274 quotes found
"Off-Off-Broadway is absolutely necessary. It doesn't have to be sanctioned by the state, subsidized or anything. The plank and the passion is what it's about."
"You need friends, especially in the theatre, you need friends. You need people to interchange with, interface with, connect with. Together you’re going to make it, you’re going to do it together, you’re going to put it on, whatever it is."
"The greatest theatre that I experienced in my life was The Living Theatre and they were Off-Off-Broadway. And that was in the fifties."
"[Insomnia]’s a film that I look back on with great fondness. Working with Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank was an incredible experience. Sometimes, when people look for connections in your work, they look more at things like budget level than at the filmmaking itself. If you compare it to Oppenheimer, for example, there’s a similar attempt to try and convey the subjective experience of the protagonist. In the case of Pacino’s character, he’s suffering from a distortion of perception due to lack of sleep, and it’s not a million miles away from what I’m trying to do with showing Oppenheimer’s internal process, particularly at the beginning of the film."
"I can remember seeing the movie for the first time at a revival house in L.A. and laughing with everyone else, and never imagining that I would be doing Max one day, even though by then I had already memorized the entire movie."
"I think of myself as an actor and not a movie star. I like doing movies; I enjoy it. But, essentially, I'm a theater actor. That's the only place I feel like I actually am a star. In the theater, I can put people in the seats and sell tickets."
"I had to develop a sense of humor I'm sure it's a defense mechanism. It was, 'Before they make fun of me, I'll make a joke.' Being funny is just a point of view about life in general. Sometimes it's born out of difficult childhoods, where you have to develop a sense of humor. Ultimately, it's a gift."
"There's a freedom there and an understanding of my career and the things I've done. I'm seen here as primarily a comic actor, which is OK, but I can go to New York and I do something that's very emotional. It would be lovely at some point to do something like that on film."
"But in order for anyone to become successful, sometimes you have to be that driven and focused, and maybe there isn't a lot left over for personal relationships—although I certainly have had them. It's not as if I cut myself off, but it makes them very difficult. This profession is very hard on relationships."
"I guess there's some sort of unspoken show business rule, [speaks in British accent] 'You do the theater, and then you move into television, and then, of course, that is your steppingstone to film stardom.' I've done it every which way. I've done theater for many, many years and then had some success in films. I would do television sporadically. I thought this was a good time to try it."
"A sitcom is the closest thing for me to doing stage because you work in front of an audience, and if it's well written it can be very satisfying."
"My oldest brother used to take me to the theater. The first play he took me to see was 'Black Comedy,' then he took me to see 'Butley.' We'd see all these British plays. And 'Hello, Dolly,' with Pearl Bailey. I was unconsciously thinking, 'Gee, I would love to be able to do that.'"
"I was at a dinner party at Steve Martin's house not too long ago. Some very funny people were there - Steve, Marty Short, the whole gang. We sat around the table, like eight of us, and we laughed so hard that we were just sitting there laughing and crying. And I thought, 'This is great. This is what it's like when life is really good. Sitting around with people of that quality and that caliber, people being funny. Smart and funny.' It's great."
"I'll always go back to the stage."
"The more competition, the better. I hope to get snubbed again this year."
"Yes, I've been compared to Jackie Gleason often. I've been often compared to Lou Costello. … But after a while you start to go, 'Well, geez. Do I have a personality in there?' The funny thing about Gleason is, he always used to talk about watching Jack Oakie. And if you ever watch Jack Oakie in an old movie, it's very similar to Gleason. … I think we all steal from one another."
"There isn't anyone else like Nathan. He is able to express more in a look or a word than most actors I've ever worked with."
"I think it really is all about technique, but it's where the intersection of acting and singing sort of meets. There has to be a musicality to the delivery of a line of dialogue that gives it impact. Somebody like Nathan Lane understands that. It's in his bones really. He can deliver a line five different ways, and each one has incredible impact and intonation and rhythm."
"When Nathan read aloud one of his lines, 'I'm a lying, despicable crook, but I have no choice. I am a Broadway producer,' they all howled. And then they started to throw money at the project. They all wanted to produce the show."
"He is a theater animal who is ignited by his synergy with an audience. Audiences are only beginning to see the tip of the iceberg of what Nathan can do."
"I've seen most of Nathan's work, but it was seeing both 'Lisbon Traviata' and 'Laughter on the 23rd Floor' that I realized just what a superb physical comic he was."
"But there is a scary side to acting for me, because I have always wanted to develop rather than plateau out. When people come to me and tell me I was terrific in this or that, I do not want to fall flat on my face the next time. But, tough, I have fallen flat before. You just get up and dust yourself off."
"If we can't keep our Palestinian neighbors and Muslim neighbors alive with good water and fresh air, we'll never get them to the peace table."
"I'd have sex with a number of the Muppets. I just don't talk about it publicly. It's private. Although a hint is, that there was a character in Elmo in Grouchland who was called "My Lady" and that's all I'll say."
"It's pretty early out here in L.A., but I can guarantee it will happen today, I sure am lucky. It's better than NOT having it."
"Everything I am came from my parents. I don't take that much credit for who I am and what I am."
"I always sang at temple growing up. I got a good reaction from Mrs. Goldberg and Mrs. Rosenbaum and the other old ladies."
"No one is going to beat the crap out of me more than me."
"The truth [is] that there is only one terminal dignity — love. And the story of love is not important — what is important is that one is capable of love. It is perhaps the only glimpse we are permitted of eternity."
"One has to grow up with good talk in order to form the habit of it."
"Every human being on this earth is born with a tragedy, and it isn't original sin. He's born with the tragedy that he has to grow up. That he has to leave the nest, the security, and go out to do battle. He has to lose everything that is lovely and fight for a new loveliness of his own making, and it's a tragedy. A lot of people don't have the courage to do it."
"An actress always knows when she’s hit it and mostly you haven’t; but once or twice I think I hit it right, so maybe that’s good enough for one life."
"People who refuse to rest honorably on their laurels when they reach "retirement" age seem very admirable to me."
"If you rest, you rust."
"Actors cannot choose the manner in which they are born. Consequently, it is the one gesture in their lives completely devoid of self-consciousness."
"We are indeed a strange lot! There are times we doubt that we have any emotions we can honestly call our own. I have approached every dynamic scene change in my life the same way. When I married Charlie MacArthur, I sat down and wondered how I could play the best wife that ever was.... My love for him was the truest thing in my life; but it was still important that I love him with proper effect, that I act loving him with great style, that I achieve the ultimate in wifedom."
"The theatre demanded of its members stamina, good digestion, the ability to adjust, and a strong sense of humor. There was no discomfort an actor didn’t learn to endure. To survive, we had to be horses and we were."
"Actors work and slave — and it is the color of your hair that can determine your fate in the end."
