Molly Ringwald quotes: good stuff from the actress and author.
“Life is full of interesting surprises if you are open to it.”
“Take a chance. Go out there and just do it. You don’t want to be one of those people who look back in life and say, ‘I wish I had done this.'”
“Whatever it is that gives you that confidence will vary from person to person, but I do believe that it is the key to succeeding at anything in life—career, relationships, anything.”
“Have confidence and not necessarily follow trends but to be a trend maker. But what I really try to really impress upon is to just have confidence to be yourself, to take risks, and to just have fun. Really, just have fun.”
“You have to want to make it happen.”
“I think there’s always nervousness involved in something you’re excited about. Because nervousness is creative energy just trying to get out. So, I think anybody who takes on a big project has to have some nervousness and trepidations. But, you know, I intend to surround myself with the very best that I possibly can and I think if you surround yourself with real talent and let everybody do what they do best, I think it’s all going to work out.”
“I think everyone has their own path. I don’t usually try to give advice to people, but if I were to say one thing, I would say: just do it. That’s how you get better at anything, is just to do it. A lot of people don’t want to do something that they’re not immediately good at, or they get discouraged. But if you’re really serious about it, you have to do it. And just watch yourself get better.”
“When it happens to you, you will be surprised. That thing they say about how you knew all the time but just weren’t facing it? That might be the case, but nevertheless, there you will be. You will feel like you have been kicked in the stomach, that your insides have just separated to make room for something big.”
“Getting the pretty back is about getting back in touch with your essential self: the part of you that knows what you really want.”
“I think you can be mature without being grown-up. You can also be grown-up without being mentally mature. One of them is forced, while the other one is your choice.”
“I think that it is real important for someone to be really honest and open emotionally. I’m really an emotional person.”
“In life, there is always that special person who shapes who you are, who helps to determine the person you become.”
“The biggest influence that my parents have had on me was through having confidence. Growing up with my father gave me a different point of view on beauty and more confidence to focus on something else.”
“I have them to thank for giving me a good foundation, to feel strong enough and independent enough to go off on my own and do what I wanted to do. I think that relationship with my parents was just hugely important for me and I try to give that to my kids as well.”
“My parents always raised us with the idea of having college in mind. You sort of need a college education. It’s part of life. It’s something that you do, like going to your prom.”
“I grew up in a home filled with music and had an early appreciation of jazz since my dad was a jazz musician. Beginning at around age three I started singing with his band and jazz music has continued to be one of my three passions along with acting and writing. I like to say jazz music is my musical equivalent of comfort food. It’s always where I go back to when I want to feel grounded.”
“My dad has always just had a lot of faith in me as an artist and as a person, and he doesn’t really dispense with a lot of advice when it comes to the music. He’s taught me a lot over the years, but when I was taking on this project he’s really hands-off about that. He just appreciates what I’ve done and is very supportive, and of course really proud.”
“Whenever people ask me how I manage to get through this whole crazy time of being incredibly famous and sort of an icon and supposedly a role model and all of this insanity, I always cite my family and then books. I don’t know what I would have done without books.”
“The wonderful thing about books is you never run out of them, you can just keep going. So I’m always finding new writers, or old writers that I just happen not to have read. I think once you sort of cross over and you realize what books can be—and if they mean something to you—there’s just no stopping you.”
“I think we do live in a very specialized society, where once you think about somebody as one thing, it’s hard to change that. But I do a lot of things. I act, I write, I sing.”
“I don’t have control over how people choose to perceive me. The only thing I have control over is my writing.”
“I’ve been acting for so long it’s more like—I won’t say easy, exactly, but there’s not the same angst with writing that comes about with acting. Writing, particularly when you’re writing yourself, when it’s you, when it’s your life, you really can’t hide.”
“Writing is hard. It is solitary and full of angst. When the book comes out it’s fun. I’m very proud of what I have written—and writing uses different parts of my brain than music. So, one is not better than another, and they all benefit one another.”
“I have a very independent spirit.”
“I wish I had been more prepared, both for success and for failure, when I was younger.”
“You can’t be 16 forever. I felt all the things that other teenagers felt. I was insecure in lots of ways, over-confident in others. I was very emotional. Excitable.”
“I just did in my early 20s what most did when they were teenagers, being free and exploring and making mistakes, but I did it in France. I did it privately.”
“If you leave home for a while, you question the conventional wisdom you’ve grown up with. That doesn’t mean you have to change your opinions or who you are, but it’s good to ask the questions.”
“People feel like they grew up with me.”
“I can’t believe I gave my panties to a geek.”
“It’s the universal feeling that we all are alone—that we’re all different. One resounding theme is that everybody feels the same, and we’re all alone together.”
“We are the most brutal with the people we love the most.”
“From my experience, forgiving is the only way to survive.”
“Yes, my kids come first, but as a parent I need to come to them with a fresh mind. I can’t be too exhausted or too tired. And I am a better parent when I have more energy.”
“All of the advice that I give, I’m not an expert by any means, but it’s just my opinion. So if somebody likes me or likes my style or my career, I think they should have that feeling.”
“I don’t really believe in regret. I think you can always learn from the past, but I wouldn’t want a different life.”
“I feel like I’ve done pretty much everything I’ve wanted to do.”
“I’ve been lucky.”
“I feel like life is lived in seven-year cycles. When you get to the end of each cycle, you think about what the next seven years of your life are gonna be like. Turning 40 was really amazing. It kicked me into high gear. It made me realize that whatever I was going to do, I had to make the choice and do it. The first 40 years of your life, you let life happen to you, and then after, it’s sort of like, ‘No, no, no, I’ve got to make this happen.'”
