Barbra Streisand Says Fear that Surgery Would Impact Her Legendary Voice Made Her Resist a Nose Job

Barbra Streisand says in her memoir 'My Name Is Barbra' that plastic surgery would've been "too much of a risk"

Barbra Streisand has always stuck to her guns — especially when it comes to matters of her voice.

In an excerpt from her highly anticipated memoir My Name Is Barbra shared with PEOPLE in this week’s issue, Streisand, 81, says she was repeatedly told that she should get a nose job and cap her teeth in order to be more successful in showbiz.

“I thought, Isn’t my talent enough? A nose job would hurt and be expensive,” she writes. “Besides, how could I trust anyone to do exactly what I wanted and no more?”

Streisand says she’s always liked the small bump on her nose, and never moved forward with any sort of surgery because she feared it could affect her legendary voice.

“It was too much of a risk. And who knew what it might do to my voice? Once a doctor told me I had a deviated septum … maybe that’s why I sound the way I do,” she writes. “Besides, I liked long noses … the Italian actress Silvana Mangano had one, and everyone seemed to think she was beautiful.”

Related: Barbra Streisand Will Narrate the Audiobook for Her New Memoir, My Name Is Barbra

In a second excerpt, Streisand laments the fact that she feels her nose often attracted more media attention than she did, calling out a 1964 Time magazine cover story in which the writer called it a “shrine” that gave her face the “essence of hound.”

The star admits in her book that decades later, she’s “still hurt by the insults and can’t quite believe the praise.”

“I guess when you become famous, you become public property,” she writes. “You’re an object to be examined, photographed, analyzed, dissected … and half the time I don’t recognize the person they portray. I’ve never gotten used to it, and I try to avoid reading anything about myself.”

Related: Barbra Streisand Pulls Back the Curtain on Famous Friends, Lasting Love and More in New Memoir (Exclusive)

Elsewhere in Streisand’s revealing memoir, she shares stories from the set of movies like Yentl, The Way We Were and A Star Is Born, as well as details of her dalliances with stars like Marlon Brando, Don Johnson and eventual husband James Brolin.

For more on Barbra Streisand, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.

Celebrate Barbra Streisand's incredible career with the new PEOPLE Special Edition Barbra Streisand, available on newsstands and Amazon.com.

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