Actresses From Massachusetts

"i am always doing things i can't do. that's how i get to do them."

"so the moral of this week is: if u do something really, really stupid in front of someone ur just getting to know & they still think youre awesome, then you got yourself a friend."

"I'm bruised again, I wear it well, The self-inflicted tale they tell. I singed my hair, I broke my nails. You'd love me then, If all else failed. The night was long and dark and just Another dagger to my trust. I thrust it in until I bleed I wiped my point for you to see. And anyway, It's over now. Nothing left to say. I don't know why, I don't care how, It's over anyway. It's broken in pieces. You've got the space you needed. Too late to try, Just say good-bye It's over anyway."

"My so-called faith went up in flames Till I believed in all your lies, For the life of me I don't know why. They got you wrong, You're not that strong. I don't belong here!"

"You'll say I'm self-destructive — I constructed all this tragedy. Go tell them all it's all my fault You'll tell them I was crazy. And anyway it's over now Nothing left to say."

"hold your head up high to face the past stare it in the teeth question everything you never ask the earth shall drink the meek is there lighting in your veins is there something that remains nothings ever gonna change so take yourself out in the rain life is leadin while you wait waitin for your judgement day"

"damn my intuition here it goes wish i didn’t know the things I know you're backing off from me i saw it happening the moment she came back to you"

"looks like it’s time to walk away looks like my moment here is done your heart is broken in too many pieces and I’m not fighting for crumbs"

"I’m not ready for Christmas don’t need a gift list don’t give a shit how many shopping days are left this holiday season give me one reason i should believe it’s ever gonna change and why should i be merry when every January i come back so very broken hearted I’m not ready for Christmas I think i’ll skip this one and Santa I will see you next year."

"It just occurs to me the Grinch was not so mean he had a point or two I think he’d have liked me."

"I’m done with wrapping boxes buying things that no one wanted trying on my own to save the day while dad plays cards and bro reads verses mom’s in tears between the curses I need a fucking holiday I’m not ready for Christmas."

"and tho you lost your way it’s not too late god knows you damn well tried and all the stones you tossed they’re ripples now waves you left behind they’re leading you back you can go home again"

"isn’t it nice to know that you’re not my consolation prize doesn’t it feel like freedom breathin in and out now isn’t it good to see all the love in someone else’s eyes doesn’t it all make sense that you’re better off without me"

"no grand intention no pain to mention just too many days that fade to blue and look how it came out perfect for better would have been for worse if I’d have been the one to settle down that walk with you"

"Look at the girl I did Urban Legends with, my last big hit, in '98. One of the girls in that, Alicia Witt — who was on the TV series, Cybill — she without a doubt did the best work on television last year when she guest-starred on the most difficult show to guest star on, which was The Sopranos. She played a non-Italian mafia type on The Sopranos — she was the best thing in the hour. To me, this girl is outstanding. This girl has movie star potential. Now, she was in Cecil B. Demented. I'm just amazed she's not a much bigger star already — not out of any disappointment in Alicia. But I just can't believe the town hasn't just sort of like scooped her up and made her as much of an "It Girl" as, for instance, Goldie Hawn's daughter or Gwyneth Paltrow, because I think this girl is really — and she's also genuinely funny in a wonderful, sexy, screwball comedy way."

"Arguably the smartest person ever to perform in the genre that gave us Green Acres. Exposed to Shakespeare as an infant — her mother, Diane, a former junior high reading teacher, would read aloud from his plays — Witt was able to recite from Romeo and Juliet and the sonnets at 2. By then, on some cognitive tests she was scoring at the level of a high school senior."

"It was her mother who launched Witt on her unusual trajectory from whiz kid to starlet. Back in 1977, Diane Witt — who, to give her her due as an amazing person, currently has the world's longest hair (documented as 12'8" in the 1994 Guinness Book of Records) — dropped a line to Good Housekeeping. She enjoyed the magazine, she wrote, and noted that her 2-year-old did, too. Housekeeping staff promptly visited and photographed "our youngest reader." Thanks to this bit of exposure, Witt was invited to appear on ABC's That's Incredible, where she played a scene as Shakespeare's Juliet. Working with the cameras set off lightbulbs in Alicia's head. "I loved it," she says. "It was like life, only 10 times more intense." At 7, brought to the attention of director David Lynch, she made her film debut in the sci-fi epic Dune as space princess Alia. She learned her lines in one reading. "It's easy," Witt says. "You memorize the thought process instead of the words." Of course. Dune opened and closed, and Witt stayed in Worcester, racing through her piano studies. She even created her own variations, in the style of Debussy, Chopin and other masters, on Over the Rainbow."