"The flattering, if arbitrary, label, First Lady of the Theatre, takes its toll. The demands are great, not only in energy but eventually in dramatic focus. It is difficult, if not impossible, for a star to occupy an inch of space without bursting seams, cramping everyone else’s style and unbalancing a play. No matter how self-effacing a famous player may be, he makes an entrance as a casual neighbor and the audience interest shifts to the house next door."
"The old-fashioned idea that the simple piling up of experiences, one on top of another, can make you an artist, is, of course, so much rubbish. If acting were just a matter of experience, then any busy harlot could make Garbo’s Camille pale."
"Egocentrics are attracted to the inept. It gives them one more excuse for patting themselves on the back."
"Marriage is like a war. There are moments of chivalry and gallantry that attend the victorious advances and strategic retreats, the birth or death of children, the momentary conquest of loneliness, the sacrifice that ennobles him who makes it. But mostly there are the long dull sieges, the waiting, the terror and boredom. Women understand this better than men; they are better able to survive attrition."
"The worst constructed play is a Bach fugue when compared to life."
"The good die young — but not always. The wicked prevail — but not consistently. I am confused by life, and I feel safe within the confines of the theatre. O'Neil's dramas are slapstick farces, Albee's riddles are simple explanations, Pinter's threatening and threatened anti-heroes are innocent babes — next to life and the living. I cry out for order and find it only in art."
"Stardom can be a gilded slavery."
"If a person is to get the meaning of life he must learn to like the facts about himself — ugly as they may seem to his sentimental vanity — before he can learn the truth behind the facts. And the truth is never ugly."
"Supposing I was to tell you that it's just Beauty that's calling me, the beauty of the far off and unknown, the mystery and spell of the East which lures me in the books I've read, the need of the freedom of great wide spaces, the joy of wandering on and on — in quest of the secret which is hidden over there, beyond the horizon?"
"You mustn't feel sorry for me. Don't you see I'm happy at last — free — free! — freed from the farm — free to wander on and on — eternally! Look! Isn't it beautiful beyond the hills? I can hear the old voices calling me to come — And this time I'm going! It isn't the end. It's a free beginning — the start of my voyage! I've won to my trip — the right of release — beyond the horizon! Oh, you ought to be glad — glad — for my sake!"
"It's queer they'd be allowin' the sick ones to read books when I'll bet it's the same lazy readin' in the house bought the half of them down with the consumption itself."
"Irish as a Paddy's pig."
"We'd be making sail in the dawn, with a fair breeze, singing a chanty song wid no care to it. And astern the land would be sinking low and dying out, but we'd give it no heed but a laugh, and never look behind. For the day that was, was enough, for we was free men — and I'm thinking 'tis only slaves do be giving heed to the day that's gone or the day to come — until they're old like me."
"Is it one wid this you'd be, Yank — black smoke from the funnels smudging the sea, smudging the decks — the bloody engines pounding and throbbing and shaking — wid divil a sight of sun or a breath of clean air — choking our lungs wid coal dust — breaking our backs and hearts in the hell of the stokehole — feeding the bloody furnace — feeding our lives along wid the coal, I'm thinking — caged in by steel from a sight of the sky like bloody apes in the Zoo!"
"Or rather, I inherited the acquired trait of the by-product, wealth, but none of the energy, none of the strength of the steel that made it. I am sired by gold and damned by it, as they say at the race track — damned in more ways than one."
"You seem to be going in for sincerity today. It isn't becoming to you, really — except as an obvious pose. Be as artificial as you are, I advise. There's a sort of sincerity in that, you know. And, after all, you must confess you like that better."
"Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue!"
"It has been a long day. Why don't you sleep now—as you used to, remember?—for a little while."
"We have electrocuted your God. Don't be a fool."
"Don't cry. The damned don't cry."
"A credulous, religious-minded fool, as I've pointed out! And he carried his credulity into the next period of his life, where he believed in one social or philosophical Ism after another, always on the trail of Truth! He was never courageous enough to face what he really knew was true, that there is no truth for men, that human life is unimportant and meaningless. No. He was always grasping at some absurd new faith to find an excuse for going on!"
"One may not give one's soul to a devil of hate — and remain forever scatheless."
"I listen to people talking about this universal breakdown we are in and I marvel at their stupid cowardice. It is so obvious that they deliberately cheat themselves because their fear of change won't let them face the truth. They don't want to understand what has happened to them. All they want is to start the merry-go-round of blind greed all over again. They no longer know what they want this country to be, what they want it to become, where they want it to go. It has lost all meaning for them except as pig-wallow. And so their lives as citizens have no beginnings, no ends. They have lost the ideal of the Land of the Free. Freedom demands initiative, courage, the need to decide what life must mean to oneself. To them, that is terror. They explain away their spiritual cowardice by whining that the time for individualism is past, when it is their courage to possess their own souls which is dead — and stinking! No, they don't want to be free. Slavery means security — of a kind, the only kind they have courage for. It means they need not to think. They have only to obey orders from owners who are, in turn, their slaves!"
"We can begin to create new goals for ourselves, ends for our days! A new discipline for life will spring into being, a new will and power to live, a new ideal to measure the value of our lives by! … We need a new leader who will teach us that ideal, who by his life will exemplify it and make it a living truth for us — a man who will prove that man's fleeting life in time and space can be noble. We need, above all, to learn again to believe in the possibility of nobility of spirit in ourselves! A new savior must be born who will reveal to us how we can be saved from ourselves, so that we can be free of the past and inherit the future and not perish by it!"
"O Son of Man, I am Thou and Thou art I! Why hast Thou forsaken me? O Brother Who lived and loved and suffered and died with us, Who knoweth the tortured hearts of men, canst Thou not forgive — now — when I surrender all to Thee — when I have forgiven Thee — the love that Thou once took from me! … Ah! Thou hast heard me at last! Thou hast not forsaken me! Thou hast always loved me! I am forgiven! I can forgive myself — through Thee! I can believe!"
"But I suppose life has made him like that, and he can't help it. None of us can help the things life has done to us. They're done before you realize it, and once they're done they make you do other things until at last everything comes between you and what you'd like to be, and you've lost your true self forever."
"I hate doctors! They'll do anything — anything to keep you coming to them. They'll sell their souls! What's worse, they'll sell yours, and you never know it till one day you find yourself in hell!"
"It wasn't the fog I minded, Cathleen. I really love fog. It hides you from the world and the world from you. You feel that everything has changed, and nothing is what it seemed to be. No one can find or touch you any more. Its the foghorn I hate. It won't let you alone. It keeps reminding you, and warning you, and calling you back."
"How thick the fog is. I can't see the road. All the people in the world could pass by and I would never know. I wish it was always that way. It's getting dark already. It will soon be night, thank goodness."
"I haven't touched a piano in so many years. I couldn't play with such crippled fingers, even if I wanted to. For a time after my marriage I tried to keep up my music. But it was hopeless. One-night stands, cheap hotels, dirty trains, leaving children, never having a home — [She stares at her hands with fascinated disgust.] See, Cathleen, how ugly they are! So maimed and crippled! You would think they'd been through some horrible accident! [She gives a strange little laugh.] So they have, come to think of it. [She suddenly thrusts her hands behind her back.] I won't look at them. They're worse than the foghorn for reminding me — [Then with defiant self-assurance.] But even they can't touch me now. [She brings her hands from behind her back and deliberately stares at them — calmly.] They're far away. I see them, but the pain has gone."
