As a blanket rule, when Oprah gives any sort of life advice: we listen.

So when the talk show goddess recently shared some wisdom that was passed on to her by the great Maya Angelou? Well, naturally, we were all ears.

For the second stop of her 2020 Vision Tour, Oprah was joined in Minnesota by actor, comedian and writer Tina Fey, where the pair chatted about ageing.

On the topic, Fey, who turns 50 this year, said: “I feel like I’m at an age where all the things I’ve ever thought I wanted to do, I did them. I always wanted to work at Saturday Night Live; I always wanted to have a show; I always wanted to have children. And I did that.” 

Fey has two children with her composer husband, Jeff Richmonds. She added: “So I feel like I’m trying to be quiet, and take things in. And listen. I’m waiting for something inside me to tell me that the next thing is I want to do.”

Oprah agreed, encouraging Fey to wait. “Wait for that. Don’t tell it. Let it tell you.” This is something she learned herself, she said, when her talk show ended in 2011. She felt pressured to lock in her next move – but later, she realised she could have waited for the answer to come to her without the struggle.

She added that, in her experience, life only gets better with age – something she learned from Maya Angelou and, in her experience, has proven to be true. 

“When I turned 50, my dear friend Maya Angelou was still alive, and Maya said to me, ‘Babe, the 50s are everything you’ve been meaning to be. It’s everything you thought you might do. This is it. It’s coming in. You’re not even there yet’.”

Fey, who is set to host next year’s Golden Globes with Amy Poehler, said she was still figuring our her next move – but touted one idea. 

Referring to the other incredible women on Oprah’s tour, including Michelle Obama, Jennifer Lopez and Lady Gaga, she added: “I would like this to be how we repopulate the world. We go to an island, these women, and the Rock, and we start society over.”

Like Oprah said, life only gets better.

Image: Getty