Books
The actor and directors favorite books deal with the challenges and joys of a creative life.
Its a Monday afternoon in downtown New York and Bryce Dallas Howard is dropping wisdom left and right.
It’s OKto not be the cool person in the room.
It’s OK to be the overly enthusiastic person.
It’s all right.
If you feel embarrassed, that’s an OK feeling.
I think that fear and embarrassment are very close.
With Howards own fears firmly in check, her creative output is soaring.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve noticed that I don’t really read fiction, she says.
I don’t want to say I prefer documentaries, but that’s what I go to.
I think, in some ways, nothing beats real life.
One such story of real-life mayhem,Just Kidsby Patti Smith, makes Howards list of all-time favorite books.
There’s no hubris.
There’s no envy.
There’s no pretense.
It’s just very genuine, and it makes the storytelling incredibly vivid.
Howards other favorite memoir The Boysby Ron Howard and Clint Howard tells a story thats even closer to home.
Both of my grandparents were actors, but they weren’t movie star actors.
They were really working actors, she says.
I read this before bed.
It is so fascinating because you see just the struggle of the balance.
That every human, regardless of gender, every human has to juggle things.
This juggling is another theme in her fifth book,Everything is Figureoutableby Marie Forleo.
It’s an online business school, she says.
She’s a great communicator, and everything that she says makes a lot of sense.
For Howard, this is a kind of manifestation.
And I was like, Oh, no, no, don’t worry.
It’s not something to believe in.
It’s just a fact.
And he was like, What do you mean?
It’s just a fact?
And he was like, Yeah, more likely.
And I was like, So that’s how manifestation works.
