“As an artist, expectations are basically your enemy. If you're truly making something to make it, then you're not thinking about anything else except what you're making.” IfsThinkingArtistEnemyExpectations Author:Kevin Drew
“I think that you can only be true to yourself. Nobody can live up to other people's expectations. You will always let them down. There will always be something they won't like about you.” PeopleThinkingExpectationsBeing TrueBe True To YourselfTrue To Yourself Author:Annie Lennox
“Sometimes you'll have a movie that you're very proud of and you think it transcended all of your expectations but it doesn't come out at the right time. I have done movies that have never been released. That can be depressing.” ThinkingSometimesDoneProudExpectationsDepressingRight Time Author:Jeff Bridges
“I do think that dread is about a certain kind of expectation. And the fact that a picture can never resolve itself the way a movie can - maybe that's a specific kind of dread that becomes associated with a picture.” ThinkingWayKindFactsCertainExpectationsResolveDread Author:Gregory Crewdson
“I think that's the nature of representation. No matter what it will disappoint, it will fail in some way.But that's also part of the magic of art. If every picture met my expectation in exactly the right way, there'd be no mystery; there'd be no gap between what's in my head and the picture I make.” IfsThinkingWayArtMatterFailingMagicMysteryMetsExpectationsNo Matter WhatGapsRepresentationRight WayDisappoint Author:Gregory Crewdson
“A return to the NCAA is the expectation... I think that's a good pressure. I'd rather that pressure to the other way. ... I like a little pressure on me.” ThinkingWayLittlesReturnBasketballExpectationsPressureNcaa Author:Nate Oats
“You may want to prove that you're worthy of other kids or neighbors who were wealthier than you and teased you. You may want to prove that you're worthy of high expectations. But I do think that there is a youthful ambition that very much has to do with making your mark in the world. And I think that cuts across the experiences of a lot of people who end up achieving something significant in their field.” PeopleThinkingWorldWantMayEndsKidsCuttingAchieveFieldsProveAmbitionExpectationsMarkWorthyNeighborSignificantHigh Expectations Author:Barack Obama
“I think after a few years and working on so many projects, you don't get jaded but the level of your expectations is minimal, especially the way the music industry is today.” ThinkingWayYearsTodayLevelsIndustryProjectsExpectationsMusic IndustryJaded Author:Marco Mendoza
“What does seem to be a constant is that I write more emotional stories the older I get. I think a lot of that has to do with growing up in a patriarchal structure where unemotional intellect (male) is taken more seriously than delving into emotions (female), and gradually freeing myself from those expectations.” ThinkingWritingDoeStoriesSeemsEmotionGrowing UpTakenGrowingEmotionalExpectationsFemaleStructureConstantMalesIntellectDelvingUnemotional Author:Karin Tidbeck
“There's a lot of expectation in the Middle East that post-Obama there will be a sort of tougher U.S. line on Assad, there will be more intervention and so forth. But I don't know if that's going to be fulfilled. If there is more intervention, then I think it's going to go the same way as these other interventions that we've seen in Iraq, we've seen, to a degree, in Syria, we've seen in Libya, you know, that they do really badly. They make bad situations worse.” IfsThinkingKnowsWayLinesSituationMiddleDegreesExpectationsIraqEastPostsMiddle EastFulfilledSyriaInterventionLibyaAssadBad Situations Author:Patrick Cockburn
“I think that people have expectations of themselves and other people that are based on these fictions that are presented to them as the way human life and relationships could be, in some sort of weird, ideal world, but they never are. So you're constantly being shown this garbage and you can't get there.” PeopleThinkingWorldWayHumansFictionExpectationsIdealsHuman LifeGarbageIdeal World Author:Charlie Kaufman
“What happens is people - especially, I think, audiences in the United States - people confront new things a little bit afraid. It's like when you're a kid and your mother puts something on your plate you never ate before. I think that American audiences are very much like that, and when they can accept something new they can accept the next new thing, it's incredible. And what happens is that their expectation of what things should be is elevated, and that's really terrific for us.” PeopleThinkingShouldLittlesStatesHappensKidsMotherNextBitsUnitedAcceptingUnited StatesAudienceLittle BitExpectationsIncrediblesSomething NewNew ThingsPlatesTerrific Author:Paula Scher