"It kills the pain. You go back until at last you are beyond its reach. Only the past when you were happy is real."
"I'm as drunk as a fiddler's bitch."
"Yes, I remember. I fell in love with James Tyrone and was so happy for a time"
"What the hell was it I wanted to buy, I wonder, that was worth—Well no matter. It's a late day for regrets."
"Interviewing Eugene O'Neill is like extracting testimony from a reluctant witness. In fact, to use the word "interview" in connection with him is to employ almost a misnomer. Certainly it is an inapplicable designation. An interview presupposes a colloquy. A flow of words between two persons. Nothing more erroneous could be circulated about [him]. ... Silence. Silence. More questions, probings, attempts to secure opinions, statements, anything but monosyllables. Futility! Suddenly, I am overcome with a sense of the ridiculous. Here are two people whose very careers oppose this sort of conduct. A playwright who deals in words. A writer who juggles them daily. Sitting across from each other in silence, apparently overcome with shyness."
"Not artifice, nor any solacing reason could mediate the authority of his private pain."
"It was all completely incomprehensible to me. I was fearful of the language. You had to look up every third word."
"Nobody sees the same movie. I'm sure there are people who saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and thought "Finally a gay movie about men who really care about each other. Thank God!" That's not what I saw necessarily — but I don't think any two people see the same movie."
"Don't kiss a man who hasn't shaved."
"I hate being the subject of photographs."
"That's not girth. That's a para-umbilical hernia."
"I've always hated the way I looked, and I've never complained about my brains."
"I was a French Quarter rat from the moment I could get on a bus by myself and go to the French Quarter. I played music most of my early life and it just seemed that to entertain people was a really good thing to do."
"Mostel: If I appeared there, what if I did an imitation of a butterfly at rest? There is no crime in making anybody laugh. I don't care if you laugh at me. Congressman Jackson: If your interpretation of a butterfly at rest brought any money into the coffers of the Communist Party, you contributed directly to the propaganda effort of the Communist Party. Mostel: Suppose I had the urge to do the butterfly at rest somewhere? Congressman Doyle: Yes, but please, when you have the urge, don't have such an urge to put the butterfly at rest by putting some money in the Communist Party coffers as a result of that urge to put a butterfly at rest."
"There's a kind of silliness in the theater about what one contributes to a show. The producer obviously contributes the money... but must the actor contribute nothing at all? I’m not a modest fellow about those things. I contribute a great deal. And they always manage to hang you for having an interpretation. Isn’t [the theater] where your imagination should flower? Why must it always be dull as shit?"
"I've never been passionate about acting, and I find more and more that I work to live the life I want to live. An actor like Al Pacino lives to act. I'm not sure though, there's something about the detachment I have, the feeling of the lack of importance about what I do, that is healthy."
"The movie industry is run by accountants in Hollywood and it's as simple as this; everyone has a number on their computer. They can look up Jeremy Irons and see what my last five movies have made. Say you want to make a $20m picture, which is relatively cheap. If Jeremy makes $9m, the director makes $5m, then you need a leading lady, and they just go through those figures - that's how casting happens. And none of my movies has made a lot of money."
"I'm a very difficult person. My wife's a very difficult person. Living together is difficult but all marriages are the same - desperately difficult. … I can't imagine letting a marriage go unless it's intolerable. Every time you get through a difficulty, the bond is stronger. If you're lucky enough to get to a stage where you have been together a long time, your lives are so intertwined. I think being polite and kind to each other is terribly important. That, more than anything, can go a huge way in relationships."
"I think that there is this idea that what you should go after is fame. That is a hugely mistaken idea because fame means absolutely nothing. This whole culture of wanting to become famous is on a hiding to nothing, a sign of a society that’s lost its way and will only judge people as being valid if they’re famous, which of course is all bullshit. As Tom Stoppard said, the only thing that fame means is that more people know you than you know.”"
"Most people are robust. If a man puts his hand on a woman's bottom, any woman worth her salt can deal with it. It is communication. Can't we be friendly?"
"God felt sorry for actors, so he gave them a place in the sun and a lot of money. All they had to sacrifice was their talent."
"He was a great influence on me. I don't know what happened to him. I think he failed and went to America."
"I love you, A bushel and a peck, A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck. Hug around the neck and a barrel and a heap, Barrel and a heap and I'm talking in my sleep."
"I'd love to get you on a slow boat to China, All to myself, alone. Get you and keep you in my arms evermore, Leave all your lovers weeping on the far away shore."
"Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition And we'll all stay free. Praise the Lord and swing into position Can't afford to sit around a-wishin' Praise the Lord, we're all between perdition And the deep blue sea."
"I've got spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle, As I go riding merrily along. And they sing, "Oh, ain't you glad you're single?" And that song ain't so very far from wrong."
"The producer orders a certain title. The musical director orders a certain rhythm. The dance director orders a certain number of bars. And the composer orders a certain number... of aspirin. [on working in Hollywood]"
"No, they've got no time for glory in the Infantry. No, they've got no use for praises loudly sung, But in every soldier's heart in all the Infantry Shines the name, shines the name of Rodger Young."
"On the island of New Georgia in the Solomons, Stands a simple wooden cross alone to tell That beneath the silent coral of the Solomons, Sleeps a man, sleeps a man remembered well."
"If you want a title, what's wrong with Mr? If you have always been that, then why lose your title? I have a title, which is the same one that I have always had. But it's not political. I have a CBE, which I accepted very gratefully."
"I found at this point that effective acting wasn't what I wanted to do, that I didn't want to make effects, that I wanted, as it were, to leave an impression of a particular kind of human being."
"King Lear is undoubtedly the greatest play ever written by Shakespeare — or anybody else for that matter. Hamlet is certainly great, but it doesn't contain as many elements of humanity as we see in Lear."
"As an actor I don't admit to any limitations. In rehearsal one comes up against apparently insuperable barriers, but if one can imaginatively get past them, overreach one's natural reach, it is astonishing how elastic one can become. I've got to go not so far as I can, but as far as is needed. It's up to somebody else to say if I've made a fool of myself."
"Oh, I suppose my wife and I will open a bottle of champagne with another couple."
"I decided a long time ago I didn’t want to be a star personality and live my life out in public. I don’t think it’s a good idea to wave personality about like a flag and become labeled."
"As you get older, the more you know, so the more nervous you become. The risks are much bigger."
"It isn't difficult to leave King Lear or Macbeth, but once you have gone back to yourself, you want it to be the same self you have always been."
"Privacy is not negotiable."
