“Art does not exist only to entertain, but also to challenge one to think, to provoke, even to disturb, in a constant search for truth.”

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

I prefer things that are private, so I love recording and I love making films, as a filmmaker, because it uses every bit of what you have experienced or know, whether it’s graphics composition, decorating, psychology, storytelling, or whatever it is. It’s a wonderful thing.

We cannot let the right wing roll back more than thirty years of social progress.

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.

There’s a part of you that always remains a child, no matter how mature you get, how sophisticated or weary.

It takes me about 10 years to appreciate what it is I’ve done.

Part of our society kills what it loves, despises what it’s created. It really hates success.

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

Moviemakers can be late to a subject, or afraid, but often they are brave and ahead of their time.

I need instant gratification.

Believe in the power of your voice! Be yourself. Everyone is unique.

I was a personality before I became a person.

We elected a President, not a Pope.

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 was raised on the streets, in hot, steamy Brooklyn, with stifled air.

Performing, for me, has always been a very inner process.

Every laugh is not equal. They come from different places. That’s sort of the challenge I go towards, making sure the laughs are for the reasons I want. It becomes a back and forth dance with the audience.

It’s a privilege. It’s a real honor. It’s a challenge. Michael and I always feel we stand on tall shoulders when we make these films. Audiences come to them with a lot of good will because of what’s come before.

At the end of the day, it’s a series of individual challenges played out against a team defense. It’s a psersonal test every time I step into the batter’s box: Can I do better than the last time? And that’s why I love it.

Each shooting day is a big challenge, but it’s also fun.

Sometimes the darkest challenges, the most difficult lessons, hold the greatest gems of light.

Life sometimes brings enormous difficulties and challenges that seem just too hard to bear. But bear them you can, and bear them you will, and your life can have a purpose.

The open frontier, the hardships of homesteading from scratch, the wealth of natural resources.

The challenge to the improvisor is to get permanence into his spontaneity.