“I've done far too many things that I felt were going to be genius that weren't and I've done some things that I didn't think were going to be much that really connected with people. So expectations are left at the door. But hope exists all the time.” PeopleThinkingDoneLeftFeltDoorsGeniusExpectationsConnected Author:Colin Farrell
“Inevitably it's always a set-up; you go somewhere, bring your own expectations, you think you have an idea of what you want to do but then the minute you get there everything changes, so trying to work with people who are able to ride in a lot of different conditions, sub-par conditions, people who are able to make the most of any situation.” PeopleThinkingWantTryingIdeasDifferentAbleSituationMinutesConditionsExpectationsWhat You WantThings Change Author:Travis Rice
“I've always found it sort of hilarious, and occasionally horrifying, how these images [in mass media] impact us, and especially when it comes to love and sex and relationships, I think we sometimes develop unrealistic expectations.” ThinkingSometimesFoundSexMediaMassExpectationsImpactMass MediaUnrealistic Expectations Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt
“When you wrap up your self-worth with your talent, and suddenly you might not be the most talented, that's really scary. And I think that fear is in part why I turned to comedy because I had no expectations of being a comedian. It was exciting to get good at something where I wasn't afraid of not being the best.” ThinkingSelfMightComedyTalentExpectationsExcitingScarySelf WorthComedianBeing The BestWrapsReally Scary Author:Rachel Bloom
“There's very notable dynamics in all of the collaborations I've done. It's hard to say if one is more important than the other, but if I had to think of all situations and point to one band that I enjoyed most it would be when I was eight years old. I had a band with my little sister and the kid across the street. We sat around all day playing music and it was bliss. I didn't have any expectations or do it for anyone or worry about selling an album. That was really my favorite band. We were called Hot Chocolate.” IfsThinkingYearsLittlesImportantHardDoneWould BeKidsSituationWorryStreetsBandExpectationsHotMy FavoriteAlbumsEightSellingEnjoyedBlissSatChocolateCollaborationNotablePlaying MusicDynamicsLittle SisterFavorite BandsHot Chocolate Author:Steve Vai
“John and I were lucky because our mother was a strong woman with high expectations and a strong sense of values. She encouraged us to pursue things we were interested in and not think about what other people wanted us to do.” PeopleThinkingWantedMotherValuesStrongLuckyExpectationsPursueStrong WomenHigh Expectations Author:Caroline Kennedy
“I think in a way nobody doesn't work anymore. Even moms who say, 'I am out of the workforce.' They may be writing mommy blogs with no expectation of making money, but they are building an onramp for when they do go back.” ThinkingWayWritingMayBuildingMomExpectationsMaking MoneyBlogsWorkforce Author:Suzy Welch
“Expectations are usually predicated on the idea that the everyday things that happen to ordinary people shouldn't happen to you. People hold the idea of being ordinary in absolute contempt, so when they face an illness, poverty, or any kind of catastrophe, they say, "I can't believe this happened to me." And who did you think it was going to happen to - the woman across the street? It makes them think, "I must be on the wrong path." But what if something you thought was bad was the best thing that ever happened to you? What if that was part of your path?” PeopleIfsThinkingBelieveKindI CanIdeasHappensFacesPovertyPathHappenedStreetsOrdinaryExpectationsAbsolutesEverydayIllnessBest ThingsWhat IfContemptCatastropheOrdinary PeopleWrong PathEveryday Things Author:Caroline Myss
“I warn young people that I interact with about this - you get into unrealistic expectations where you think that, "Oh, we're gonna eliminate racism like that. After Obama's elected how could there be any racism?".” PeopleThinkingYoungRacismExpectationsUnrealistic Expectations Author:Barack Obama
“The customer is always what inspires me first! I love talking to everyone on Instagram and seeing feedback on SnapChat! I can ask a question like "What product do you wanna see next??" and they give you immediate answers. I will never make a product I personally wouldn't wear every day! But I think it's important to be in tune with your audience and see their expectations.” ThinkingGivingFirstsI CanImportantNextAsksAnswersTalkingAudienceSeeingInspireProductsExpectationsCustomersTunesFeedbackInstagramSnapchat Author:Jeffree Star
