Both my parents were actors. I was schooled to think that acting was an important social service, that it was something that human beings need.

The director's job is full of all sorts of annoyances and details - like how many cars are on the street. Ugh. I don't want it. I like my gig. And I feel that for the next 30 years or so I can keep learning more about it.

Women are usually only interesting to studio executives when they are fecund, between the ages of 15 and 30. I decided to get through the really tough patch, around 50, by just cutting my price and playing ten years older. I didn't want to have to wait until I was an old lady to play one.

I went into the family business. To me, it was the norm and not the exception.

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.

Love is as strict as acting. If you want to love somebody, stand there and do it. If you don't, don't. There are no other choices.

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