Barbra: In Her Own Words

AFTER 61 YEARS IN SHOWBIZ, THE LIVING LEGEND HAS SEEN IT ALLAND NOW SHE'S TELLING ALL 

- RACHEL DESANTIS

Nine hundred and ninety-two pages may seem a hefty weight for a memoir, but when you consider all the lives Barbra Streisand has lived, it makes sense. Streisand, 81, has been a Broadway star, an actor, a singer, a director, a political activist, a wife and a mother. And now comes her latest act: author of the long-awaited memoir My Name Is Barbra (out now). “It’s interesting to see how little I’ve changed since I was a child,” she tells People. “I’m still that 6-year-old, constantly asking questions in school and blurting out the answers even when the teacher didn’t call on me. I grew up without a father, and my mother was too busy working to set any rules, so I never learned to bow to authority. Even now, when I’m told something can’t be done, it only makes me more determined to do it.”

In her new book Streisand digs deep into her past, from her childhood in Brooklyn spent yearning to please her mother to her big Broadway break and award-winning turns in films like Funny Girl, The Way We Were and A Star Is Born. There are also musings on her personal life, including a flirtation with Marlon Brando, a romance with former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, an eight-year marriage to Elliott Gould (with whom she shares son Jason Gould, 56) and finally, lasting love with actor James Brolin, her husband of 25 years. In these excerpts from her memoir, Streisand dishes on key life moments.

Advice from a legend