"I feel incredibly lucky to have discovered early in my life, practically when I was a child, that I could do something that in the end I finally wanted to do all my life. It has something to do with being completely removed from oneself, which doesn't necessarily mean one is uncomfortable inside oneself. It just means it's a great relief to be inhabiting somebody else. It can be a tremendously liberating sensation."
"I've found that an actor's work has life and interest only in its execution. It seems to wither away in discussion and becomes emptily theoretical and insubstantial. It has no rules except perhaps audibility. With every play and every playwright the actor starts from scratch as if he or she knows nothing and proceeds to learn afresh every time, growing with the relationships of the characters and insights of the writer. When the play has finished its run the actor is empty until the next time...and it is the emptiness which is, I find, apparent in any discussion of theatre work."
"Beneath the gentle modesty of his behavior lay the absolute assurance of a born artist."
"He brought you face to face with the unfathomable. No actor summoned with such authority the mysterious depths of human experience."
"The only great actor I have worked with who was not in any sense a star — there was no great publicity about him, no scandal about him, none of the attitude to stardom."
"Eighty percent of married men cheat in America. The rest cheat in Europe."
"just as a racist remark by Jackie Mason does not reveal the inherent racism of all Jews, let us not assume that an anti-Semitic remark by Leonard Jeffries, or by ten Leonard Jeffries, reveals the heart of the African American community. We need to recognize the destructive role played by the media in fanning the flames of the "Black-Jewish Conflict.""
"Take care of him. And make him feel important. And if you can do that, you'll have a happy and wonderful marriage…Like two out of every ten couples."
"And so she lived ... hopefully ... ever after."
"Money brings some happiness. But after a certain point, it just brings more money."
"You're welcome to take a bath. You look like the second week of the garbage strike."
"If I had to make one comparison, I'd say that when it's five below in New York, it's 78 in Los Angeles, and when it's 110 in New York, it's 78 in Los Angeles; but there are 2,000,000 interesting people in New York–and only 78 in Los Angeles. There may be a hell of a lot more, but it's hard to find them."
"People with honorary awards are looked upon with disfavor. Would you let an honorary mechanic fix your brand-new Mercedes?"
"Everyone thinks they can write a play; you just write down what happened to you. But the art of it is drawing from all the moments of your life."
"A writer without confidence is like a metaphor without something to compare itself to."
"If you can go through life without ever experiencing pain you probably haven't been born yet. And if you've gone through pain and think you know exactly why, you haven't examined all the options."
"Neil Simon strikes me less as the new Moliere than as a rattier Rattigan."
"She was not an easy woman to categorize or to explain. If I´ve ever known anyone in my life, man or woman, who was unique, it was she. There was nobody like her before or since. Never will be. In every way. In talent, in looks, in character, in temperament. Everything. There sure wasn't anybody who didn't fall under her spell."
"I've been close to Bette Davis for thirty-eight years - and I have the cigarette burns to prove it."
"The part never calls for it. And I've never ever used that excuse. The box office calls for it."
"At 70 years old, if I could give my younger self one piece of advice, it would be to use the words "fuck off" much more frequently."
"Collaboration is being open to each other's ideas and benefiting from each other's perspectives in an open way. Collaboration is all about rewriting and rewriting and rewriting and helping each other to constantly improve a piece. And, it's also about spurring each other on to doing great, hard work — it's easier to do it in a collaboration than on your own."
"Having a tradition is a great thing to work within, and maybe today [it] is the only way to land musically dramatic work."
"First of all I'd like to thank my collaborator Howard Ashman who encouraged me to take the opportunity to compose my first film score with "The Little Mermaid." Thank you for your support, Howard. I'd like to thank all the people at Disney: Jeffrey Katzenberg, Roy Disney, Peter Schneider and Maureen Donley. Our outstanding directors: John Musker, Ron Clements. And thanks to a great music department: my orchestrator Thomas Pasatieri, conductor J.A.C. ["Jack"] Redford, music editor Kathy Bennett, recording engineer John Richards, supervisors Chris Montan and Andy Hill. Special thanks to my manager Scott Shukat and my wife Janis. And Academy members, thank you."
"(Howard Ashman:I won't do fish jokes, just say a couple thank yous. At Disney to Jeff Katzenberg, Peter Schneider. To Sam Wright, who sang the song, all the words. Mostly though to John Musker and Ron Clements whose movie "Little Mermaid" really is. At William Morris there's Don Aslan, Mike Peretzian and my beloved Esther Sherman. And at home there's my mom, there's my sister, there's Nancy, and Bill. I feel really lucky. Thank you.) Thanks to the musical team that worked on the songs: Robby Merkin, Thomas Pasatieri, and J.A.C. ["Jack"] Redford in particular. Thank you. And thank you to the Academy."
"On behalf of all the composers I want to thank Debbie Allen for that [referring to the production number]. That was just great. I'd like to thank the members of the Academy, in particular the members of the Music Branch, for this honor. At Disney I want to thank Jeffrey Katzenberg, Roy Disney, Peter Schneider, our producer Don Hahn, our directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, and our brilliant animators. And I can't say enough about my music team. My orchestrator Danny Troob, conductor David Friedman, recording engineers John Richards, Michael Farrow, Bruce Botnick. Many thanks to the Disney music department, Chris Montan, Andy Hill. My music editor Kathy Bennett. My love and thanks to Janis, Anna and Nora. My mom and dad. My manager Scott Shukat. And most of all, I thank my late partner and friend, Howard Ashman. Howard, I wish you could have seen the finished product. I wish you could have heard the completed score. I know you would have been proud. Thank you."
"On behalf of Howard, I know if he were here he would want to thank Angela Lansbury for her incomparable performance of the song in the movie as "Mrs. Potts," and also Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson for their performance. Also thanks to Walter A. and Robbie Buchanan for their work on the single. And accepting for Howard will be Bill Lauch. (Bill Lauch: Thanks, Alan. Howard and I shared a home and a life together and I'm very happy and very proud to accept this for him. But it is bittersweet. This is the first Academy Award given to someone we've lost to AIDS. In working on "Beauty and the Beast" Howard faced incredible personal challenges but always gave his best. And what made that possible was an atmosphere of understanding, love and support. That's something everyone facing AIDS not only needs, but deserves. There's an inscription at Howard's grave in Baltimore. It reads, "O, that he had one more song to sing." We'll never hear that song, but I'm deeply grateful for this tribute you've given to what he left behind. For Howard, I thank you.)"
"(Tim Rice: Thank you very much. I'd like to thank everybody in the Academy who voted for me, especially Alan. And I'd like to pay tribute to two great lyricists. One, of course, is Howard Ashman. I'm extremely lucky to be standing in his shoes. I know he'd be here today if he were still alive. And the other is the great Sammy Cahn, who is my inspiration for many years. And it's great to be working with Alan, and my thanks to everybody at Disney.) A couple of thanks. Thanks to Lea Salonga and Brad Kane, and thanks to Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle. And of course Walter Afanasieff and Robert Buchanan, for creating a beautiful record. And thank you, Chris Montan, for never giving up on this song. Thank you."