“When I am doing music, I sometimes become over compulsive to 'always make some new music'. I think I am like this because I sense what others are perceiving me as. If I work extraordinarily hard because of these expectations, I will, but I just cannot produce the good music that I want.” IfsThinkingWantSometimesHardProduceExpectationsNew Music Author:G-Dragon
“When I started criticizing Donald Trump when he got more popular on the right, one of the most things that I discovered was how many people were mad at me for not living down to their expectations. There are a lot of pundits on the right who think their job is to be a cheerleader for their team. That is not my job. My job is to tell the truth as I see it, and that is gotten a lot of people angry.” PeopleThinkingJobsTeamTrumpExpectationsAngryMadTelling The TruthCriticizeCheerleaderPundits Author:Jonah Goldberg
“God and the universe said to me one day, "You're only going to get what's good for you." That's kind of how I try to look at things. Isn't that true, when you look back at things? "Ooh, I'm glad I didn't get that!" You get more philosophical when you get older, with the more life experiences you have. But I don't have any bad feelings towards anybody that was ever involved in any of that stuff, because I don't think that people usually set out to hurt you. I think that hurt is all manufactured by yourself and your expectations.” PeopleThinkingTryingKindFeelingsUniverseHurtOne DayExpectationsPhilosophicalGladLife Experience Author:Louie Anderson
“When we came to the network, it was a very interesting time where Portlandia had just come on the air and had been very, very successful. I think people had Portlandia-sized expectations for Comedy Bang! Bang!, especially after the first episode was sampled by quite a large number of people. I remember getting the ratings after the first episode, and the network was over the moon about it. And then the second episode tanked so hard. Like, no one watched it. It was a resounding, "Hey, a bunch of people tried your show, and they all hate it!"” PeopleThinkingRememberHateInterestingSuccessfulComedyMoonExpectationsVery Interesting Author:Scott Aukerman
“My goal is very clear, and I wrote about it in Lean In, which is that women run half our companies and countries and men run half our homes. As much as I wish that could happen in four years, I don't think that's a likely time period. But I think it can happen sooner than we think. Part of it is having that aspiration and that goal. I think we too often suffer from the tyranny of low expectations.” ThinkingMenCountryHomeRunningSufferingWishGoalExpectationsTyrannyAspiration Author:Sheryl Sandberg
“We have different expectations for different groups of people. We tend to modulate the degree with which we're forgiving or punitive depending on how well we know folks, or how much we consider them peers, or how much social capital we've invested in them. That has to do with race, class, gender, and socioeconomic status. We have a tendency to bend over backwards to forgive folks we think of as part of "the us." The question of who we define as "the us" is a lot of what constitutes how we punish who we punish.” PeopleThinkingDifferentExpectationsForgivingGenderBackwards Author:Chris Hayes
“I think that if you want help from somebody, you ask. You ask not expecting anyone to give it to you, unless it is a friend or a loved one with whom you should have those expectations, because friends should help friends. Even so, when I ask friends for blurbs or for endorsements or instructions, I always leave room for the fact that they're probably busy and have a million more things to do in their day than give me Ryan Gosling's phone number. Which I've never asked for, just by way of casual example.” ThinkingGivingHelpingExpectationsBusyLoved OnesExpecting Author:Sara Benincasa
“When you can agree on one thing, you should have no expectation that suddenly a person is converted to your way of thinking. You have to be willing to be frustrated constantly.” ThinkingExpectationsAgreeFrustrated Author:Samantha Bee
“I still think marriage is a goofy institution if you set it up as this institution with a predetermined set of rules. It's unhealthy to have a predisposed expectation of what you think a marriage should be - as this thing at the end of the rainbow. False expectations take away joy.” ThinkingJoyExpectationsRainbowGoofy Author:Sandra Bullock
