At the end of your life, you are going to want to know that you made some kind of difference.

It will be great when it's not such a big deal when a woman gets a good job.

I hesitate to direct even though I feel I contribute a lot on a set.

As a mother trying to raise kids with some kind of a code, an honorable way to solve problems without using violence, I find it interesting to live in a country where your government is allowed to kill, whether it's war or execution. What interests me is not who deserves to die but who deserves to kill.

That's the thing about independently minded children. You bring them up teaching them to question authority, and you forget that the very first authority they question is you.

Most people are not affected by [the death penalty]. It's like how many people are actually sent to Iraq and Afghanistan? Such a small percentage.

We were friends with Jonathan Demme. We were all down on the West Side of New York, and I think I met Kurt Vonnegut through Edith Demme. And then I was lucky to do Who Am I This Time? 1982, which was an adaptation of his short story that Jonathan Demme directed with Chris Walken and I, and that really cemented the friendship.