Robin Wright Penn: "I Didn't Want My Kids To Be Raised By A Nanny"

A newly single Robin Wright Penn covers the November issue of Redbook magazine. In the issue, the Forrest Gump star, who split from Sean Penn in August after 20 years together, talks about starting over, and reveals why she doesn't regret putting her kids Dylan and Hopper, now 18 and 16, ahead of her career.

On her kids being the constant in her life: "I don't think there's doubt in any mother's mind that that's what's driving. Our children are the one stationary thing. There's a clear voice inside that says that's a priority."

On making the decision to put her kids before her career: "I really wanted to be a mom. I didn't want my kids to be raised by a nanny, which would have been the case if I were working two movies in a year, you know? And I would have been hospitalized with fatigue. So that's where the no-brainer came in. I did what I wanted to do: I raised my kids."

On role model moms: "You are the model for them. And yet you'd better follow the model that you're speaking. The experience is such a great teacher. Like that moment when your child's voice comes back to you: 'Well, why should I? You don't, Mom.' I was -texting the other day and almost veered into -oncoming traffic. My daughter said, 'You're out of your mind.'... [She] said, "I'm putting the phone in the trunk because you're just relentless."

On coping with her daughter Dylan going off to college: "It's humanly impossible to take it all in at once. I mean, back to the concept of, who am I supposed to be in the safe place? I'm now in that thing where I'm not, 'I should, you should, dot dot dot.' How about just, 'I am. With all my flaws and foibles.' Just, 'I am.' Looking at the world, it's not so much the absolutism of 'I want, I will be.' I look at what I'm not. I look out there and go, 'I'm not that, I'm not that. Therefore I am.'"