“I honestly thought we wouldn't hold the U.S. Senate. I thought we'd come up short and I didn't think President Donald Trump had a chance of winning. Given my expectations, doubly exciting because I thought we'd come up short on the Senate. We had a lot of exposure. That was really something. But it never occurred to me that he might be able to win as well.” ThinkingWinningPresidentChanceExpectationsExcitingHonestly Author:Mitch McConnell
“I've played lots of strong women in film, in big Hollywood films, and I've sometimes had a hard time in coming to a consensus of what makes a woman strong. What is it that positions her as a force to be reckoned with? And I think it's because there's an expectation from the get-go that she isn't. If you're not starting from a deficit as a point of view, but you're starting from an assumption that says, "Well, this is what women really are," then it's a really freeing experience as an actor and as a woman.” ThinkingSometimesFilmStrongExpectationsPoint Of ViewAssumptionHard TimesStrong WomenConsensus Author:Connie Nielsen
“I really value the freedom I have as a Christian that's an artist but not necessarily a Christian artist. I think it can be hard to express certain things about faith when there are a pretty specific set of expectations around what you need to talk about and how you're talking about it.” ThinkingChristianArtistValuesExpectations Author:Ben Rector
“Life is not bad, and it doesn't look more real if it's ugly or it's gritty. Think of your own life. Most of what's in your own life, hopefully, is exactly that. Friendship and love and passion for movies and cartoons and comic books, whatever it is that you love. Most of the way we live our lives involves looking for pleasure and beauty and happiness and affection. Real artists don't use reflexive clichés about things. It's about honoring the reality of people's lives, which defies conventions and clichés and expectations. People are interesting, period.” PeopleThinkingBookRealRealityArtistPassionPleasureInterestingExpectationsAffectionUglyHopefullyComicComic BookCartoonThink Of YouLove And Friendship Author:Daniel Mendelsohn
“Over the years, I've had fairly benign record companies who gave me a lot of rope, but in spite of that, there's still restrictions and expectations. It's nice to be at the cottage-industry size, which I think is kind of the business model of the age anyway. It's the way to be. The Internet makes a lot of that possible. Having a loyal fan base is also very useful to keep me operating; people can find your website, and the venues that you're playing at, the merchandise you have for sale, all that kind of stuff. It's great to be able to reach the audience in a more direct way.” PeopleThinkingKindAgeAudienceNiceInternetExpectationsDirectSpiteLoyalWebsite Author:Richard Thompson
“When I went, I hadn't had very much time to have hopes or expectations. I knew very little about Nashville, and I think that was probably good. When I was there, I got really lucky - I ended up with people that just were amazing musicians, and that's the Nashville that I experienced. That is a big part of Nashville - there's a lot of musicians, and that makes it a very special place and shapes the city.” PeopleThinkingSpecialLuckyMusicianExpectationsHaving Hope Author:Anna Ternheim
“Success alone brings expectations. I think that people expect a certain thing from Lloyd - that's music that makes them feel good about their day, even when they're havin' a bad one.” PeopleThinkingExpectationsFeel Good Author:Lloyd
“Women are dealing with the same thing: they're dealing with expectations about how they're supposed to look and how they're supposed to interact with men. I think we're all trying to figure it all out, especially when we're teenagers, but I think the key is to listen and empathize with one another.” ThinkingMenTryingExpectationsTeenager Author:John Legend
“The first major issue you need to consider when focusing on today's workers: You have to know what motivates them. If you think it's primarily money, think again. The biggest single change in the workforce of the entrepreneurial age is the list of priorities workers bring to the job. Except paycheck there are new considerations: impact, freedom, quality of life. Employees today have higher expectations; they are looking for what I call "psychic equity". Make your workplace more entrepreneurial and flexible or find your workers fleeing to launch enterprises of their own.” ThinkingAgeTodayQualityExpectationsPrioritiesEnterpriseEmployeeConsiderationWorkplaceEquityQuality Of LifeEntrepreneurial Author:Linda Rottenberg
