Darcey Bussell Quotes

When I was working a lot, I felt guilty as a parent. I couldn't pick up my son every day from school, bake him cookies and that kind of thing.

Most women who work and have a career and a family sympathise with one another because they know just how difficult it is to try and manage it all and sometimes if the pressure's too great and you can't manage something has to give and it's either your career or your family.

I like bringing the girls on set, but if I can't do that then the next day I feel I have to be uber-mum to make up for it. Then I'm exhausted and feel like I'm running in fumes.

Being in a relationship, I only appreciate when I come home from work how much I've given of myself at work or how depleted I am, and I sometimes worry that I've given all my best energy to my work, and all I can offer you is the emptied out shell.

Sacrificing your relationship for your career sounds noble and romantic from the outside, but the reality is that it can create a pattern of self-destruction that will ultimately burn you out on the career you've worked so hard to build. It's a trap and, for some, an easy way out of having to maintain relationships under stress.

I work every day, and every year I spend seven months away from my family. I miss my kids' birthdays, and those are times I will never be able to go back on and share with them. That kills me.

My priorities were taking the kids to school and being a mum and being a daughter and being a sister. Just spending a lot of that time with my family that I'd probably lost a lot of, touring with the Cranberries.

After Mason was born, I'd feel guilty doing anything that wasn't related to work.

I was one of those people who put too much emphasis on work and career and material possessions, and it took its toll on all my relationships, on my physical health, my emotional and mental health.

I just didn't work that much while the kids were growing up.

Since 2005, I have not spent much time with my family. In fact I have spent more time at the Taj Landsend in Mumbai. It was my 100th visit recently, which means I have spent more than 400 days in that hotel, and that is a lot more than I have spent with my family.

Too often, I've put my career and helping others ahead of my own needs.

I have a theory that burnout is about resentment. And you beat it by knowing what it is you're giving up that makes you resentful.

I wasn't even sure I'd be able to walk. I couldn't even go outside. Maybe I was just burnt crisp from the gruelling schedule I had been keeping for years.

My kids paid the price for my career. We can say it's for our family, but it almost never is. It's about us. It's just some of us can pretend better than others.

I'm just a sensitive little soul who's put so much into her career that I haven't had enough energy or time left over to sustain a relationship.

I hate the idea of success robbing you of your private life.

It's hard to balance work and family.

I love this profession, but God, it can just destroy people, and I don't want that to happen and become some monster.

I damaged my health during 'Les Mis,' which I didn't want to mention in case it seemed like I was courting sympathy.

Seven years without a break really takes a toll on you, and you don't even realize it. You're affected by other people, and after a while, sometimes they have love for you, and sometimes they don't.

That said, my kids are at home right now with my husband and I'm missing something important at my daughter's school which makes me feel sick inside. It's a lot of balance and a lot of really hard decision making.

There's sacrifice involved. Either you're going to work a lot and not get to spend time with your kid, or you're going to spend a ton of time with your kid, and you're sacrificing your career.

I think there are ways to get so caught up in your career and being so heavy and dramatic, and everyone wants to be a tortured genius.

I tried taking a year off when Pedro was a toddler because I really wanted to be around, but it wasn't good for any of us.