"Eight shows a week is daunting, and it can be terrifying. But it just instills such a sense of confidence and growth"
About this Quote
The subtext is about repetition as a strange form of freedom. Doing the same performance night after night can sound punishing, even deadening, but Shields points to the paradox that repetition builds mastery, and mastery builds safety. Fear doesn’t disappear; it gets metabolized into craft. “Instills” matters here: confidence isn’t a personality trait you either have or don’t, it’s something the job puts in you, like muscle memory.
Contextually, this is an actor translating Broadway culture for a broader audience that romanticizes theater as glamour and applause. Eight shows a week is also a system that tests your body, your voice, your mental steadiness - especially for someone whose public image has long been shaped by scrutiny. Shields’ phrasing quietly reclaims authorship over her own narrative: not the ingenue, not the headline, but the worker. The growth she’s describing isn’t inspirational poster stuff; it’s the hard-earned competence that comes from meeting terror on a calendar and showing up anyway.
Quote Details
| Topic | Confidence |
|---|---|
| Source | Verified source: CNN Larry King Live Interview with Brooke Shields (Brooke Shields, 2004)
Evidence:
Eight shows a week is -- "Cabaret" -- eight shows a week is daunting, and it can be terrifying. But it just instills such a sense of confidence and growth. (Transcript lines 163-166). This appears in the CNN transcript of Larry King Live, aired December 6, 2004, during an interview with Brooke Shields while she was discussing Broadway and her experiences in Cabaret, Grease, and Wonderful Town. I searched for earlier primary-source appearances and did not find a verifiable earlier publication or speech containing this wording. The commonly circulated shorter version omits her spoken insertion of "Cabaret" and punctuation from the broadcast transcript, suggesting later quote sites normalized it. |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Shields, Brooke. (2026, March 17). Eight shows a week is daunting, and it can be terrifying. But it just instills such a sense of confidence and growth. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/eight-shows-a-week-is-daunting-and-it-can-be-117056/
Chicago Style
Shields, Brooke. "Eight shows a week is daunting, and it can be terrifying. But it just instills such a sense of confidence and growth." FixQuotes. March 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/eight-shows-a-week-is-daunting-and-it-can-be-117056/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Eight shows a week is daunting, and it can be terrifying. But it just instills such a sense of confidence and growth." FixQuotes, 17 Mar. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/eight-shows-a-week-is-daunting-and-it-can-be-117056/. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.




