When I was 16, nobody else talked like me. Nobody else sounded like me.

When I was growing up, particularly during puberty in my teen years, I was so miserable because I elicited so much teasing and meanness from my teenage cohorts.

People are always casting me for what they call my 'authority.

I think people have always liked in me the combination of being the underdog because I'm a tiny woman but I have enormous authority in myself.

For me to want to be an actor was an improbable idea. I wasn't beautiful or pretty in any conventional way. I wasn't an ingenue at 22. But I was always certain of it and certain of its power. I felt the power when I went to the theater at 9, 10, 12 and 14.

I can't be a man. But I can embrace the head of a man, the intelligence of a man, the spirit of a man.

It really hit home that my parents felt as though they didn't have to worry anymore. They realized if you could win an Oscar, that was a good sign.