“Acting is really only part of my life. I'm addicted to it.”

“Actors are very generous.”

“For a woman who's a widow and pretty much a loner, I can walk out, and I'm surrounded by NYU kids. The energy jumps off the sidewalks, and I never feel sad or bored.”

“I don't read critics, and I don't care what they say. You can't let them steal your soul. You do what the director and production is committed to doing. I just think it's terrible that critics have the power to keep people away from a good production.”

“I feel a little guilty only being an actor.”

“I feel that its our children who do give us hope because they are the ones who are going to save the world.”

“I got to Broadway a year after I came to New York. I starred in 'Butterflies Are Free' and got a Tony for it. Right out of the gate. Maybe that's why I wasn't very gracious about it. I wasn't driven. And right after 'Butterflies Are Free', I got married and then started a family. I always wanted that.”

“I live in New York, and when you're older and widowed, it's a perfect place because you just don't feel lonely there, and, luckily, I like my own company, too.”

“I loved doing Shakespeare. My two favorite roles, in fact, have been Viola in Twelfth Night and Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream.”

“I really do like being independent, and I don't want to have to rely on anyone else to cart me around if I break a bone.”

“I think I have a lot of crazy layers.”

“I think one of my very favorite films of all time was with Peter Sellers when he played Chauncey, the gardener. Being There.”

“I try to avoid a specific image. I seek to play as many different women as I can to avoid having a label put on me.”

“I was raised in a time where children were still seen and not heard basically, so I think a lot of us in my generation went the other way and just tried to be as much more liberal and open and we're still paying for it.”

“It was in high school that I first became interested in acting. We put on lots of plays.”

“I've always just adored music. It's my first love, really. I admire and respect people in the music business. You really have to work hard and diligently. Sometimes actors can be lazy and get away with it, but you can't do that if you're a musician.”

“I've been very lucky. I wanted to be an actress, but I didn't really have the drive to sell myself. Fortunately I had a terrific agent in New York who kept me going from job to job.”

“I've kept my sanity in this business by trying out for a role and then going home and trying to forget about it.”

“Just look at my face. Its an extraordinary experience. All of my friends who are grandparents have been saying, just wait, a bit cynically, but its just extraordinary. You feel like a child again yourself. Just walking on air.”

“Maybe subconsciously I've kept activism separate from acting because it's important to me in a more profound way.”

“Mostly, I spend my time being a mother to my two children, working in my organic garden, raising masses of sweet peas, being passionately involved in conservation, recycling and solar energy.”

“My family was very musical. My brother is an opera singer; my parents both sang.”

“My theory in anything you do is to keep exploring, keep digging deeper to find new stuff.”

“Onstage or in films, you do affect peoples' lives, and sometimes that's very gratifying. But still, there's this little voice that says you should be doing something that matters.”

“Whether you're on TV or on the stage, you have to work hard to stay fresh, real, and full of energy. You can't settle back. You always have to stay on your toes.”

“You learn more discipline in the theatre than you do in movies or TV. You're on stage every night and you have to sustain your energy level tor several hours.”