"I always thought I should base how good I am on how good I feel I am"
About this Quote
The phrasing matters. “Always thought” signals a long-held instinct rather than a newly discovered wellness slogan. It also hints at the tension behind it: she “thought” she should do this because the world keeps insisting she shouldn’t. The entertainment economy trains performers to outsource their sense of worth to auditions, reviews, box office numbers, and the fickle weather of public taste. Campbell’s sentence quietly declines that bargain.
The subtext is less “self-esteem” and more “agency.” She’s talking about craft and identity as something you own, not something a casting director confers. That internal metric can sound risky - feelings are subjective, moods fluctuate - but that’s also the point. In a culture that rewards performers for being legible and pleasing, the most stabilizing move is to treat your own experience as credible evidence.
In context, it lands as an early articulation of what the best working actors eventually learn: you can’t do honest work if you’re constantly auditioning for permission to believe you’re good.
Quote Details
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Campbell, Neve. (2026, January 17). I always thought I should base how good I am on how good I feel I am. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-always-thought-i-should-base-how-good-i-am-on-76661/
Chicago Style
Campbell, Neve. "I always thought I should base how good I am on how good I feel I am." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-always-thought-i-should-base-how-good-i-am-on-76661/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I always thought I should base how good I am on how good I feel I am." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-always-thought-i-should-base-how-good-i-am-on-76661/. Accessed 7 Feb. 2026.





