Blake Lively [1] is really making a splash these days. In addition to her new movie, The Shallows [2], hitting theaters later this month and the upcoming birth of her second child [3], the stunning actress [4] also graces the cover of Marie Claire's July issue [5]. In the magazine, Blake opens up about her love for her husband of almost four years, Ryan Reynolds [6], her normal upbringing, and how she tries to protect her daughter, James, from the glaring spotlight of Hollywood. See her best quotes below, then check out this amazing Disney-inspired throwback photo [7] she recently shared.

• On why she wanted to marry Ryan Reynolds: "I knew he would always be my best friend for my whole life. That was the biggest thing to me. I'd never known anything like the friendship that I had with him. I could like him as much as I loved him."
• On family being her number one priority: "That's where my heart is. That's where my everything is."
• On the paparazzi and her daughter: "I'd rather not have to deal with it at all, but we knew the lifestyle we were getting into, and while it's hard . . . it's another thing when it's our child. She didn't have the opportunity to make a decision about what she wants."
• On not wanting to follow her family's footsteps in Hollywood: "I didn't want to be an actor, because they were all doing it. When you're the youngest of five kids, you think, 'Who am I?' If this is who they are, and they're shaping who I am so much, then who would I be? You strive for your own identity."
• On raising her family: "Ryan had a nice, normal upbringing, and we want our kids to have the same normal life that we had. We don't ever want to rob them of what we had, because we'd feel really selfish."