NEW YORK • Robin Thicke is a platinum-selling singer, a Grammy-winning songwriter, a budding sex symbol and goes home at night to a gorgeous wife, actress Paula Patton.

Yet while he seems to be living a life most men would envy, the R & B crooner says he still struggles with moments of self-doubt.

With the success of 2006’s breakthrough CD “The Evolution of Robin Thicke,” and the excitement surrounding the release of his third CD, “Something Else,” Thicke, 31, may gain that confidence that he says he lacks. He’s on a tour with Mary J. Blige, the CD’s first single “Magic” is a hit, and at a party to celebrate the album’s release, Jay-Z and Diddy showed up.

Question: The past two years have been really successful for you. Do you wish you had done anything different?

Answer: I just wish I wouldn’t have worried so much or doubted myself so much; I think I would have made a lot more music. Stanley Kubrick, who is my favorite filmmaker, once said his only regret in his career was that he didn’t make more movies. It’s not that he didn’t love the movies he made, but he wishes he could have made more. I have a feeling I’ll end up like that, where I’m always going to enjoy the music that I made but I’ll always wish I made more.

Q: You’ve mentioned a lot that you want to be loved and that you need love. What’s the love you’ve been missing?

A: Self-love, that’s what I’ve been missing. Sometimes I still miss it; there’s nothing more powerful than self-love. Because when we doubt ourselves and doubt each other, it really just comes from, “I don’t have enough confidence in myself to be good or be kind, so I have to be mean or be rude.”

Q: Do you feel like there’s a disadvantage for you in music because you’re a white R & B singer?

A: Any time you’re sticking out like a sore thumb, you can get one of two things: Maybe you get coverage because you stick out like a sore thumb and maybe because you’re the sore thumb no one wants to touch. So I do find that doors are closed because of the color of my skin, but doors are also open because of the color of my skin. And doors are closed on a lot of other people, and I’m definitely not the victim in this society, that’s for sure.

Singer-songwriter Robin Thicke’s third album, “Something Else,” was released Sept. 30. Photo by (AP Photo/Jeff Christensen)