Quotes from Brooke Shields

Eight shows a week is daunting, and it can be terrifying. But it just instills such a sense of confidence and growth.

My father's death, my move, and my frightening and difficult delivery created a tremendous amount of stress, pain, and sadness for me. I was practically devastated beyond recovery.

We all struggle. I'm not saying any successful woman's life is without struggle. But it doesn't mean it has to be miserable.

I've never found therapy to be a sign of weakness; I've found the opposite to be true. The willingness to have a mirror held up to you definitely requires strength.

Louis Malle was the best filmmaker I've ever worked with. He was such an artist. He was dealing with the theme of innocence and experience.

I absolutely would categorize myself as one of successful professional females. I think you can be successful and still be extremely present in a healthy life.

Love can produce the children, but it has nothing to do with the raising of the children. I grew up thinking, 'Oh, that's it. All I have to do is fall in love.' You may think love will change everything, but it really is different with children. Children don't necessarily bring you together; they challenge you.

Have faith in your own thoughts.

I have bad-mom moments all the time. Sometimes I have the wrong reaction, but I try to remember to pull back and think about it. Even when I make the mistake, I'm able to then go, 'Oh, okay, let's do this again.'

We live in New York. To be able to have a steady job and take your kids to school, and be around and work hard, is the perfect life.

I love getting baths and going to the Korean spas and getting pummeled and scrubbed, and its so hot in the sauna you can't even stand it. I have to do things in a pretty extreme way to calm down. So a Swedish massage is not going to do it! I need to know that they're in there with their thumbs and moving stuff around.

The difficulty of IVF or of any fertility issues is the hope and the shattered hope, the dream that it might happen this time and then it doesn't happen.

At Princeton I gained a great deal of pleasure from success in my classes. knowing that I could accomplish those things, and I realized that my success was directly proportionate to the work I put in.

Humour has always been a self-defence mechanism for me.

I have a group of friends in my life, and we all give each other something different. I've known my two closest friends for many years. One is a friend from high school, and the other I met right after college. My deep, deep friends remind me every day of the good parts of my personality.

The most rewarding thing is being on Broadway. I went into Cabaret as a replacement and was really challenged beyond anything I could have imagined.

From the time I could speak, I knew I wanted to have children. It was just an innate desire.

Being nice to everybody, saying hello to everyone in the room, signing every autograph; it was instilled in me at a very young age that this was what I was suppose to do. But I don't think it helps at all. I see more people who are rude or arrogant being rewarded - but, this way, I can put my head on the pillow at night.

People say, 'I love my wrinkles.' I don't love my wrinkles - come on!

Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life.

Don't waste a minute not being happy. If one window closes, run to the next window—or break down a door.

You are only as pretty as you are nice and smart.

High school basically continued with bouts of her getting drunk and then stopping for a day. There was not one major moment or birthday celebration during which she could remain sober. I learned how to plan my joy. I would front-load my birthdays with breakfast activities or plan to be with her for only the beginning of an event. Then I would go off to be with friends and know that that would be the last I would see of my mother's real facial expressions.

My feelings about my mother and about our relationship are so confused that to write them down with clarity would mean I had them all figured out, which I do not. —Brooke Shields's diary