Top 742 Nerve-Racking Quotes & Sayings

I don't love performing, because it's nerve-racking and it's time - consuming to rehearse a whole set - and my time can often be better served writing music and just making it and putting it out.

My very first audition was on the lot of Paramount, and I was put on tape and it was very nerve-racking. I think it was about 15 pages.

Doing a remake of an iconic song is always nerve-racking because you never know if you can actually do justice to it.

Starting a new job can be nerve-racking , but it's also exciting. You're embarking on a new future, positioning yourself to write a fresh story on a clean slate.

I think the first couple of times you do make-out scenes, you psych yourself out and it's really nerve racking.

We know what it's like to audition as kids and how nerve-racking it is.

I play characters who are comfortable naked, but that's something you work up to. I did a play off-Broadway in New York when I was in college. It was full-frontal nudity. It's nerve-racking.

I usually have a drink before a carpet because I find them really nerve-racking. Usually a tequila. An upper!

There are a lot of signs. One of the things that makes me most nervous is the disappearance of the frogs. They're going downhill all over the planet. Frogs are susceptible to all kinds of problems, because they require water to breed and their skin is very porous. Their condition is nerve racking.

Sex is the ... tremulous and bewildering and nerve-racking and delicious and myriad-adjectived soul-condition ... generally known as love. Ninety-nine point nine repeater percent of the world's literature has been devoted to its analysis. It's therefore of some importance.

It's not bad to stand in front of 20,000 people and sing. It's nerve-racking, a huge adrenaline rush, but it's also very exciting, and not many people get to experience that. It's pretty special.

Cocktail parties for me can be nerve-racking. The brevity of conversations, the number of them - it's not my sweet spot.

The first laugh is always key. I've done some improv stuff. Once you get your first laugh, you're good. Up until that point, it's a little nerve-racking.

During my teen years, I just really started to get anxiety. I would get stage fright when I would do certain speaking engagements and I always would get through them, but it was a really nerve-racking and hard thing to do.

A 3-foot putt can be more nerve-racking than a 9-foot putt because a 3-foot putt you should be getting in. A 9-footer, there's a chance it won't go in.

You aren't normal if you sing to people. You aren't a normal person. It's nerve-racking.

I made my career off posing in swimsuits and doing all the swimsuit issues and posters, but I will tell you that that little bit of material on an itsy-bitsy bikini - taking that off was very nerve-racking the first time.

I remember that when people started listening to what I had to say, I had a choice to set up a veil, even if it meant being something that I'm not. Ultimately, that's not the decision I made. I owned more of everything I am, which was a little nerve-racking.

I'm used to being in front of camera and knowing what to think. But if you're asking me to be me, I get very self-conscious. My job isn't to be me. Being an actor, people think you can do a eulogy at a funeral, a speech at a wedding. I find all that very nerve-racking.

As the Bachelor, all eyes are on you. It's certainly nerve-racking. The process was as hard as I thought it would be - a lot of highs and lows.

When they said there was gonna be about 100,000 people at Woodstock, and it went up to 200,000, I just blanked off and thought, 'I don't want to do this.' If they're filming it, it's too nerve-racking.

What's easy to forget once you're minorly famous is how nerve-racking it is to walk up to someone famous and interrupt them. When I'm taking a picture with a fan, it's not uncommon for their hands to be shaking or for me to feel their heart pounding through their rib cage. But the best part is how easy it is for me to make someone's day.

The red-carpet spotlight is a little bit more nerve-racking when you haven't been doing it all the time.

Competition can be the most nerve-racking experience. Some people just thrive on it.

The first time I was flown to L.A. for a screen test was an incredibly nerve-racking experience.

Changes in my personal life are nerve-racking for me.

I just do my thing and try each show to be more honest about why I am and who I am. It's quite tricky and actually nerve-racking to do that. It's kind of a happy train wreck.

I don't get nervous when I'm interviewing someone on film - it can be cut, and we can do it again. It is quite nerve-racking doing things live.

People expect you to get golds and it puts so much more pressure on you and if you don't it's like you have let yourself down. It is nerve-racking.

I've been nervous a number of times. Your first start. Playing in the Super Bowl. Your first Super Bowl. Very nerve-racking. The one thing that you can always fall back on is that you know what you are doing. You know how to play the game.

I did my first Broadway play, 'The Vertical Hour,' in 2006, with Julianne Moore, who's always been one of my favorite actresses. My scene was with her, so it was nerve-racking.

It's definitely nerve-racking to be the center of attention. I'm not the kind of an actor that just craves attention 24-7 - but it's part of the deal. You're the leader on the set.

