Stone: 'I almost quit acting'
The pressures of fame nearly forced Sharon Stone to quit acting - but then she learned to turn it to her advantage.
The Basic Instinct actress initially hated being in the public eye because any mistake she made were front page news but then she realised the ability to learn from her mistakes was an important gift.
She says: "When I made my first big mistakes in public, I felt like it was going to be the end of me. I wasn't able to take it.
"I live under a spotlight. If I break something in a supermarket by knocking it out of my cart I'm going to read about it. Because of my fame I'm not just going to feel dumb. I feel dumb and then some.
"I had to really look at myself and everything I was doing. I couldn't get away from it or forget it for a single second.
"But now I see that you have to be able to accept your failures with some dignity, and learn something and go on. And through the biggest crushes, and the things that were hard for me, I learned a lot of lessons. And I've grown so much from having these experiences."
