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

If you accept limitations then, yeah, you'll be limited. If you don't accept limitations then the horizon is pretty vast.

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.

Everyone's life is a train wreck. Your life happens to be a high-class train wreck.

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.

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