"I've been very fortunate to work with a studio like Disney that really values music. And that attitude starts at the top, and I want to thank Jeffrey Katzenberg and Roy Disney and Michael Eisner for making my work possible. "Aladdin" was a major transition for me from my longtime collaborator and friend Howard Ashman to a new role and new songwriting partner in Tim Rice. As always I was blessed with great support from my music team: Danny Troob and David Friedman, from Chris Montan and Andy Hill, Bruce Botnick, Michael Farrow and Kathy Bennett. From Peter Schneider, John Musker, Ron Clements, Amy Pell and Don Ernst. I owe a debt of thanks to all of them and to the brilliant animators, musicians, singers and actors who made "Aladdin" so spectacular and magical. Scott Shukat, my family, my wife Janis, and Anna and Nora, my love and thanks. And to the members of the Academy, thank you very, very much."
"Well, a lot of time and effort and collaboration went into the score of "Pocahontas." I have a lot of people to thank and not a lot of time to thank them. So I want to thank my music team. My orchestrator Danny Troob, synth[?] arranger Martin Erskine, my music editor Kathy Bennett, engineer John Richards. My thanks to Chris Montan, Tod Cooper, our directors Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg, our producers, Jim Pentecost, my Disney family past and present. Time doesn't permit me to say all their names but I particularly want to thank Peter Schneider and Tom Schumacher and all the brilliant singers, musicians and technicians whose talents made "Pocahontas" sing. And thank you, Academy members."
"Well, thank you, Vanessa Williams, and thank you, Judy Kuhn, for your wonderful performances of the song, and Robbie Buchanan for a wonderful production of the single -- for arrangement of the single and Keith Sonnet for production. Stephen... (Stephen Schwartz: We want to express our appreciation to members of the Academy. Our deep gratitude to our colleagues at Disney, past and present. And I want to acknowledge my personal debt to the Native American poets and wisdom keepers who inspired my work on this project, most particularly in the case of this song, Chief Seattle. Thank you very much.)"
"My experience with first-time directors is that they’re all extremely prepared, because I guess they’re worried. They spend weeks preparing everything, and they have to get used to the fact that once you get there, everything goes wrong and you have to make everything up."
"Old age isn't so bad when you consider the alternative."
"My corn I take serious because it's my corn, and my potatoes and my tomatoes and fences I take note of because they're mine. But this war is not mine and I take no note of it!"
"There's nothing much I can tell you about this war. It's like all wars, I suppose. The undertakers are winning it. Oh, the politicians will talk a lot about the "glory" of it, and the old men'll talk about the "need" of it—the soldiers, they just want to go home."
"'If you're very tall it's not just rude boys who feel entitled to pass remarks. Perfect strangers in pubs are always coming up and saying, "Me and my friends are just having a bet. Just how tall are you?" Women to whom one has just been introduced think that it breaks the ice if they scream, "Goodness, you're tall!' How would they like it if I broke the ice first, by screaming, "Goodness, what thick ankles!" or "Goodness what a bust!"
"That is the most wonderful training an actor can have. If you can speak Shakespeare, you can speak anything. And it gives you complete poise and grace of movement."
"I don’t know the why of anything, even when I pretend most diligently I do. The truth is the last time I had any idea why or what I was supposed to do I was lying in a shell hole, looking up at the sky. My mind was filled with a Bach keyboard sonata , which was one of the last I’d learned, I forget which one now. I absolutely knew I was about to die and I was completely happy and at peace, in a way I never was before or since, not even with you, in our best moments. It was so easy, you see, a kind of absolute joy and peace, because I knew it was all done and I was all square with life. Nothing left to do but let things take their course. And when I didn’t die, I didn’t know what to do. So I thought, I’ll take my revolver, go out and blow a hole through my head. Only I knew it wouldn’t work. I knew, I just knew you couldn’t do it that way. You couldn’t make it happen, not if you wanted to find peace. So, I thought, then, a sniper can do it for me. But no matter how I tried to let them no sniper ever found me. And all the other times I went out and lay in shell holes in No Man’s Land it wasn’t the same, and I knew I wouldn’t die this time, and of course I never did. I had this mad feeling I’d become some sort of Wandering Jew. And everything for so long afterwards was about dragging this living corpse of myself around, giving it things to do, because here it was, alive. And nothing made any sense and I didn’t even hope it would. I followed paths that were there to be followed, I did what others said to do."
"I came back sophomore year and decided to do some shows because I did one small play senior year of high school and I had a lot of fun. I had one line, I think. I did an audition for a show; it was experimental theater and we had a great time. For my second show, I had a great role and a great time and my aunt came to see the show. I’m doing shows just to meet folks at this point, so that I could figure out what I want to do. When she saw the show, she said, “You know what? You may want to think about this as a career! You’re really good!”"
"My family was all about education, and me being there was a combination of my parents instilling in my sister and I that this was the ticket to wherever you want to go in life—education. And that’s what I tell my children: You’ve got to work now, play later. You’ve got to get to the place where when you’re a senior in high school, you’ve got choices; you’ve got to put in the work."
"I don’t think there is a secret. We definitely didn’t find it. We discovered that it’s work. But we already knew that. It was very fun to actually walk through our time together and see the timeline presented. When we started the process, we didn’t really think we had a book. But in that sense, it was fun to actually have someone to walk us through so that we didn’t have to try to put a framework to it since we didn’t know what the framework was. But from talking to [co-author Hilary Beard] together and individually, she was able to say, “This is actually a book.” We didn’t start out to write a 300-page book. We started out with something much simpler and it morphed into that. It was fun to be able to talk about our journey together, because that’s what it is, it is a journey."
"I’m not particularly fond of watching myself act. I think because my roots are in the stage that the joy for me is the act of doing it. The joy for me is not sitting down and watching me do it. I’m so critical of myself. I’d sit and watch myself in a scene, maybe one in which I’m just in the background, and think, “What are you doing back there, Rene? Why are you doing that? Why didn’t you just stand still? Shut up. What’s the matter with you?”"
"There's a moment in one scene of the new film where tears almost appear in his eye. These are crocodile tears, but for all those in the movie, and perhaps watching the movie itself, they'll see he is apparently moved -- and of course, he is. He can just do it. He can, as it were, turn it on. And I suppose for him, it's also a bit of a turn-on -- the pure exercise of power is what he's all about. That's the only thing he's interested in and the only thing that can satisfy him -- which makes him completely fascinating to play, because it is an evil soul."
"To have been chosen when you're in your thirties to play someone who's 120, and then to find when you were in your early fifties you were going to play the same character at your then-age, that is, in your early fifties, in fact I don't think I've come out of the trauma. But the interesting think about that it's an absolutely unique challenge for an actor; I can't think of anyone who's been asked to do that, or indeed been given the opportunity, and I'll always be grateful for that."
