Oh, That's So Awkward...

Life has its share of icky moments and most are totally unpredictable—slips of the tongue, pregnant pauses, rough patches with pals. We all dream of handling them with finesse, but mostly we muddle through. Here are some better ways of being.

26 Quotes on Feeling Awkward

Even famous people feel awkward sometimes. Here are some quotes.

You're not the only one who has experienced moments of awkwardness.  In fact, everyone has experienced it.  Even people you would never suspect, like Steven Spielberg.  And Harry Potter.  (Well, the actor that plays Harry Potter, anyway.)



Men lose more conquests by their own awkwardness than by any virtue in the woman. - Ninon de L'Enclos

Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness. - Joseph Addison


Doing love scenes is always awkward. I mean, it's just not a normal thing to go to work and lay in bed with your co-worker. - Denise Richards

Everyone has a childhood, everyone had awkward years and weird stages. Mine were broadcast for eight years. - Tina Yothers, "Family Ties"

Everyone is like a butterfly, they start out ugly and awkward and then morph into beautiful graceful butterflies that everyone loves. - Drew Barrymore

Golf is an awkward set of bodily contortions designed to produce a graceful result. - Tommy Armour

I like parties, but I'm shy, and I often find myself standing around, feeling awkward. - Michael Bergin

It's awkward: Here you are with most of your clothes off in bed with this person who you've really just met. You're strangers to each other's bodies and you're coming together for the first time in front of all these people. - Sheryl Lee, on why filming love scenes is incredibly unromantic.


When you go to take someone's picture, the first thing they say is, what you want me to do? Everyone is very awkward. - Annie Leibovitz

Awkward interests me, he said. At least when you are feeling awkward you are always thinking. When you are feeling fabulous, for example, rare occurrence that it may be, you stop thinking altogether. Which gets you into all kinds of trouble. Hence, you are for the better off feeling awkward. Just the sound of it on your tongue. Like chewing on screws.
- Elizabeth Brundage, "The Doctor's Wife"

The custom and fashion of today will be the awkwardness and outrage of tomorrow - so arbitrary are these transient laws. - Alexandre Dumas Pere

God may forgive sins, he said, but awkwardness has no forgiveness in heaven or earth. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I never felt comfortable in real life very well. It's always been an awkward kind of thing for me and so when I hit the stage I just sensed freedom. I sensed here's a place that I can have all the experiences of life and not feel uncomfortable about it. - Nick Nolte




I always made an awkward bow. - John Keats

Order is never observed; it is disorder that attracts attention because it is awkward and intrusive. - Eliphas Levi

Many great writers have been extraordinarily awkward in daily exchange, but the greatest give the impression that their style was nursed by the closest attention to colloquial speech. - Thornton Wilder

I might have been able to make it as a pitcher except for one thing: I had a rather awkward motion and every time I brought my left arm forward I hit myself in the ear. - Casey Stengel

It's only awkward if you let it be. - Silvia Donahue