I don't have a waist: I'm a breadbox on top of legs.

I'm sorry I didn't wear paint this morning. I tend not to wear it unless I'm getting highly paid.

You know, my hair is very upsetting to people, but it's upsetting on purpose. It is important to look old so that the young will not be afraid of dying. People don't like old women. We don't honor age in our society, and we certainly don't honor it in Hollywood.

I'm interested in playing old ladies because I am becoming one. And I want to become a very good one!

I was raised to be in service to something larger than myself. A lot of actors concentrate on what they will get out of the profession, rather than what they can offer it. The way I see it, if you come with something to offer, you can offer it forever.

I'm not glamorous, I don't have a look, I don't know anything about opera, I have no Italian, and I'm too old.

When you look at me you don't immediately imagine a very very glamorous icon, so it's only in the theater that I get to do these experiments. I've been an actor about 51 years now. I've played everything from an 8-year-old black boy to a 72-year-old French matriarch, and they hardly hire you to do that on TV.