You dont do an experimental film to become rich, so the people who are involved are involved because they enjoy the creative aspect of it.

When I took my clothes off in Blue Velvet, I wanted to convey the brutality of sex abuse. I wanted to look like a quartered cow hanging in a butcher shop as well as disturbingly appealing.

I didn't want to become an actress because the competition with my mother would have been to much to live up to.

The reason of my life is not to be the most beautiful woman in the world.

My father used to say that you could only access culture before cinema by learning to read and write, but that once cinema was invented, knowledge was available to anybody.

In America, they are paranoid about ruining the reputations of people once they are dead and cannot answer back. They have this fascination which to me seems cruel and morbid. I do not want any part of it

Although Dorothy in Blue Velvet was humiliated and hurt by men, basically I could react to how she felt.