"It is impossible to maintain one's composure in this situation. What am I doing here? — especially considering the extraordinary group of women with whom I was nominated. We five women were fortunate to have the choice, not just the opportunity but the choice, to play such rich, complex female characters. And I congratulate producers like Working Title and Polygram for allowing directors to make autonomous casting decisions based on qualifications and not just market value. And I encourage writers and directors to keep these really interesting female roles coming — and while you're at it you can throw in a few for the men as well."
"We are a bunch of hooligans and anarchists but we do clean up nice. I want to thank every single person in this building. And my sister Dorothy. I love you, Dot. And I especially want to thank my clan, Joel and Pedro "McCoen." These two stalwart individuals were well-raised by their feminist mother. They value themselves, each other and those around them. I know you are proud of me and that fills me with everlasting joy. And now I want to get some perspective. If I may be so honored to have all the female nominees in every category stand with me in this room tonight, the actors — Meryl, if you do it, everybody else will, c'mon — the filmmakers, the producers, the directors, the writers, the cinematographer, the composers, the songwriters, the designers. C'mon! Okay, look around everybody. Look around, ladies and gentlemen, because we all have stories to tell and projects we need financed. Don't talk to us about it at the parties tonight. Invite us into your office in a couple days, or you can come to ours, whatever suits you best, and we'll tell you all about them. I have two words to leave with you tonight, ladies and gentlemen: "inclusion rider.""
"I just found out about this last week. There is — has always been available to all — everybody … that does a negotiation on a film, an "inclusion rider" which means that you can ask for and/or demand at least 50 percent diversity in not only the casting, but also the crew. And so, the fact that we — that I just learned that after 35 years of being in the film business … we're not going back. So the whole idea of women "trending" — no. No "trending". African Americans "trending" — no. No "trending". It changes now, and I think the inclusion rider will have something to do with that."
"I don't show up all the time. I only show up when I can and when I want to, but I was there at the Golden Globes and it's almost like there was an arc that started there. It doesn't end here. But I think publicly — as a commercial (because that's what we are, this is not a — this is not — this is not a novel — this is a TV show after all) — but I think that the message that we're getting to send to the public is that we're going to be one of the small industries that try to make a difference."
"We’re avant-garde. It doesn’t mean we have to be unhygienic."
"I was never that involved in the machine of press and publicity as an actor because I’ve always kind of worked on the margins of my profession … And then when my son was younger and it did get a little bit more intrusive, I tried to come to terms with how I was personally going to handle someone coming up to me on the street and wanting some part of my time. … Now what I do — because this is how I live — when someone approaches me and says, "Can I have your autograph," I say: "No, I’ve retired from that part of the business. I just act now." … I say: "What’s your name?" … I touch them. I look at them. I have a real exchange … I’m not an actor because I want my picture taken. I’m an actor because I want to be part of the human exchange."
"My politics are private, but many of my feminist politics cross over into my professional life. Because I portray female characters — so I have the opportunity to change the way people look at them. Even if I wasn’t consciously doing that, it would happen anyway, just because of how I present as a woman, or as a person. I present in a way that’s not stereotypical, even if I’m playing a stereotypical role. … I can’t subtract that from myself anymore. I could when I was younger. … That’s another great thing about getting older. Your life is written on your face."
"Its way overdue but at least its happening and I couldn’t be more happy —and to see all those women who had been nominated or had won standing up in the audience — it was a very smart thing for her to do."
"Frances McDormand, or Fran, as she is called in regular life, cuts a handsome figure on the street. She is 60 and sexy in the manner of women who have achieved total self-possession. She eschews makeup unless she is working, doesn’t dye her hair and despises the nips, tucks and lifts that have become routine for women of her profession. Her clothes are well made — she loves clothes — but utilitarian and comfortable. … Over the course of her 36-year career, McDormand has played women who are attractive but rarely beautiful, magnetic but thorny — and, she notes, they’re usually the supporting player in a man’s story. To this day she is best known for Marge, but Marge had much less screen time than people remember. Her slightly daffy good-heartedness serves as the foil for the murderous men who occupy most of Fargo … In the last 10 years, something shifted for McDormand: Right as she hit the age when most actresses begin disappearing for lack of roles or moving to the edges of story lines, she moved to first billing. For decades, she excelled at the work of embroidering the lives of women who aren’t deemed appealing enough to watch for two hours straight, and rather than aging into a different acting type, she has taken it upon herself to put peripheral women at the center."
"I think it was the ability of the theater to communicate ideas and extol virtues that drew me to it. And also I was, and remain, fascinated by the idea of an audience as a community of people who gather willingly to bear witness. A novelist writes a novel and people read it. But reading is a solitary act. While it may elicit a varied and personal response, the communal nature of the audience is like having five hundred people read your novel and respond to it at the same time. I find that thrilling."
"Jazz in itself is not struggling…That is, the music itself is not struggling. It and the baseball history you talk about are two anchors of the African American cultural community. It’s the attitude that’s in trouble. My plays insist that we should not forget or toss away our history."
"The real struggle has been since Africans first set foot on the continent, an affirmation of the value of one’s self. And I think if, in order to participate in American society, in order to accomplish some of the things which the black middle class has accomplished, if you have had to give up that self in order to accomplish that, then you are not making an affirmation of the value of the African being. You are saying that in order to do that I must become someone else, I must become like someone else…"
"You gotta write women like… they can’t express ideas and attitudes that women of the feminist movement in the sixties made. Even though I’m aware of all that, you gotta be very careful if you’re trying to create a character like that, that they don’t come up with any greater understanding of themselves and their relationship to the world than women had at that time. As a matter of fact, all my characters are at the edge of that, they pushing them boundaries, they have more understanding. I had to cut back and say, “These are feminist ideas.” My mother was a feminist, though she wouldn’t express it that way. She don’t know nothing about no feminist woman and whatnot but she didn’t accept her place. She raised three daughters, and my sisters are the same way. So that’s where I get my women from. I grew up in a household with four women…"
"A houseboat is my speed, I’m usually frightened in anything that moves. A rougher than expected trip up the Hudson with friends this summer, scared the hell out of me. But I still haven’t learned how to stop it."
"Family is the best thing I’ve ever had. My family is my life. There’s something primitive in your feeling about family,"
"You have to know the insane odds, but you have to have the energy to buck them. You don't know if you're going to get a job anyway, so why give yourself the extra added handicap of dying if you don't play St. Joan?"
"I want to thank Troy, N.Y. … and everybody I ever met in my entire life."
"I figure you're a successful actress only when you don't have to work."
"Not nearly as exciting as it would be if I were acknowledged as one of the greatest lays in the world."
"There are many roads to good acting, I've been asked repeatedly what the key to acting is, and as far as I'm concerned, the main thing is to keep the audience awake."
"Cast throughout her career in supporting roles, Stapleton was content not playing a lead character, I don't think she ever had unrealistic aspirations about her career."
"It was really a good way to audition, because it’s more of what I think the experience of auditioning should be, which is more exploratory, not a presentation. You’re in the room with the director, so you may as well work, and he may as well direct you. That’s what we did."
