Creator: Madonna Louise Ciccone, American singer, songwriter, and artistic entrepreneur
Context: In 1991 “Vanity Fair” published a profile of Madonna within which she discussed her “iron will” and her trepidation. Emphasis added to this excerpt by QI:[ref] 1991 April, Vanity Fair, The Misfit by Lynn Hirschberg (Profile of Madonna Louise Ciccone), Start Page 158, Quote Page 198, Column 1, Conde Nast Publications, New York. (Verified with photocopies)[/ref]
“And all of my will has always been to conquer some horrible feeling of inadequacy. I’m always struggling with that fear. I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being and then I get to another stage and think I’m mediocre and uninteresting. And I find a way to get myself out of that. Again and again. My drive in life is from this horrible fear of being mediocre. And that’s always pushing me, pushing me.
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