"I still sweat bullets if I go on The Tonight Show, but I tell myself, You can either have fun tonight or you can be shy and miserable. You ask my friends or anyone I work with now - nobody would say I was shy"
About this Quote
The pivot is her private ultimatum: “You can either have fun tonight or you can be shy and miserable.” That’s not motivational-poster optimism; it’s a survival tactic. She frames shyness as a choice with immediate consequences, not a personality trait you’re sentenced to. It’s also a little ruthless - toward herself. The subtext is that performance isn’t authenticity’s enemy; it’s sometimes the price of participation. If you want a life in public, you learn to manage the body’s panic while projecting ease.
Her closing detail - “nobody would say I was shy” - is where the cultural sting sits. She’s describing a kind of successful self-editing: colleagues see the calibrated version, not the internal weather. In an industry that rewards “confidence” as a social currency, she’s admitting the trick: people don’t experience your anxiety; they experience your decisions. The intent isn’t to confess weakness so much as to rebrand courage as repetition, strategy, and a willingness to look unafraid while you’re sweating anyway.
Quote Details
| Topic | Confidence |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Boyle, Lara Flynn. (2026, January 15). I still sweat bullets if I go on The Tonight Show, but I tell myself, You can either have fun tonight or you can be shy and miserable. You ask my friends or anyone I work with now - nobody would say I was shy. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-still-sweat-bullets-if-i-go-on-the-tonight-show-69968/
Chicago Style
Boyle, Lara Flynn. "I still sweat bullets if I go on The Tonight Show, but I tell myself, You can either have fun tonight or you can be shy and miserable. You ask my friends or anyone I work with now - nobody would say I was shy." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-still-sweat-bullets-if-i-go-on-the-tonight-show-69968/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I still sweat bullets if I go on The Tonight Show, but I tell myself, You can either have fun tonight or you can be shy and miserable. You ask my friends or anyone I work with now - nobody would say I was shy." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-still-sweat-bullets-if-i-go-on-the-tonight-show-69968/. Accessed 7 Feb. 2026.