"Usually the actor learns them during the day. But as an actress, I have never had a sigh of consternation when I get something complicated. You know how it is when you feel used in a good way."
"If someone doesn’t hand it to you, you start barking order like you’re a real doctor. It’s good because you get in the moment, but if you think about it, the pressure to do a good job no matter what your job is is enormous. Pressure is pressure, and it increases when it’s pressure to make sure someone doesn’t die."
"That’s where the blur occurs, and it’s a wonderful blur, being an actor. A scene in the lounge, a scene in the hallway, a scene where you’re just talking is always a really great place to go to. It’s like the ribbon after running a race."
"Being aware of what the signs are and courageously choosing to get a diagnosis can either bring you relief you don't have it or it can give you opportunity and the gift of time."
"I want my audience to relate to the moments when we’re not the hero — when we think we’re cowards. I think that’s what audiences relate about in me. I’m the toughest person on myself ever."
"Alzheimer’s is a thief, a cowardly thief because it sneaks in and steals your mind. With my mother, it was literally a realization that it could happen to anybody. She was the poster child of what to do not to get Alzheimer’s. She never drank, never smoked, ate well, exercised, was mentally active."
"As for being a single mom, there’s a lot to be said about being single. It’s really wonderful. I do have a hard time making time for other people because I’m lucky that I love my work and also love going home and making jam with my kids."
"In the early 1980s, fresh out of college with a major in theater, my plan was to work odd jobs and audition in Washington."
"I’ve never seen a television show that was going to cover this kind of thing and it was this scary, exciting time of exploration and battle."
"We’ve just gotten all really crafty. I got into making soaps, my son made a dress, my daughter made a skirt. We’re baking. We’re Harry Potter addicts so we’re building lego things. We’re just doing whatever we can to stay creative and stay busy."
"She’s incredible. Her talent and her body of work is incredible. She’s one of the most incredibly generous people I’ve ever met in everyday life."
"The phone rang. It was the doctor. He said, “Mrs. Dahl, ’s dead [from measles]. Did you hear me? I said Olivia is dead.” I said, yes, thank you. I couldn’t believe how cold he was. came back from the hospital and he cried. Oh, he cried. He had seen her dead. I unfortunately never did. My sisters-in-law talked me out of it. I wish they hadn’t. I stayed up that first night just looking out the window. Your love is dead, and the sun still comes up. It’s just so sad."
"I was the strong one at that point. I don’t want to brag about myself, but I’ve never seen anything like it. Roald really almost went crazy. I held everything together. I cooked all day and went on. Of course 34 years ago anything like a survivors’ support group was virtually unheard of. You had to pull yourself together. I loved Olivia, loved her, but my God, I had two more children. I had to go on."
"Over the years, I found that talking about Olivia helped immeasurably. Roald... couldn’t say a word. It was locked inside him."
"Part of my healing came by having another child. No one could replace Olivia, but a new child would begin to heal the emptiness. In a letter to my doctor in California soon after Olivia’s death, I wrote, “I absolutely believe in a soul. And I long to let her go, to free her and hope she will be born again to me.” Two years later, was born and a year after that, ."
"Over the years, I did other things to help keep Olivia’s memory alive, donating a silver cup to her school each year to be awarded to the best high jumper, as she was in 1962. And when I played Olivia Walton in the TV film that preceded The Waltons television series, I insisted that my character’s name not be changed to “Mary” as the producers wanted."
"I keep a few mementos of Olivia around the house. One is a letter that she wrote when she was about 6 to a family friend. It says, “Dear Sheila, Thank you for the bubbly gum. I hope you are well. The bubbly was the most exciting present I ever had and I can blow bubbles... Love, Olivia. XXXXX.” That’s my Olivia. Isn’t she a honey of a girl?"
"You have to raise your child the way your child needs to be raised."
"The worst you can do is believe yourself to be any more than what you actually are."
"Just believe in who you are. Period."
"And if you really believe in your heart of hearts that you have the talent, go for it."
"It means the world that there is a universe in which these kinds of stories are able to attract interest and wide viewership where we are centering the experiences of not just Southeast Asian people, but it's Southeast Asian women."
"And now for me to come in as a woman from Southeast Asia, as a woman from the Philippines, and kind of getting into this mix, it's just one episode, but it's like, it's nice to be able to center women's stories and the stories of women of color."
"And it's incredibly empowering to be a part of something like this."
"You have to raise your child the way your child needs to be raised, where they are, no matter their background or identity. Literally any kid. Queer or otherwise."
"As a parent, I want to set my child up for success. I want my child to feel safe and strong and ready to conquer the world on their own terms."
"I was really concerned with how conservative audiences in the Philippine were going to take it, because my career up at that point was just very wholesome. And I was a child entertainer, performer. I was about to turn the page in a really big way. Because back home actors especially actresses you were really either wholesome or really not. There was no gray area"
"My first job, my first time in front of a paying audience, first time to get paid for work. I don't remember the paycheck being anything big (it's theater, meaning it wasn’t) but I loved the experience so much!"
"Musical theater is quite an unpredictable, sometimes think-on-your-feet type of art form. I’ve learned how to raise a child who is their own being. I mean, there are obviously expectations. I’m glad this kid can cook and do his own laundry and doesn’t forget to feed the cat."
"But the one thing I’ve learned is that you have to raise your child the way your child needs to be raised."
"Just now woke up to this bit of amazing news!"
"My son and every single trans kid out there, they are bravely trying to navigate the world as who they are, despite an environment that seems hostile to their existence, so I have to lift up every single kid that has to do this."
"It’s important for me to speak up for kids like my own kid, because trans folks are being erased, as if their existence never happened. But trans folks have been around forever."
"The only thing that trans folks, any LGBT person wants, is to exist and to live and to love in the way that they were born to. Full stop…"
"The one thing I’ve learned is that you have to raise your child the way your child needs to be raised… As a parent I want to set my child up for success. I want my child to feel safe and strong and ready to conquer the world on their own terms."
"Playing her again 30 years later is going to be illuminating."
"This is the most precious human being in my little world. The one who captured my heart from the word go. The one that made me realize how insignificant my life was, until that initial piercing cry at 12:12 PM on May 16, 2006."
"With each step into adulthood, my heart grows in ways I couldn’t have predicted. That he is, with honesty and courage, growing into who he’s meant to be makes me incredibly proud."
"This is my 18-year-old. My artistic, sensitive, creative, smart, beautiful, affectionate, loving, incredible 18-year-old. I’m beyond blessed and fortunate to call this one mine."
"I'm here in this very strange country with a culture that's so very different from mine. I need to hang on to a little bit of home to not go insane."
"I try to be cool and not get too emotional, but it's like 'Oh wow.' To be able to be that person to someone, it's pretty crazy and really wonderful, and to continue to work in the Philippines where you're with your people, creating theater."
"Just a reminder… I have boundaries. Do not cross them. Thank you,"
"The story is important but not to the point of emotional manipulation of the audience. It has to supplement the talent."
"It has to be talent first. Because that’s how we got them in the first place."
