I have no desire to play most of the roles being offered.

I always thought the point was to have a bigger life, to meet more people. So I don`t understand Hollywood.

My husband says I can do anything I put my mind to, but the truth i, the only thing I want to do is act.

I learned years ago, I adore acting and I think it`s the most alive I know how to be -- almost -- but I really want a good life. I`ve been married for 17 years -- I know, they call us the last couple. I have a 13-year-old daughter. I have a lovely home life with good friends who aren`t in the business ...and I have no desire to cost my whole life in pursuit of the career alone.

I`m not very active politically. The causes I work on offer immediate, practical, accessible help, and politics has never meant that to me.

I never feel more alive than when I`m on stage. On film you feel chopped up, you can be acting from the neck up, or the hand, there is a lot of close up.

I never took to Hollywood.

The studios are no longer creative institutions. Their job is to raise a great deal of money for their shareholders, to hedge their bets about risk. All this does not spell creativity. You might as well be talking real estate. Thank goodness for the independents. Except that distribution is still controlled by the studios. So they take the first week`s profit and, after that, they don`t give a damn. They take their money and they leave. It sucks.

What makes me angry? The education of children. How in God`s name can you expect to have a functioning society the way we teach our kids?

It never occurred to me that I couldn`t change things that needed changing or couldn`t have what I wanted if I worked hard enough and was good enough.

I figured as I got older, the good roles for women would be in the theatre. So 15 years ago I started building a Broadway career to try and develop the chops to be accepted as a great theatrical actress.

I want people to like me. They don`t have to always like my characters, you understand.

I often play women who are not essentially good or likable, and I often go through a stage where I hate them. Then I end up loving and defending them.

As I traveled from one country to another, no one knew anything about me. So I could be anybody, I could speak as I wished, act as I wished, dress as I wished.

Crimes of Passion, which is one of the best films I`ve done, will live strongly in my resume, even though it didn`t do well.

This is not about abortion or the antics. This is about pro choice versus anti-choice and government intervention in a woman`s personal decisions about her life.

I have a brother who`s a psychologist. He says three-quarters of the world are born feeling that they will be affected by the world; one quarter are born knowing that they will affect the world.

I have health. I have a wonderful support system. I have the admiration of millions of strangers, which I do not underestimate.

You shouldn`t get to live in society and give nothing back. People complain about their taxes, yet they do nothing for the community. That makes me furious.

The big gap between the ability of actors is confidence.

There are still women who are not living their own lives, but living through their men or their children.

I find the idea of today`s icons being teenagers incredibly uninspiring. I think the Europeans have enough tradition and respect for the experience and body of work of an actress that they don`t sell out to the new ones.

I find the idea of today`s icons being teenagers incredibly uninspiring.

At about 40, the roles started slowing down. I started getting offers to play mothers and grandmothers.

Women are responsible for creating their own roles.

I don`t believe in simply accumulating money, but I have the luxury to say that, because I have enough for all my needs.

Being a sex symbol has to do with an attitude, not looks. Most men think it`s looks, most women know otherwise.

I know there are nights when I have that power, when I could put on something and walk in somewhere, and if there`s a man there who doesn`t look at me, it`s because he`s gay.

Then [when I was] about 40, the roles started slowing down. I started getting offers to play mothers and grandmothers. I`d say the cut-off point for leading ladies today is 35/40, whereas half the men in Hollywood get their start then. It`s a terrible double standard.

I`m very old-fashioned in some ways because of my father, who thought that being a public servant was an honor. Everyone must find a capacity in which they can serve, because we all benefit from society.

If my ego was out of whack and I believed I could carry anything off, that would be a stupid risk. But so far there`s been no reason not to try anything.

I`m not a New York snob.

When I was 20, I had so many more insecurities and looked for approbation from everyone. But by the time I was 40 and now at 50, you wake up and think, fuck you, I don`t have to prove myself any more, and that makes you sexy.

I would certainly choose my jobs depending on the actions of the character. I won`t do anything that has to do with child abuse or women`s abuse.

I`m very practical. What I`m reaching for is individualism for women.

I had a great deal of pressure to move to LA after Romancing the Stone came out and I`d become very popular. But people came to me anyway.

I do not admire young actresses whose foreheads cannot move.

I am certainly a liberal.

Get more women producers, writers, directors. Why should we expect men to do it for us? They can`t.

I think my mission is to become the greatest human I can. I know that sounds pompous, but what else do we have?

I know there are nights when I have power, when I could put on something and walk in somewhere, and if there is a man who doesn`t look at me, it`s because he`s gay.

My father was a diplomatic officer. As a diplomat`s daughter, you have to learn to present yourself very early on.

The older I get, the less I suffer fools gladly.

I think Europeans have enough tradition and respect for the experience and body of work of an actress that they don`t sell out to the new ones.

I rent houses in LA when I`m filming. I find the isolation there terrifying. There`s nowhere to go, there`s nowhere to be with people. I`m not a beach bunny.

A woman can plan when to have her family and how to support a family.

What we need is more women writers, writing for older women. There are some actresses who have production companies and create their own material, and I truly admire that.

It begins and ends with money. It`s absurd in this day and age when we need so much money for education, health, for people, that a $100 million dollars can be spent on a film. It`s obscene.

"I`m not a naturalistic actor. I believe acting is a planned process of communication. I don`t see anything naturalistic about it."

"It`s always been my first love, I never feel more alive than when I`m on stage. On film you feel chopped up, you can be acting from the neck up, or the hand, there is a lot of close up."

"I often play women who are not essentially good or likable, and I often go through a stage where I hate them. And then I find the reasons why they are that way, and end up loving and defending them."

"I feel I get recognized for my voice more than for my face."

"A woman my age is not supposed to be attractive or sexually appealing. I just get kinda tired of that."