The public library is more than a repository of books. It's a mysterious, wondrous place with the power to change lives.

Acting is, to me now, artificial. Seeing people suffer is real. It couldn't be more real. Some people don't like to look at it in the face because it's painful. But if nobody does, then nothing gets done.

All of my life I've spent a lot of time with gay men - Montgomery Clift, Jimmy Dean, Rock Hudson - who are my colleagues, coworkers, confidantes, my closest friends, but I never thought of who they slept with! They were just the people I loved. I could never understand why they couldn't be afforded the same rights and protections as all of the rest of us. There is no gay agenda, it's a human agenda

I never face the day without perfume.

Everything makes me nervous - except making films.

I don't have a short temper, I just have a quick reaction to bullshit

I've never thought of my jewelry as trophies. I'm here to take care of it and to love it, for we are only temporary custodians of beauty.