Marlon Brando. The finest actor who ever lived. He was my idol when I was 13. He's done enough work to last two lifetimes. Everything I do, I think: Can Brando play this with me?

I hated singing. I wanted to be an actress. But I don't think I'd have made it any other way.

I was a personality before I became a person - I am simple, complex, generous, selfish, unattractive, beautiful, lazy and driven.

I find George Bush and Dick Cheney frightening, Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft frightening.

I'm tired of malicious articles slandering me.

I go by instinct - I don't worry about experience.

I knew that with a mouth like mine, I just hadda be a star or something.

It is every woman's dream to be some man's dream woman.

We have a president who stole the presidency through family ties, arrogance and intimidation, employing Republican operatives to exercise the tactics of voter fraud by disenfranchising thousands of blacks, elderly Jews and other minorities.

I am simple, complex, generous, selfish, unattractive, beautiful, lazy, and driven.

What is exciting is not for one person to be stronger than the other... but for two people to have met their match and yet they are equally as stubborn, as obstinate, as passionate, as crazy as the other.

Success to me is having ten honeydew melons and eating only the top half of each slice.

A man who graduated high in his class at Yale Law School and made partnership in a top law firm would be celebrated. A man who invested wisely would be admired, but a woman who accomplishes this is treated with suspicion.

You have got to discover you, what you do, and trust it.

To have ego means to believe in your own strength. And to also be open to other people's views. It is to be open, not closed. So, yes, my ego is big, but it's also very small in some areas. My ego is responsible for my doing what I do - bad or good.

I'm not that ambitious any more. I just like my privacy. I wish I really wasn't talked about at all.

The audience is the best judge of anything. They cannot be lied to. Truth brings them closer. A moment that lags - they're gonna cough.

My biggest nightmare is I'm driving home and get sick and go to hospital. I say: 'Please help me.' And the people say: 'Hey, you look like...' And I'm dying while they're wondering whether I'm Barbra Streisand.

They're called "angels" because they're in heaven until the reviews come out.

Around people I don't know, I'm totally at a loss.

I don't care what you say about me. Just be sure to spell my name wrong.

I arrived in Hollywood without having my nose fixed, my teeth capped, or my name changed. That is very gratifying to me.

I've considered having my nose fixed. But I didn't trust anyone enough. If I could do it myself with a mirror.

I wish I could be like Shaw who once read a bad review of one of his plays, called the critic and said: 'I have your review in front of me and soon it will be behind me.'

Why does a woman work ten years to change a man's habits and then complain that he's not the man she married?

Myths are a waste of time. They prevent progression.

I just don't want to be hampered by my own limitations.

What does it mean when people applaud? Should I give 'em money? Say thank you? Lift my dress? The lack of applause - that I can respond to.

How I wish we lived in a time when laws were not necessary to safeguard us from discrimination.

I've been called many names like perfectionist, difficult and obsessive. I think it takes obsession, takes searching for the details for any artist to be good.

Men are allowed to have passion and commitment for their work... a woman is allowed that feeling for a man, but not her work.

I don't enjoy public performances and being up on a stage. I don't enjoy the glamour. Like tonight, I am up on stage and my feet hurt.

There is nothing more important in life than love.

Why am I so famous? What am I doing right? What are the others doing wrong?

Most awards, you know, they don't give you unless you go and get them - did you know that? Terribly discouraging.

Marlon Brando. The finest actor who ever lived. He was my idol when I was 13. He's done enough work to last two lifetimes. Everything I do, I think: Can Brando play this with me?

Why is it men are permitted to be obsessed about their work, but women are only permitted to be obsessed about men?

Directing is so interesting. You know, it just sort of encompasses everything that you see, that you know, that you've felt, that you have observed.

I also have intense relationships with furniture... probably because we practically had none when I was growing up.

I always wear the same thing at home. I can't be bothered with jewelry. My pants have elastic waists. I like to be comfortable. There are so many more important things to worry about.

I can take any truth; just don't lie to me.

I don't like talking about myself and I don't like talking about the work.

I guess if you have an original take on life, or something about you is original, you don't have to study people who came before you. You don't have to mimic anybody. You just have a gut feeling inside, an instinct that tells you what's right for you, and you can't do it in any other way.

I just became a singer, because I could never get work as an actress.

I like simple things. Elastic waists, so I can eat.

I like to stay home a lot. I like to do other things too, like decorate or build.

I love road trips! My husband and I love that. We bought a truck with a bench seat so we could put the dog in the middle.

I must have got my detailed, obsessive streak from my father, who was an English teacher, because my mother wasn't like me at all.

I need instant gratification.