I hated singing. I wanted to be an actress. But I don't think I'd have made it any other way.

I don't like talking about myself and I don't like talking about the work.

progress, whatever your definition of it, is not inevitable.

Thank God there were a couple of people in my life who said, "Go on, go on - you can do it!

Our role as artist is more controversial now because there are those, claiming the absolute authority of religion, who detest much of our work as much as they detest most of our politics. Instead of rationally debating subjects like abortion or gay rights, they condemn as immoral those who favor choice and tolerance. They disown their own dark side and magnify everyone else's until, at the extreme, doctors are murdered in the name of protecting life. I wonder, who is this God they invoke, who is so petty and mean? Is God really against gun control and food stamps for poor children?

New York critics - I hear when one of them watched "A Star Is Born", he talked back to the screen.

The moral immune system of this country has been weakened and attacked, and the AIDS virus is the perfect metaphor for it. The malignant neglect of the last twelve years has led to breakdown of our country's immune system, environmentally, culturally, politically, spiritually and physically.