"You discover how much motivation you actually have. Really."
"The funny thing… kids are easy to mold. They’re so easy to teach and they’re so open to suggestions."
"You can basically throw all the stuff at the wall and see what sticks. In her case, she throws everything at the wall and everything sticks."
"I look at the awards and I'm incredibly grateful. But a career like mine would not be possible without a village, without a support system, without the people who are actively behind me"
"It’s a song [about] being a Filipino that’s been transplanted to another country, and you are remembering what it is about home that you remember and love so much."
"If [you’re] a mom who remembers the first movements of your child while they were still in the womb, it’s the excitement of that."
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"I needed my son to see me put the work in. I needed to set an example"
"I needed for him to see me applying myself, so that hopefully the example I would set for my 3-year-old son would translate into his educational desires later on in his life"
"It was not an affirmation for my ego. It was just an affirmation for who I was, as a little Black kid in this all-white elementary school"
"Entering into State, I was going through certain professional challenges and frustrations in my career"
"In light of that ... I knew I had to utilize my time very effectively and efficiently to get my work done"
"What that meant for me: It meant bringing everything — every single thing that I had accumulated at that point in my life, in terms of my professional experience — and focusing it into my studies at San Francisco State. It was not always easy"
"If you are able to embrace your challenges and put them to constructive use, that’s where magic can happen"
"In the final analysis, our humanity was front and center"
"It knocked me sideways for a second"
"But what I can also tell you is that I had to pick myself up and keep moving forward"
"I will not allow those kinds of disappointments, those kinds of snubs, rejections"
"I will not allow those things to define who I am. Because I understand I am bigger and better than that. And each and every one of you are also."
"I remember there was a newspaperman who sunk a lot of Denver Post money into getting that theater off the ground"
"For some reason, I have the figure of $13 million in my head"
"Going to Denver was terrific, and I very much looked forward to being there"
"The artistic director – Edward Payson Call – was very enthusiastic about me as an actor, and it was the inaugural opening of this theater company and three beautiful new theaters"
"I had gone to Denver full of optimism and enthusiasm. I remember a gentleman there saying something to me like, ‘Oh, you should be doing more in this production.’ And I thought, ‘You know what? I agree"
"I’ve always considered Tyne Daly to be a very serious actor, and I mean that in the best sense of that term"
"She’s very committed, and I remember the manner in which she applied herself to her work was always extremely intentional, and very much about the business of doing the best work possible"
"So I ended up speaking with this young man, and one of the things I said to him is that I am first and foremost thrilled and blessed to continue to work, and to be working on important projects. I know it’s a really hackneyed, overused term, but it’s true for me: I am thrilled and blessed."
"My introduction to Spike – our introduction to each other – unlocked a door for me creatively and culturally that I simply would not have had in the same way"
"To me, the enduring cultural significance of this film is that it is incredibly affirming, and it makes me joyous that that’s pretty much what audiences have picked up – White and Black, across the board"
"If I said it, I believed it, and I’m sure it had to do with my ambition to elevate myself and to be part of a system of work that elevated Black performers"
"When I think about my films with Spike, and then with Ryan, here I am at a point in my life and my career where I can look back and say: ‘My God, how fortunate am I to be part of that firmament, part of that creative environment"
"People need to be aware that at the best of times, the infrastructure in Jamaica needs a lot to be desired. So for an island like Jamaica to suffer this kind of a tragedy is even more devastating"
"And what I would ask is that however people are responding to the tragedy of Hurricane Melissa, that they would do whatever they can to help find out which organizations can help. I’m personally aware of an organization called Breds. They are based in Treasure Beach, but there are other organizations, and I would just ask, please, please, please donate whatever you can because obviously the need is huge. Had Melissa not happened, there would be significant need in Jamaica. That’s the nature of the economics of Jamaica. This tragedy has just exacerbated everything, so please give what you can"
"I do have family there, and I am intending on actually shooting a film there that I’m going to direct and co-produce and act in. As a person of Jamaican extraction, I’m always looking for ways in which I can contribute meaningfully to the island. And for me, making my film in Jamaica is a way of contributing and putting people to work. And so Jamaica is never far from my thoughts and how I can help and contribute"
"I knew that when I started directing for film, I wanted to make sure that the narratives resonated for me,"
"I approach the work attempting to find out who this human being is. Because of Delta Slim’s history, because of his virtuosity, and because he has lived — because I have lived the years that I have lived, I have a history. All of those things connect to the larger story that Ryan wants to tell in terms of where and how the blues music is situated inside of American culture"
"I’m inspired. I’m inspired because I look at a film like that, and I say, that cannot have been easy for her to get that film made. And so the challenges that I face getting my film made, it inspires me to keep moving, to keep moving forward, to keep striving. Because … there are so many stories that do not get told. And I was speaking with some film cinema students and I was saying that despite the fact that the landscape of cinema — and let’s for a second just talk about American cinema, the landscape of American cinema, I’m not going to say it’s narrow, but this is what I will say — there are so many other stories that could be added that could be contributing and be part of the landscape of American cinema. And one has to — and this is part of my appreciation for ‘On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,’ and it sounds very clichéd — but one has to have believe. One cannot lose sight of one’s own belief, more so in the face of the rejection that invariably one will face"
"I had to have faith in the strength of the work"
"and the fact that even though it's not a meritocracy, that the work would shift my position as a creative worker to a place that it would mean something beyond itself"
"but I'm still believing in myself, man. I am. I'm not being defined by my circumstances."
"So here is this little Black kid who all of a sudden is in school with these white kids, and the parents of those kids are looking at this little Black kid"
"And the manner in which I communicated that to the producer—and he agreed, by the way—was not as diplomatic as it could have been. And when one, as I was in this particular case, is being paid a lot of money to be in a project, to come to the producer and express dissatisfaction with the material, that can be seen as an affront"
"The Long, Occasionally Dark, and Ultimately Triumphant Career of Delroy Lindo,20 April 2021"
"To be held in esteem by other people is, for me, a humbling experience."
"I grew up in a time where these things begin in childhood—your grandparents, aunts, uncles, your own parents, the teachers in your classrooms"
"There was something about going through a pledge period with other young women who you really didn't know very well"
"Well, you can respect people. But can you depend on that person? Can you trust that person? And can you be depended upon and can you show up?"
"It's not just about what other people do. It's about you, too."
"in your own thought, you create opportunities and obstacles"
"there's nothing noble about keeping one's self small"
"fame and fortune must be corrupting"
"In mothering, I didn’t think about myself as being a Black mother. I’m a mother"
"I didn’t think about my children being Black children; I think of my children being children"
"The ethnicity is obvious — it’s in our food, it’s in the music we listen to, it’s in the books we read, it’s in the way we live, it’s in the company we keep and the dances that we do"
"I know who I am"
"inner reality creates the outer form"
"The internet has given a lot of anonymous people a very loud voice"
"I never knew there was a purpose for girls with loud voices until I discovered musical theater."