Danielle Steel Quotes

The truth is that at age 19, I was a teenage mother living alone with my daughter in a trailer and struggling to keep us afloat on my way to a divorce. And I knew then that I was going to have to work my way up and out of that life if I was going to give my daughter a better life and a better future, and that's what I've done.

I'm single. I had to make a few changes in my life.

In my twenties, I definitely had a sense of wanting to create stability for myself.

My mom had not worked a day in her life, and then she woke up when I was 15 and found herself with four children, no job, no money. But she set out and made it all OK for us, and from that, I saw that there's no problem that can't be solved.

There comes a crossroads in every marriage where you grow together or grow apart. I outgrew Len. He wanted me to be in that leather jumpsuit for the rest of my life and do nothing else. He constrained me. It got to a point where the marriage died or I did.

It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project.

I love my father, but I have worked to develop a separate and distinct identity in different projects I have worked on.

Even though you're married, you're still individuals. You still have to grow and nurture your individuality.

I want an identity outside of my work.

I never put a lot of praise on myself because of my relationship with Ike. I was just happy when I started to like myself - when I divorced and took control of my life.

I wanted to be an independent woman, a woman who could pay for her bills, a woman who could run her own life - and I became that woman.

A sense of freedom is something that, happily, comes with age and life experience.

Being single has definitely given me a new lease of life.

I grew up with just my mom. She and I were like best friends. She's a very independent woman and I admire that about her. In my life, I've tried to be like that. To be okay with being on my own and being independent.

I dropped out of NYU, moved out of my parent's house, got my own place, and survived on my own. I made music and worked my way from the bottom up.

It's important for people to figure out their own lives before involving someone else - to gauge where you are and work on your own issues.

There's no time for boys in my life right now.

Work means independence. It allowed me to shape my life on so many levels.

I'm on my own now. I have my own apartment.

It is easier to live through someone else than to become complete yourself.

For me, the times in my life when I've been single have been more formative and crucial than I could have imagined. I can cope, function and be happy on my own. I'm highly capable. That doesn't mean I don't like being with a partner, or that I don't feel more rounded when I'm with someone. But the times on my own have been so good.

Graduate school is a really supportive environment, but in a way, it was only when that support vanished that I flourished.

I plan on doing a lot more work on my own, and discovering and doing more.

I know that I have raised my sons to be big, strong, independent men who love God, themselves and care for others. I have to learn to let them have space and learn without me.