Toyah Willcox Quotes

My mom always knew I would be able to take care of myself, but my dad was afraid.

I lived with this tremendous fear of failure because my father was a playwright and a director, and I think he did a couple of things as a child as an actor as well, and he... he failed, basically.

Some people need to stay at the top. They are afraid to re-start from zero because they fear the critics.

The one thing that scares me the most is failing. It scares me that one day I won't be at this level. But while I'm here and while I'm having success early, I'm trying to do everything to stay on this level.

I am living on the razor's edge between success and failure, adulation and humiliation - between justifying my existence and revealing my unworthiness to be alive.

However painful the process of leaving home, for parents and for children, the really frightening thing for both would be the prospect of the child never leaving home.

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.

My parents didn't want me to go into show business. They were afraid of what would happen if I didn't succeed. They wanted me to get married and have babies. I never saw marriage and family in my life.

My dad was very excited about me doing 'Laguna Beach,' and he thought it was a great opportunity. My mom, however, living in Chicago, was a little nervous. I mean she had some reservations about MTV. I think there was a point in my life where I wasn't even allowed to watch MTV!

When you're the most successful person in your family, in your neighborhood, and in your town, everybody thinks you're the First National Bank, and you have to figure out for yourself where those boundaries are.

I've never, ever set my sights on getting 100 - it's more my family. My dad's been counting down the caps for every single home game, and he's been to every single one I've played in England.

My mother wanted my sister and me to live a normal life. I always picked friends who weren't impressed with my family ties.

I couldn't stand the thought of not succeeding; failure was more than I could deal with.

He thought about the story his daughter was living and the role she was playing inside that story. He realized he hadn't provided a better role for his daughter. He hadn't mapped out a story for his family. And so his daughter had chosen another story, a story in which she was wanted, even if she was only being used. In the absence of a family story, she'd chosen a story in which there was risk and adventure, rebellion and independence.

Successful people take big risks knowing that they might fall hard. But, they might succeed more than they ever dreamed, too.

If you truly feared failure, you'd be very successful.

Succes is really nothing more than the record of failure. To be successful means you must be willing to fail more than anyone else.

I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon - if I can. I seek opportunity - not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed... It is my heritage...to think and act for myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations, and to face the world boldly and say, this I have done.

Successful people just don't let failure define them or keep them from doing what they want to do. For example, I'd have people come up to me after my shows, and they'd say they want to do stand-up but are scared they're going to fail. I'd tell them, "You are going to fail, and anyone who is success has powered through many, many failures."

Before we can leave our parents, they stuff our heads like the suitcases which they jam-pack with homemade underwear.

It's not easy to find your own way when you believe that you need love, approval, appreciation, or anything from your family. It's particularly hard when you want them to see things your way.

One danger of a man succeeding is that it teaches his wife and daughter not to worry about success.

Tory a father isn’t supposed to fear his fourteen-year-old daughter. That being sad, you terrify me.

If failure had no penalty success would not be a prize.

Your folks are god, you love them and you want to make them happy but you still want to make up your own rules.