“It’s very often the artist who gives a voice to the voiceless by speaking up when no one else will.”

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.

The moral immune system of this country has been weakened and attacked, and the AIDS virus is the perfect metaphor for it. The malignant neglect of the last twelve years has led to breakdown of our country’s immune system, environmentally, culturally, politically, spiritually and physically.

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

One should go to the circus, beyond any question of fashion, at least one or two times a year-I am not speaking here to the real enthusiasts, they know better than I what they have to do.

There’s been real hostility toward political poetry in the U.S., hostility or, at best, incomprehension. I’m speaking of those who have institutional power over what gets published, over grants andprizes and reviewing.

I don’t know how I’m sitting here right now speaking English.

I was speaking to Ridley Scott the other day and he makes a film every 18 months. He’s amazing really.

I dreamed of any medal, but frankly speaking, I wanted a gold one.

It is as if to say: if these are not valued – if these forms of wanting and feeling and speaking and doing – are not cultivated and encouraged and rewarded in the child, then the child will be mad.

Generally speaking, there’s a difference. Moose nose is just pure cartilage.

Dissenting opinions are useful even when they’re wrong. So instead of speaking to highly agreeable audiences, target suggestions to people with a history of originality.