Rainbow Rowell Quotes

Right when I started touring, there was this wariness I had of the world outside of my small town. But I'm not that person anymore, and I was never completely that person.

I don't know what the future holds. I just try to do roles that I haven't done before.

We're scared to death to try new things because we think we have to get it right the first time.

If you try to measure the future, you will never risk the present. Playing it safe. A ghastly game.

If you don't go, you'll never know.

I've been scared and I've liked not hanging on to stuff where I know that I'm in my comfort zone.

To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the biggest mistake of all.

When you go out on a limb, that's when you really know you're living.

I don't like to be out of my comfort zone, which is about a half an inch wide.

I don't seek discomfort. But, very often, you realise that what you fear is actually quite ephemeral; something's different, something's unfamiliar; therefore, it must be worse.

'One Tree Hill' really had an impact on my life. It was the first time I left my house and my family in New York and went to a small town in North Carolina. It was the most incredible experience for me.

Everyone has a 'risk muscle.' You keep it in shape by trying new things. If you don't, it atrophies. Make a point of using it at least once a day.

I'm at the transition place myself, still playing high school girls but moving to a stage when I'm playing older roles and going to the places of stillness and wisdom and knowledge and weight. It's exciting and scary.

The age of 18 seemed the right time to try something different in my life. Moving to the U.K. was a risk, and I was never confident that I could ever make a full-time living being a musician, but I had to try. Initially, I worked as a jazz musician in pubs or with bands.

I think on some level, you do your best things when you're a little off-balance, a little scared. You've got to work from mystery, from wonder, from not knowing.

Much as we may wish to make a new beginning, some part of us resists doing so as though we were making the first step toward disaster.

Don't let what you don't know scare you, because it can become your greatest asset. And if you do things without knowing how they have always been done, you're guaranteed to do them differently.

You can't do things unexpected in life if you're not willing to take a risk, and it's easier to risk your own life than it is for your parent to watch you take risks. It's very, very hard for parents to see children doing things that aren't a solid path. I've been through that.

I regret waiting until my mid-twenties to really start seeing the world. I think I should have taken more risks when I was younger and worried less about being ready to grow up.

I always want to keep challenging myself to do something that I don't even have the foresight to know what it's going to be.

I'm learning not to hold on so tightly to my solitude. It's not an economical way to work. A driver would call it 'white-knuckling.' If you're holding on to the wheel so tightly, it's gonna lock up your driving. Releasing myself from trying to control everything has been part of growing up.

I was scared of failing, and I was scared of succeeding. I just wanted to be in a safe space and not grow too big or be too little.

It was a big step for me in the Netherlands: to leave home at the age of 18.

I think it's a dying thing these days, taking a chance. People don't always do it because they have comfort. And, you know, there might be something else out there you can do that makes you happier than the situation you're in.

I remember all the stages in my career where I almost didn't have enough confidence to try for something, almost didn't have the guts to follow something I was excited about doing, because I didn't know anyone else who'd done it, or other people made me question it.