"I sometimes get a funny feeling, that Alicia Witt has to shut down half her cerebellum to have a conversation with me."

"Alicia was angelic … yet she could play Beethoven ferociously or Bartok at a raging tempo."

"She did have an extraordinary childhood. At the age of 1 month, she says, she was talking. At 6 months, she was reading. At the age of 4, she performed a scene from Romeo and Juliet on the Today show and wrote short stories based on the Peanuts characters. "In my fantasy I was always the savior. I would come to 'Peanuts' land and save everybody. Charlie Brown would fall madly in love with me. Peppermint Patty was so jealous.""

"She's very talented in everything she's ever done … [her brother Ian is also] a very talented boy, and I was advanced. But no one has seen anything like Alicia."

"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!"

"She has about as much sex appeal as ."

"Davis has nice eyes."

"You know, Bette Davis was the person who said, "Aging ain’t for sissies.""

"Then I did '—at the end director boldly predicted would be a big hit, I'd have a solid career and Bette Davis would go nowhere. Bette hasn't spoken to him since."

"She is a pro from start to finish. She always gives her best, and her best is really something. It's got power and force and meaning. Her contribution to any film is meaningful. It's probably her New England heritage, but she believes firmly in giving a good day's work for a good day's pay. She's a no-nonsense dame who's earned the respect of her colleagues by hard work and talent. She's been nominated for an Academy Award 10 times, the greatest number ever given anybody in this business, and she's won two Oscars. I don't know how many pictures she's made, 80 or 90, but she can work for me as long as she wants to."

"My passions were all gathered together like fingers that made a fist. Drive is considered aggression today; I knew it then as purpose."

"You will never be happier than you expect. To change your happiness, change your expectation."

"Old age ain't no place for sissies."

"When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch."

"Discipline is a symbol of caring to a child. Discipline is guidance. If there is love, there is no such thing as being too tough with a child."

"Brought up to respect the conventions, love had to end in marriage. I'm afraid it did."

"Miss Bankhead isn't well enough known nationally to warrant my imitating her. (In response to accusations she imitated Bankhead in the role of Margo Channing in All about Eve. Bankhead resented Davis for the perceived imitation, which she considered mocking, and for portraying her Broadway Roles on film [Dark Victory, Jezebel, The Little Foxes].This comment is unusual in that Davis usually tried to deflate the myth [started by Tallulah for amusement and publicity of any sort of conflict between them, instead expressing her admiration for Bankhead. Similarly, when Bankhead was asked to do an imitation of Davis, she said "Why should I dahling, she's been imitating me long enough". Before candidly remarking "But really, it's been sheer coincidence that Bette's been playing the leading roles in films like Dark Victory. I really admire her very much.")"

"May each of my grandsons know, at an early age, what his life's ambition is -- and may he be successful in his pursuit of that goal."

"I'm the nicest goddamn dame that ever lived."

"I think Mr. Reagan has done very well under very difficult circumstances. He's had terrific problems physically and he's managed them very well. But my God, the witch hunt today! Is there any human being alive who hasn't done something bad in their youth - like maybe smoke marijuana once? And this man (Judge Ginsburg) found it necessary to admit it! My God! It would be like Mr. Jack Kennedy sitting down and listing all the women (he knew) before he got in."

"'In the beginning was the Word,' and you must not be tempted with a script just because you have a great part. You want a great role to play, but the whole - the whole - must be good. It'll never succeed if it's just the role you like."

"I love my profession. I would never stop. Relax? I relax when I work. It's my life."

"Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work."

"The act of sex, gratifying though it may be, is God's joke on humanity. It is man's last desperate stand at superintendency. The whole ritual is a grotesque anachronism, an outdated testament to man's waning power. It's all we've got and so we make the best of it. It is not, however, sufficient reason for matrimony."

"To look back is to relax one's vigil."

"What a dump."

"That picture clinched my future as far as Universal was concerned. They felt that as I had not emerged as a glamour girl after being worked over by , I had no possibilities. When I arrived in Hollywood, when I thought about it all, I considered myself as normally attractive; after that year at Universal I found that I was apologizing for living. Physically I considered myself as one to be avoided. I still cringe at the beating I took."