"Talking about dreams is like talking about movies, since the cinema uses the language of dreams; years can pass in a second and you can hop from one place to another. It’s a language made of image. And in the real cinema, every object and every light means something, as in a dream."

"Cinema is an old whore, like circus and variety, who knows how to give many kinds of pleasure. Besides, you can’t teach old fleas new dogs."

"Even if I set out to make a film about a fillet of sole, it would be about me."

"All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster’s autobiography."

"The first time I felt I was famous was when I went to the movies with my mom. I had gone to the loo, and someone in the bathroom said in a very loud voice, "Girl in stall No. 1 were you in Mystic Pizza? I paused and I said, yeah that was me."

"Ayn Rand is a stupid piece of shit!"

"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."

"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."

"[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."

"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."

"I've always liked to go down a different path. Being a woman of color, I never followed a cookie cutter way."

"I'm not obsessive, like I have to have the best butt or the best abs, but I like the idea of feeling strong and healthy. It's important to feel good about myself physically."

"I never even think about the physicality of roles, until honestly I get the gig and I think, 'OK, now what do I have to do in this one?' Like, I approach it thinking more about the character -- do I respond to it? Is it something I think I can play? Does it seem like it'll be fun?"

"I've never been afraid to be who I really am on screen."

"I've also grown as an actor as I've got older in life. I've learnt how to go to work, immerse myself 100 per cent in the character and, at the end of the day, take it all off and go back, get a nice bubble bath, have a nice massage and realise that is not my life. And that feels good."

"I used to believe that if my career was going great, then I was not entitled to a great personal life. Well, I've stopped thinking that way. I believe I can have it all."

"I don't buy into that pressure to be glamorous all the time. It's impossible, I mean, you get a pimple in the morning, you wake up with bags under your eyes, you see if you can use it in your work, maybe incorporate it into your character."

"Being a black woman, I've often felt I've been judged by my sex and my race, and I have always known that it shouldn't hamper me."

"You know, she often tells me that what I do is great. I don't think she ever thought I would end up doing this with my life. But I think she is happier that I haven't changed over the years, that I am still me, that I care about her and that we are the same as we always were. And I think that is what makes her most proud."

"I get offered varied parts, often super sexy roles. But I still think it's an issue to find the good scripts. It's a myth that you win an Oscar and you get more opportunities, and this doesn't just go for me."

"The fact is that I like thrillers and action movies. But what really fulfills me is getting out of my comfort zone, taking chances."

"When a young woman tells me that she wants to become and actor, I say, 'No, be a writer. Or go to business school and learn how to run a studio.' The only real change will come from behind the scenes."

"When you grow up in that (multi-ethnic) environment, you see the world differently. Being a mixed-race child, I didn't always see colour in people, I really didn't. It was other people that made me see the colour all the time."

"I want to do roles that are fun and challenging and I want to try different things. I don't want to keep doing Monster's Ball over and over and over again. I want to keep doing my career the way that I was doing it before I won the Oscar."

"It's an amazing feeling to know that life is actually growing inside your body. The first time you see the ultrasound and you see the little bones and you realise that it's part of you and it's in your care is life changing and this sort of protective instinct has taken over."

"Actors always have to fight for the good parts. There are so few good roles written for women each year, and when one is written like this every actress in town covets the role."

"Sexiness is a state of mind -- a comfortable state of being. It's about loving yourself in your most unlovable moments."

"When I held that statuette, I felt as if I had won a triumph not just for myself, but for every other woman who'd struggled to overcome the same sort of background."

"As beautiful as Halle is on the outside, she's 10 times more beautiful on the inside."

"I love Halle. She's so sweet. I connected with her immediately and, even though we only worked together for a few days, it was the best connection I've ever had with an actress. She made me feel like I could trust her."

"That was the first time she was given the opportunity to use what I think is still an underrated talent."

"My mother always said to me, 'You're going to have to work harder and have to be better, and you can't take no for an answer'."

"For me, the walk of the character is always the first part that I must define for myself."

"There are three things I never saw Elizabeth do: be on time, tell a lie, be unkind to anyone at all."

"I was less pleased than [my friend] to read Elizabeth Taylor's announcement that she had joined the ranks of the sober. Liz Taylor, whom I'd always cherished as one of the few famous women to barrel down the road of excess with a vengeance-eating, drinking, swearing, fucking, marrying, acquiring diamonds as big as the Ritz…"

"Elizabeth Taylor should get a divorce and settle down."

"See what happens? One date with me and Liz ends up engaged to a millionaire."

"Really nice girl. I dated her only once."

"I was with her one Easter in France or Africa and all the animals on the set tried to get into her lap."

"There is no deodorant like success."

"You find out who your real friends are when you're involved in a scandal."

"I've always admitted that I'm ruled by my passions."

"Oh God! I'm going to miss him. I can’t yet imagine life without him. But I guess with God’s help... I'll learn. I keep looking at the photo he gave me of himself, which says, 'To my true love Elizabeth, I love you forever.' And, I will love HIM forever."

"I still can't believe it. I don't want to believe it. It can't be so. He will live in my heart forever but it’s not enough. My life feels so empty. I don't think anyone knew how much we loved each other. The purest most giving love I've ever known."

"My heart…my mind… are broken. I loved Michael with all my soul and I can't imagine life without him. We had so much in common and we had such loving fun together."

"The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues."

"I've been married too many times. How terrible to change children's affiliations, their affections — to give them the insecurity of placing their trust in someone when maybe that someone won't be there next year."

"I'm the same as a key piece of machinery in a steel mill, which is needed to make steel and to make money for the mill owners. If I break down, it's their problem. My problem is to build some kind of decent life for myself in this crazy unreal world in which I make my living."

"I think it was that picture, more than anything else, that gave me a horror of nobility. Ever since then I have fought against portraying saccharine characters. Give me the part of a vixen and I'm happy."

"I could just about stand being in a southern plantation at 5 A.M. with Miss Crawford. But never Miss Davis!"