Many people must have looked at my life and thought I was quite fortunate. But I felt lousy about myself - and as you now know, I didn't come from a place where I had a lot of self-confidence.

If you have the opportunity to play these characters that are three-dimensional and very deeply rooted in an emotional level, they stay with you. They lived in you anyway, the density of them. It takes a while to realize how they've influenced you.

I haven't had an orthodox career.

I've grown used to being lonely over the years, so I don't seek to change it. But aren't there many people who are lonely?

I think that's very sad, that I haven't allowed my heart to be broken. I have broken a few.

There were the days when women were under contract, and they were thought of as a commodity, so they hired the best writers and a lot of them were women at the time. This was in the thirties and forties, to make product for the people who were under contract, who were their assets to the studios. But that doesn't exist anymore - and as a result, the people who are in the industry write products that interest them.

And I realized that sometimes the greatest triumphs in your life come in on little cat feet and sit on silent haunches and it's up to you to see it before it moves on.