“My mother told me I should be a secretary, but I wanted to be an actress from when I was very young.”

I hate tooting my own horn, but after Steven Spielberg saw Yentl, he said: “I wish I could tell you how to fix your picture, but I can’t. It’s the best film I’ve seen since Citizen Kane”.

I am a nice person. I care about my driver having lunch, you know.

I’ll see a celadon green room in an 18th century New Hampshire house and just fall in love. Colors stay in my head.

I only began to sing because I couldn’t get a job as an actress.

I never sing in the shower either.

Doubt can motivate you, so don’t be afraid of it. Confidence and doubt are at two ends of the scale, and you need both. They balance each other out.

A man who graduated high in his class at Yale Law School and made partnership in a top law firm would be celebrated. But a woman who accomplishes this is treated with suspicion.

The audience is the barometer of the truth.

When I sing, people shut up.

And remember, this was a president (George W. Bush) who was selected by the Supreme Court rather than the people.

They’re called ‘angels’ because they’re in heaven until the reviews come out.

I go by instinct – I don’t worry about experience.

Why is it people who want the truth never believe it when they hear it?

A large part of me is pure nebbish – plain, dull, uninteresting. There’s a more flamboyant part, too. Obviously.

I arrived in Hollywood without having my nose fixed, my teeth capped, or my name changed. That is very gratifying to me.

I also have intense relationships with furniture… probably because we practically had none when I was growing up.

At least I’m not playing other people for a change. It’s a very odd place to be… I feel I’m an actress who sings a bit.

Right now I’m the most famous silent movie actress in the world and I want to keep that for me. So I hope there’s not going to be any other silent movies.

You know, acting is very fascinating. But being an actress is not, because you become so concentrated on yourself.

I’d started going to acting classes at 14, played ‘Medea’ at 15 and really wanted to be a classical actress.

I only began to sing because I couldn’t get a job as an actress.

Basically, I have a gift as an actress, and I want to present the sophisticated side of me as an actress and a person.

Obviously, I’m not a trained actress, and right now I’ll come out and say I’m glad I’m not.

What I like about being an actress is that it keeps you feminine. Being a director and producer makes you manly and very masculine and I don’t like that quality in a woman. But I’ll do it when the film is very close to me.