From the time I was a child I wanted to be like my mother. Not necessarily an actress - I never dreamed I'd have the courage. But an active, volatile woman like she was.

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

What I think has been wonderful about my life is that it has been diverse, and that I've been able to do so many different things. I was able to evolve from modeling into acting. And then when acting opportunities became limited because of my age, I was able to become a writer and director and author. So, I am grateful to myself that I didn't just sit around and become nostalgic about the past that has been and can't come back, but that I instead decided to move on.

These same people seem to forget that mother also took a lot of chances with the type of roles she played.

I believe in a set of values I cannot live by.

But my mother loved The Elephant Man, and my father gave David Lynch a scholarship to study in Rome.

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.