Ismail Merchant was just the most seductive, passionate, outrageous, driven, genius of a man.

There's something about a catharsis that is very important.

Ismail Merchant was just the most seductive, passionate, outrageous, driven, genius of a man.

It puts you in a kind of a strange situation where everybody is looking at every little thing you do.

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.

I don't like public venues. I never know what to wear.

Bunny boiler is now part of our language, and I'm proud of that.

We were fortunate enough to have several good books detailing the camps and the women. Some were by the survivors. I also got to talk to some of the women who had been in the camp, survivors.

There are a lot of big spec houses now all across Connecticut, a lot of ostentatious showing of wealth.

Good roles are hard to find no matter what age.

I think the diva is kind of a cliche. My definition of a diva is somebody whose talent does not match what they're trying to play, so all this temperament comes out.

The best thing I have is the knife from Fatal Attraction. I hung it in my kitchen. It's my way of saying, Don't mess with me.

We have to be vulnerable as actors, but we have to protect ourselves.

I don't think the tabloids find me very interesting.

I knew the term Stepford Wife, and I knew what that meant. I never read the book, and I think before I started filming I watched the movie. I thought it was very dated.

I never got into this business thinking I'd be like a movie star.

I get bored talking about myself, but I can talk about the work.

Acting, to me, is about the incredible adventure of examining the landscape of human heart and soul. That's basically what we do.

I had a great time on The Shield. From working on it I have a totally different view of law enforcement.

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 am extremely shy. I am not happy in crowds of people.

Celebrity is death - celebrity - that's the worst thing that can happen to an actor.

It's not good to be in a situation where people don't want to direct you or don't want to question something.

You have to love the characters you play, even if no one else does.

I'm an actor, that's my contribution.

When I hear that somebody's difficult, I think, Oh, I can't wait to work with them.

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.

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.

I think there are certain actors that have that kind of energy about them, that taking over a room energy.

It is very difficult for girls. They're told to look one way, but to act another way.

As an actor, I go where the good writing is. That's the bottom line.

I had a dresser who literally squeezed me in like Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With The Wind.

When they tested Fatal Attraction, the audiences were so upset by her behavior, they literally demanded her blood.

Diva has a negative connotation.

Be aware of your inner voice and follow it, even though most of the time it will tell you the most uncomfortable path to choose.

What's so fascinating about people is what they don't show. People are masters at it; usually actors show too much.

Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain, With grammar, and nonsense, and learning, Good liquor, I stoutly maintain, Gives genius a better discerning.

Clinton's fakery was so deft and deeply ingrained that it was impossible to tell where it ended and the real Bill Clinton began. This constituted a kind of political genius.

Genius is not a possession of the limited few, but exists in some degree in everyone. Where there is natural growth, a full and free play of faculties, genius will manifest itself.

I make no claim to being a business genius. You can make so much money in this business that it loses its value.

Genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains.

Doorman - a genius who can open the door of your car with one hand, help you in with the other, and still have one left for the tip.

Doing easily what others find difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for talent is genius.

I am a genius. Then it amused me to keep saying so, but now it does not. I expected to be happy sometime. Now I know I shall never be.

Churchill was one of the few men I have met who even in the flesh give me the impression of genius. George Bernard Shaw is another. It is amusing to know that each thinks the other is overrated.

The person who figures out how to harness the collective genius of his or her organization is going to blow the competition away.

The genius of the economic machine is in its ability to convert these indulgences into profitability. It converts desire into attention, a grip on our eyeballs and eardrums, which in turn can be marketed to advertisers.

Genius is essentially creative; it bears the stamp of the individual who possesses it.

It's a pity one can't imagine what one can't compare to anything. Genius is an African who dreams up snow.