“I see prenuptial agreements as a positive - not only from a professional standpoint, but from a personal one as well. I think it is really important that people at least have some potentially difficult discussions about what their expectations are - and not just financially - prior to getting married. It should really even happen prior to people living together or casting their lot together.” PeopleThinkingImportantTogetherDifficultMarriedExpectationsDiscussionGetting MarriedLiving Together Author:Laura Wasser
“I do think that it's important to understand what each person has coming into the relationship, and what each person expects from the relationship. I find it so interesting that so many people rush into the commitment of marriage, which is a legal contract, without knowing anything about what the expectations of the other person are, and they've not explained or articulated their expectations of the other person.” PeopleThinkingImportantInterestingExpectationsCommitment Author:Laura Wasser
“I don't burden myself too much with others' expectations - or even my own expectations. I think your happiness grows in direct proportion to your acceptance, and in inverse proportion to your expectations. It's just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other - or doing the next right thing, so to speak.” ThinkingSpeakAcceptanceExpectationsDirectBurdenRight Thing Author:Michael J. Fox
“I think it's deeply important for us to know, especially when we come from the outside, how "ordinary people" think and feel and what their expectations are and what their concerns are. Also what's in their imaginations, what's in their minds, even what their rumors are and what their gossip is.” PeopleThinkingMindImportantImaginationExpectationsConcernGossipOrdinary PeopleRumor Author:Jon Lee Anderson
“You feel guilt when you're not necessarily in the best mood and you say to your fans "No, I don't want to take a photo," or you're not as happy or bubbly as they probably thought you would be. I've had to remind myself that's okay. No one's forcing me or any other celebrity to take time out of their day to say hi to these fans or do these things. There is a sense of guilt that you can feel sometimes for not meeting their expectations, but that's kind of wrong for me to think that way, because I am a person.” ThinkingKindSometimesExpectationsOkayGuiltMeetingsMoodTake Time Author:Lili Reinhart
“What I think confuses things is when people approach painting as an inherently expressive or personal medium. We still tend to have this expectation of purity with painting, this idea not only that the artist must be reflected in his or her canvases, but more importantly, that this is where one finds meaning.” PeopleThinkingArtistPaintingExpectationsPurityFind Me Author:Landon Metz
“I don't know if people come to the shows of the Raveonetteswith any certain expectations. I think that we have fans who know that we're not... hugely entertaining in any way. We don't put on a show, so to speak. We basically just play the music the way it's supposed to be heard - very loud, in a packed club, and in a good setting. People can stand still with their eyes closed, or they can dance. They can do whatever they want. We don't care.” PeopleThinkingEyeCareSpeakExpectations Author:Sune Rose Wagner
“I think the reason I've published so few books is that I have a pretty high expectation of self-reinvention between books and I would prefer to have been in this world and published fewer works than I would publishing the books that would reveal the process of the changes.” ThinkingWorldBookReasonExpectationsPublishingHigh Expectations Author:Lucie Brock-Broido
“Nowadays everyone is trying to live up to the expectations of their surroundings, especially in the industry they work for, and I think that we forget that we also can decide and just say, I'm ending it because I want to.” ThinkingTryingForgetExpectations Author:Vicky Krieps
“I think oldest children have a different mentality or know that there were different expectations of them, and I was not only the oldest child - I was the oldest grandchild of 18 grandchildren. I definitely grew up feeling like there were a lot of people who expected me to do something. But it was a very conservative family, very conservative neighborhood. I'm talking mid- to late '60s when I was growing up there, and so if I had stayed in the Boston area, I think my life would have been radically different.” PeopleThinkingChildrenDifferentFeelingsGrowing UpExpectationsConservativeNeighborhoodMentalityGrandchildren Author:Susan Lyne