Blythe Danner

“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.”

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

“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.”

“Singing and dancing will never grow old for me - I'd like to do that until I'm... actually, I think I'd like to drop dead onstage. I think that'd be just great.”

“When I was beginning, a young actor could go from repertory company to repertory company. I did that and loved it. I was also lucky.”

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

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

“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.”

“Whatever comes my way I'm basically interested in.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

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

“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.”

“My earliest memories of Gwyneth first singing is in bed when we would make up songs. The most I could do was harmonize, like, a third above, and at two years old, she'd be doing sixths. I said, 'Where in the world did that come from?' She'd just make up songs.”

“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 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.”