- I've often been mistaken for Meryl Streep, although never on Oscar night.
- I never wanted to be a man. I feel sorry for them.
- It's gotten out of control. It's taking bigger and bigger names to make smaller and smaller films. I worry that important films without a big name attached won't get made at all.
- [on her 1984 Tony win for playing Annie in "The Real Thing"] It was the cherry on the cake for one of the great experiences of my career.
- I love the chemistry that can be created onstage between the actors and the audience. It's molecular even, the energies that can go back and forth. I started in theater. and when I first went into movies I felt that my energy was going to blow out the camera.
- [1996, on her role in Mary Reilly (1996)] I called Stephen Frears, who had directed me in Dangerous Liaisons (1988), and I said, 'C'mon, everyone from Dangerous is in this film, I want a part.' I felt left out. So he gave me the part of a bordello owner, and I thought it would take a week-go to London, have some fun, and come home. But it was hard. They wanted this Liverpudlian accent and Stephen was great, because he kept pushing me to do stuff that I didn't know how to do. The character, I think, was quite interesting. But she's in only three scenes."
- [1996, on her role in The Paper (1994)] I love Ron Howard, he's a wonderful director, incredibly prepared. But I have to criticize my performance in that movie. It all took place in one day. My character was having a bad day, so she's having a bad day throughout the whole movie. But this was a comedy, and I think I was too serious, too dense. Yes, I think that describes my failure there.
- [1996, on Dangerous Liaisons (1988)] We filmed in France and I had given birth to Annie seven weeks before we started preparing for the film. For the first time in my life, I had these great breasts. It'll never happen again, but for one brief, shining season, I had the most incredible breasts. James Acheson, the costume designer, who won the Oscar this year for Restoration (1995), did the costumes, and I just loved it because they pushed my breasts up and made me have cleavage. I guess I should be saying something more intellectual about the film, but I just remembered how great it felt to have those breasts.
- [1996, on Fatal Attraction (1987)] The original ending was a gorgeous piece of film noir. She kills herself, but makes sure that his prints are all over the knife, and he gets arrested. He knows he didn't do it, but he's going to jail anyway. But audiences wanted some kind of cathartic ending, so we went back months later and shot the ending that's in the movie now.
- When I hear that somebody's difficult, I think, Oh, I can't wait to work with them.
- Celebrity is death - celebrity - that's the worst thing that can happen to an actor.
- The best thing I have is the knife from Fatal Attraction (1987). I hung it in my kitchen. It's my way of saying, Don't mess with me.
- It is very difficult for girls. They're told to look one way, but to act another way.
- It always amazes me to think that every house on every street is full of so many stories; so many triumphs and tragedies, and all we see are yards and driveways.
- [on her Oscar-nominated role as Albert Nobbs] Albert is a survivor and I think she chose an invisible job. An invisible person chose an invisible job. In nineteenth-century Victorian times, servants weren't supposed to to look at anybody in the eye. They don't see you, they don't talk to you, you don't talk to them.
- [on bringing Albert Nobbs (2011) to the screen] I really hope it engenders a lot of conversation because I believe there are a lot of people who put on faces. We all do it, every time we walk out the door. And there are a lot of people who have to hide who they are. And I think this story speaks to that.
- All great art comes from a sense of outrage.
- What's so fascinating about people is what they don't show. People are masters at it; usually actors show too much.
- Good live theater disturbs molecules. You create an energy source around yourself and it alternates between you and the audience. Anybody who sees live theater should come out a little rearranged.
- I am extremely shy. I am not happy in crowds of people.
- You have to love the characters you play, even if no one else does.
- As an actor, I go where the good writing is. That's the bottom line.
- Acting, to me, is about the incredible adventure of examining the landscape of human heart and soul. That's basically what we do.
- The word diva has a negative connotation. My definition of a diva is somebody whose talent does not match what they're trying to play, so all this temperament comes out.
- We have to be vulnerable as actors, but we have to protect ourselves.
- I get bored talking about myself, but I can talk about the work.
- Good roles are hard to find no matter what age.
- I think there are certain actors that have that kind of energy about them, that taking over a room energy.
- I've been sacrificing my life for my work for 30 years, and now I want it the other way around. I want to find work that fits into my life and that would be based here.
- [on Bette Davis] She wasn't trying to please people. She didn't say, "Love me." She had the courage to play unattractive characters with only the hope that people understand them in the end.
- I don't have the body or the face for romantic comedies, so I've never been offered those. The challenge is that a lot of people see you only as your last character, so you're constantly competing with whatever your last movie was.
- With the hugely talented women I've worked with or observed, it's not a question about temperament or ego; it's a question about getting it right. If they've got a reputation for being difficult it's usually because they just don't suffer fools.
- I'm an actor, that's my contribution.
- It puts you in a kind of a strange situation where everybody is looking at every little thing you do.
- There's something about a catharsis that is very important.
- [on the stigma of mental illness] Change a mind and you can change a life.
- [on mental illness] It is an odd paradox that a society, which can now speak openly and unabashedly about topics that were once unspeakable, still remains largely silent when it comes to mental illness. Illnesses that were once discussed only in hushed tones are now part of healthy conversation and activism. Yet when it comes to bipolar disorder, PTSD, schizophrenia or depression, an uncharacteristic coyness takes over. We often say nothing. And so we marginalize the people who most need our acceptance. Our society ought to understand that many people with mental illness, given the right treatment, can be full participants in our society.
- What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, more unashamed conversation.
- All your life you think 60 is ancient, and all of a sudden you find you're 60 and you don't really feel that different. I feel stronger and more engaged. This is the best time of my life.
- A person can never really fail unless they give up.
- It's not good to be in a situation where people don't want to direct you or don't want to question something.
- Listen to that little voice that says, 'Mmm, I don't think so.' Because when you override that, you basically override who you are.
- I don't live in Hollywood. I try to live a quiet life. I don't go out to a lot of events, and I don't go out buying a lot of clothes.
- In some ways, gender should be irrelevant. It shouldn't matter who someone is connected to and finds love and a life with. I hope [full federal equality] will come to be a reality for the LGBT world.
- I find it quite amusing that I can frighten children by just saying, 'puppies.' Usually they're disappointed I don't actually have black and white hair.
- Learn to walk in each other's shoes. In a world that is depending more and more on screens of various sizes, don't forget to look into each other's faces. Don't forget the power of two eyes looking into two other eyes, and don't forget to listen to each other's voices.
- The Oscars for me is a huge honor to be recognized for whatever you've done, the body of work or movie you're being recognized for. But I'm not alone in my profession in thinking it's a bit crazy to say who's better than the other one because you're talking about art and artists.
- I love that I'm an honorary Doctor of Laws having just played a lawyer for five years.
- My dad was a surgeon and a very high achiever, and being an actress probably isn't a career that he had thought for me. So he actually told me that I'd better learn shorthand as a backup. I took such a course during college and I was really bad at it.
- Love makes no sense at all. But it's the most powerful and amazing force in the entire universe.
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