Barbra Streisand reveals heartbreaking career regret as she hints at retirement after 900-page memoir

There’s no question Barbra Streisand has lived a long, storied, and successful life – though if there ever was, just read the nearly 1,000 page memoir she released last month, My Name is Barbra.

The book, or rather, tome, spans her 81 years of life, from growing up in Brooklyn, breaking out into the spotlight thanks to Funny Girl, her crush on Marlon Brando, feuds with famous co-stars, and her marriage to James Brolin.

Now, with her story finally out for the world to take in, the The Way We Were actress is seemingly pleased to have that be what speaks for her and her story, and step away.

“I’m sort of sick of myself, to tell you the truth,” Barbra joked in a conversation with People about the aftermath of releasing her book, adding she’s “overwhelmed” with “the demands of having to speak about what I’ve done for over 10 years.”

However, tired as she may be now of back to back commitments for her book – she admits she expected to be able to fully relax afterwards – she also candidly confessed to a certain level of regret over the movies she didn’t get to do.

Barbra has starred in 19 movies, though none in over ten years, and recalling the discouragement she felt in failing to make more movies, she said: “It gets exhausting, trying to come up with the structure of the movie and then have it not happen.”

“I had such good movies to make, meaning they were about things I cared about, very interesting subjects,” she admitted, and wondered: “Why did I only make 19 movies in my lifetime?”

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“If I could have made my movies, I never would’ve written a book… I had many movies that I wanted to make” she also confessed, but added: “Then I get lazy.”

She explained: “I go, ‘Oh yeah, to do this one, I have to have all these fittings for period clothes. This one, I’d have to live in Arkansas to do this one.’ I don’t know.”

The EGOT-status legend continued: “It’s complicated, but I am complicated, I guess… I get lazy. Bette Davis made 80 movies. I made 19,” adding: “She’s a wonderful actress and she liked working. I like time off.”

Still, certain regrets aside – and admitted surprise at the work that comes with releasing a book – she is in fact satisfied, and detailing the reception to her memoir, she started: “I guess when you get famous, there’s a certain section of people that want to believe bad things about you.”

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She went on: “This woman [who reviewed the book] talked about, ‘Well, I thought I was going to read a book written by a diva… She’s not anything like that. She’s a down-to-earth person. She’s vulnerable.

“It’s like she saw me through the book, so I accomplished what I set out to do: set the record straight by telling the truth.”

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