“It always gave me the creeps when I saw performers who desperately wanted the audience to like them. That’s not what I’m about.”

Being a woman in music was fine, but when I wanted to direct, I was poking my head into a man’s world.

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.

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

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.

If we insist on being as sure as is conceivable… we must be content to creep along the ground, and never soar.