's like the habit of Catholics going into water: you cross yourself before you go in.

I fidget and change my outfit a lot. It's really a way of keeping myself comfortable.

I do this weird thing in studios where I climb stuff when I get nervous.

It Was Once Suggested to Me that, as an Antidote to Crying, I Put My Head in a Paper Bag.

The anxiety I get more when I'm not working. So actually work, for me, takes away my anxiety, and doing live TV, in that moment when you're consumed by something else, it takes away all of my thoughts. It distracts you!

I'm not a writer that writes every day. I just kind of have ideas. I jot them down when I have them, and when I have enough, I just start. And for me, I start more around noon, and I'm all about feeling. Once there's a theme, I can't not write.

Performing is the one time I don't have anxiety - surprisingly, right?

When we're anxious we tend to shrink into a defeatist position, curving our shoulders or backs. Learning to stand straight, take a breath and speak slowly helps to project a sense of confidence, relieving some of that anxiety.

I love playing football, and ultimately, that helped me get over my anxiety problems.

Instead of letting anxiety run you, try voicing it. Voice it in your comedy. Voice it in a script. Just voice it, and it'll help you release it.

I have an inability after matches are over to sort of switch off and relax completely.

My wife likes me better when I'm writing. It centers me and makes me more calm. When I go a long time without writing, I start getting frustrated.

I must always, always have a box of Extra chewing gum in my bag because I have developed a terrible cheek-chewing compulsion. It's not only uncomfortable, but I look really weird when I'm doing it, and chewing gum is the only way I can stop myself.

I find it really difficult to turn my head off. I find it difficult to zone out.

I write wherever I am. It helps that the writing process, for me, is a lone-wolf mission.

My number one elixir for anxiety? Comfort food.

On a day I start, I have a turkey sandwich for lunch. I don't consider it a ritual, but I'm anxious on those days.

When you are lying awake with a dismal headache, and repose is tabooed by anxiety, I conceive you may use any language you choose to indulge in without impropriety.

Deep breaths. I am taking deep breaths. Composure. Which, for me, means composing... Maybe this is my way of creating the illusion of control over something I have no control over. Like, if it's just a story I'm telling or a song I'm singing, then I'll be okay because I'm the guy who's providing the words.

I write in bed, too. I find it very comforting. I want to sort of, like, crawl in a fetal position if I have to.

[Smoking] was a comfort, an occupation, a drug, a casual habit, a distraction, a way to not eat, a way to not pay attention, a way to not feel.

I always write the same way. I always write with a yellow pad and a ballpoint pen on my bed. And then I go and type it up afterwards. I've always done that. Those things become habitual.