Loretta Swit

Watching movies was like going to school for me. It still is. You're always learning. Even if it's bad, you're learning what not to do.

My first thought in life was wanting to be an actor. I was in ballet slippers and on pointe as soon as I could walk. I always wanted to be an actress, not a mother or housewife.

So much of life is luck. One day you make a right turn and get hit by a car. Turn left and you meet the love of your life. I think I made the correct turn.

Shirley Valentine is a beautiful character and so well written. What Shirley speaks and thinks is so logical.

We should be able to be ourselves. Make a political stand if you want to.

It wasn't so much that I was all alone on stage, but it was the realization of how much you need the response-you need the audience to tell you where to go.

My parents didn't want me to go into show business. They were afraid of what would happen if I didn't succeed. They wanted me to get married and have babies. I never saw marriage and family in my life.

I felt like I was flying without a net. But once I realized that the audience was my partner, I was flying a jet, because the people would allow me to develop the character on stage.

Animals are thinking, feeling creatures. They're sensitive.

When I went to school, I was in the same mode. I did the things I enjoyed, what I loved.

I just can't wait to get out there on stage. There's no anxiety at all. I love being able to take this journey with the audience, because we all have a ball with it - even if we're crying.

I don't think we should be deprived of the privilege of free speech.

I have certain strong interests that fill my life as well.

Everybody has their thing. I think you can always do what you like.

I love being creative in all forms.

It's never too late to go out and get that feeling back.

If you're 90 and look good in a mini-skirt, go for it. What is 'age appropriate'? Such nonsense. My mother lived to 106, so what's middle-age? Seventy is the new 50.

Acting is not hiding to me; it's revealing. We give you license to feel. 'Hey, she's crying, so it's okay if I cry, too.' That's the most important thing in the world, because when you stop feeling, that's when you're dead.

Hot Lips changed a lot in eleven years. Initially, Margaret Houlihan behaved as though a man were the only thing that could complete her life, and she didn't see what richness her life contained. She gained a lot of self-esteem through the years, and she came to realize that what she did, what she offered, was valuable.

Alan Alda is a dear friend, nothing like the cynical, bitter Hawkeye.

I don't eat or wear animals, but I never tell people not to - that's just my view.

If you care enough, you make a difference.

The pursuit of happiness is in our Constitution. We're all entitled to have the best we can.

When I left the house to become an actress, my mother literally flung her body across the door and said, 'You're killing me!' It was a very strict household. That can be okay, but there was also no nourishment, either.

M*A*S*H offered real characters and everybody identified with them because they had such soul. The humor was intelligent and it always assumed that you had an intellect.

You only know what you know.