"I've had my share of doing things that I really wish I hadn't done"
About this Quote
The phrase “doing things” stays deliberately vague, which is precisely why it lands. Cole doesn’t ask the listener to rubberneck at details; she invites recognition. That vagueness is also a control move. In a culture that turns celebrity pain into tabloid inventory, she keeps ownership of her narrative by refusing to itemize it. The emotional truth is the point, not the receipts.
Context matters: Cole’s life was famously bifurcated between immense musical inheritance (Nat King Cole’s daughter, a voice that could summon both reverence and comparison) and very public struggles, including addiction and recovery. Read through that lens, the sentence becomes a compact survival statement. It acknowledges harm without collapsing into it, implying a before and after: there were choices, there were consequences, and there is a self now capable of naming them.
What makes it work is its modesty. Regret here isn’t branded as a comeback arc; it’s presented as lived experience. The subtext: you can be talented, adored, and still messy - and you don’t need to glamorize the mess to prove you’ve grown past it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Learning from Mistakes |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Cole, Natalie. (2026, January 16). I've had my share of doing things that I really wish I hadn't done. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/ive-had-my-share-of-doing-things-that-i-really-123766/
Chicago Style
Cole, Natalie. "I've had my share of doing things that I really wish I hadn't done." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/ive-had-my-share-of-doing-things-that-i-really-123766/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I've had my share of doing things that I really wish I hadn't done." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/ive-had-my-share-of-doing-things-that-i-really-123766/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.





