Sobriety was the greatest gift I ever gave myself.
When I was a teen idol, I was so goddamn pretty I wouldn’t have taken myself seriously.
My looks have prevented people from seeing my work.
Of the many horrors of divorce, the most egregious is that it robs a kid of the best of both worlds. Dads can do many things that even the best moms can’t, and vice versa.
I think part of maturity is knowing who you are.
To achieve longevity you will have cycles. No one gets there in one straight shot.
I wouldn’t go back on my old days, though; everybody needs to have their wild years. It’s just a question of when and I’d rather have had them early than be doing it as a mid-life crisis type thing.
Being pulled that long and that hard for a 12-hour day gave me migraines. It’s what they used to do before there were facelifts for actresses – you know, Joan Crawford’s whole career was this. Then the makeup is like Earl Scheib auto body paint sprayed on my face.
When I was young and crazy, I was young and crazy. It can be hard enough just to BE in your teens and 20s. Then add fame, money, access, and every single person telling you that you’re the greatest person who ever was, and it can be a recipe for disaster. Some people literally don’t survive it.
The ’80s were about trying to establish myself as an actor with a career. And being a teenager enjoying the fruits of being successful with lots of what I think is appropriate for that age.
I have a lot of great memories, but I can’t imagine anything more exciting than the life I have now.
I’ll be sober ten years and married nine soon.
Sampling, statisticians have told us, is a much more effective way of getting a good census.
Show me someone who doesn’t have some sort of experience that they would be uncomfortable for people to know about and I’ll show you a dullard.
When I hear that I realize how quickly time passes and how everybody goes on their journeys and they’re always unbelievable and they never go where you think they’re going to take you and, quite frankly, it also makes me feel a little old.
Never compare your insides to someone else’s outsides.
Adventure is important in life. Making memories matters. It doesn’t have to be a secret sea plane and an historic sports moment. But to have a great life, you need great memories. Grab any intriguing offer. Say yes to a challenge, and to the unknown. Be creative in adding drama and scope to your own life. Work at it, like a job. Money from effort comes and goes. But effort from imagination and following adventure creates stories that you keep forever. And anyone can do it.
Nothing in life is unfair. It’s just life. To the extent that I had any inner turmoil, I had only myself to blame. I also thought of my two boys and what kind of example I hoped to be. I would always want them to take charge of their own futures and not be paralyzed by the comfort and certainty of the status quo or be cowed by the judgment of those on the outside looking in.
You can’t study the map forever. At some point it’s time to start walking; there is only so much daylight.
Who you are exposed to, who you choose to surround yourself with, is a unique variable in all of our experiences and it is hugely important in making us who we are. Seek out interesting characters, tough adversaries and strong mentors and your life can be rich, textured, highly entertaining and successful, like a Best Picture winner. Surround yourself with dullards, people of vanilla safety and unextraordinary ease, and you may find your life going straight to DVD.
Look, if you want to wear a blindfold and stumble around your house bumping into things to learn how to play ‘blind,’ you can do that. A lot of actors do. You can block your hearing and not speak. But great performances are based on truth. And the truth is that you, Rob Lowe, can hear and you can speak.