While I was playing, I started a company that didn't work out. I got a taste of the business world and realized I'm not going to be a 9-to-5 guy in the office after football is over. When the opportunity came for television. I thought, 'Let's go for it,' even though it was nerve-racking. I enjoyed it.

It's difficult because nothing's preordained by plan and you can't control it. That's one of those joys and thrills and nerve-racking realities of being an actor. A lot has to do with luck, no matter what your talent or contribution can be.

It's definitely nerve-racking to be the center of attention. I'm not the kind of an actor that just craves attention 24-7 - but it's part of the deal. You're the leader on the set

If you really want something, it's nerve-racking, but at the same time, I try not to stress myself out about it too much because there are also so many arbitrary things that go into being cast for something - you know, like the color of your eyes, all these things that are kind of out of my control.

I definitely feel much more comfortable in front of the cameras after 'The Hills.' Before, it was much more nerve-racking.

Actually, I think business women are better women at home, if you want to know the truth because you do understand what goes into a day's work out in the world, a very nerve-racking affair.

When I was going on auditions, it was nerve-racking. I'd always say to my mom that it would be awesome if I could get a series. When Modern Family came along, I said, 'You know what, Mom? I believe I'm going to get this role.'

I spent my life behind bars, and what people don't know is getting out of prison is really nerve-racking - you're not used to society; you're not used to the world going by so fast - so to step on that lot was quite overwhelming.

There have been some brilliant and very successful standalone books that work in themselves and also seem to refresh a series. Anyone who writes a series lives in fear of it becoming stale, so you do whatever you can to keep it fresh - although it does feel a bit nerve-racking to write outside of your comfort zone.

Obviously Messi is one of the best players in the world, if not the best player in the world. Looking up to him when you're young and now playing against him, it was very nerve-racking for me - especially when he would come up on my side, my heart would be beating faster and faster.

It's a surreal experience. During the first show, I was like, "Wow, I'm onstage with Ms. Tyson!" Everybody has been amazing, and the energy is really beautiful. I'm replacing my friend Condola, so everyone making sure that I'm OK has turned what could've been a very scary, nerve-racking and lonely experience into a supportive environment.

I find acting slightly nerve racking, but I like the challenge.

Auditioning is one of the most nerve-racking things you could ever do, but you have to be so focused that you don't tic.

It's always nerve-racking, showing your parents things you've been working on.

Some of us find 'relaxing' to be, in itself, nerve-racking. If we aren't doing something useful or, at least, that seems useful, we feel guilty, impatient, and mortal.

Presenting the Oscars was the most nerve-racking job I have ever done in show business. It's very much a live show: they have comedy writers waiting in the wings, and as you come off between presentations, they hand you an appropriate gag to tell.

Three months later, on September 5, 2001, at a pro-am event preceding the Canadian Open at the Royal Montreal Golf Club, I was invited to play a round with Tiger Woods. Nothing in the game of politics had ever been as nerve-racking as that game of golf.

We thought playing in the Super Bowl was nerve-racking until we went to the Massachusetts State House to testify for an education bill.

I went on Ellen once, and even then, I was just a bad performer. It was nerve-racking at first playing in front of all her fans who really wanted to see her. Her fans are so young and accepting to new people, and it helped that they knew 'Marvin Gaye,' too.

Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practiced at spare moments; it is a whole-time job.

I always feel vulnerable talking about the poetry aspect of my career because it's little diary entries that I need to sometimes close read, and to reveal that much, it's a bit nerve-racking.

It's always nerve-racking to take off your clothes on film. But doing it with a woman felt safer than with a man. You know you can say, 'Don't grab me there: That's where my cellulite is'!

Filming costs so much money, so it's such a nerve-racking process, whereas being in a studio is quite cheap compared to that, so you have more time to work on things until you feel good about them. That makes it easier to explain a certain feeling and be in a vulnerable place while making sure it does what you want it to do.

Auditioning is so nerve-racking.

Even with the success of 'Once,' I can't think about making theater straight for Broadway. Too nerve-racking.

To organize work in such a manner that it becomes meaningless, boring, stultifying, or nerve-racking for the worker would be little short of criminal; it would indicate a greater concern with goods than with people, an evil lack of compassion and a soul-destroying degree of attachment to the most primitive side of this worldly existence.

It's not so much that I don't enjoy playing live - that's one of the best parts of playing music - it's that it's nerve-racking with 300, 500 people watching.

When I was four, we had to choose a musical instrument to play at school, and I chose the cello. I played until I was 18, and although I found it nerve-racking to play solo, I loved playing in an orchestra. When I left school I didn't carry on with it, which I regret.