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

In interviews, the first question I get in America is always: 'What do you do to stay young?' I do nothing. I don't think aging is a problem ... I'm so surprised that the emphasis on aging here is on physical decay, when aging brings such incredible freedom. Now what I want most is laughs. I don't want to hurt anybody by laughing -- there is no meanness to it. I just want to laugh.

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

I was always fascinated by the infinite, strange and 'scandalous' ways that insects copulate.

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

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.

Women who stay true to themselves are always more interesting and beautiful to me: women like Frida Kahlo, Georgia O'Keeffe and Anna Magnani - women who have style, chic, allure and elegance. They didn't submit to any standard of beauty - they defined it.