Shonda Rhimes Quotes

In interviews I gave early on in my career, I was quoted as saying it was possible to have it all: a dynamic job, marriage, and children. In some respects, I was a social adolescent.

I want to live a good life and pay my taxes. 'The Killing' was a blessing. It was two wonderful years. But I had reached a point in my life, especially with a young son, that I was no longer willing to compromise my life for the sake of a paycheque. I was no longer willing to move where the tax credits are strong.

What I do is not rocket science, but I sure do love it.

It just seems there's better things to do in your life than be on television if it's not interesting, if it's not challenging, if it's not fun. You know? When it stops being those things for me, I'll stop making television.

Can you picture yourself at the age 60 doing what you do now?

There is no evidence that success in business will make us happy people or allow us to have happy families.

I think there's a lot to be said about just enjoying your work. It can be very contrived when people say their work is for the good of mankind.

I have always been very choosy, but as you grow older, your tolerance for crap becomes less. The role I will do today has to justify the time I take away from my kids and my husband. I love them, spend a lot of time with them and love doing things for them. So to go away for three to six months, I need something equally powerful.

You cannot be happy with your family while being personally unhappy with your work. It's a Catch-22 kind of thing.

There was a period when I really had to ask myself, 'What does acting mean to me?' I'm not someone who's content being famous, with that whole lifestyle. I had to realize I could find a balance between what I like to do and what people think you're 'supposed' to do as an actress.

I've always made a clear distinction between making a life and making a living.

I've worked for a long time, but I got to the point where I felt like, I am out here so far, how do I get back? I want to have a real life, a personal life. I didn't want a personal life I just visited.

My interest in well-being evolved from my interest in decision making - from raising the question of whether people know what they will want in the future and whether the things that people want for themselves will make them happy.

What about the rat race in the first place? Is it worthwhile? Or are you just buying into someone else's definition of success? Only you can decide that, and you'll have to decide it over and over and over. But if you think it's a rat race, before you drop out, take a deep breath. Maybe you picked the wrong job. Try again. And then try again.

I'm pretty darn happy with my day job.

Although Freud said happiness is composed of love and work, reality often forces us to choose love or work.

You come to a point where you realize your work doesn't save you.

I want to work. I'd be unsatisfied if I couldn't be pursuing this. But I love my family more. This is really life.

It's a common misconception that money is every entrepreneur's metric for success. It's not, and nor should it be.

My mom always told me if I love what I'm doing, and I'm having fun, then just continue to do it. But if it's not fun for me anymore, and I'm miserable, then I'm going to go back to Texas and quit it all, to be honest.

I've discovered that the standard all-American dream of fame and fortune is not success for me. Success for me is simply the joy of working - doing good work - and then bringing that joy home to my family. But if what I do in my work doesn't enrich my life with my family, I'm doing the wrong thing.

Maybe I need to make a change, or maybe it's living here in New York or using social media or working in media and entertainment, but I feel like I'm constantly trying to maintain this sense of, 'Why do I do what I do?'

I think the most important thing is to achieve what you set out to achieve. Just being a CEO in itself is not success. I would not relate success to a title or a position.

Sometimes, you have to stop your life or your career and say 'What is the best for my family, for me?'

The day you stop enjoying something is the day you should quit, if you can afford to.