Jessica Lange

“For me, acting was always a way to explore emotions - to dip into the well and really try to reach rock bottom down there. That was the most exciting part of it. I hadn't found anything that really allowed me to do that until I came upon acting.”

“If I had to start over, I'd pursue photography - probably to the exclusion of acting.”

“We are not the originators of the story. I think it's actually the opposite when you're an actor. You're telling somebody else's story.”

“If I didn't have children I'd be a much better actress. I wouldn't be so distracted. I could pour 100 percent of my energies into it, to promote the investigation which acting is.”

“Once I started on 'Frances' I discovered it was literally a bottomless well. It devastated me to maintain that for eighteen weeks, to be immersed in this state of rage for twelve to eighteen hours a day. It spilled all over, into other areas of my life.”

“In families there is always the mythology. My father died when my kids were quite young still, and yet they still tell his stories. That is how a person lives on.”

“I have been a waitress, and I was a damn fine waitress too, let me tell you.”

“There was that feminist myth that we can do everything. I don't think you can.”

“When I am home for like a two-year stretch, I get antsy, because I want to work.”

“So much of my sense of who I am is tied to mothering. When they left home, I fell into a huge, empty, black hole. Your children are grown and your career has slowed down - all the stuff that took up so much attention is gone, and you're left with expansive time and space.”

“I never shot on sets, but if I was traveling somewhere or on location, I would always have my camera, and I'd always be - it's that kind of fly on the wall approach to photography, though. I don't engage the subject. I like to sneak around, skulk about in the dark.”

“Because Shakespeare's language is so expansive, we're under this misconception that it's difficult. But I discovered that it's easy because it's so brilliantly written. The words are perfect, and the language is intelligent and very emotional.”

“To stay interested in acting, I have to keep trying stuff I've never done before.”

“The natural state of motherhood is unselfishness. When you become a mother, you are no longer the center of your own universe. You relinquish that position to your children.”

“Photography was a blessing because it filled my time.”

“To my mind the election was stolen by George Bush and we have been suffering ever since under this man's leadership.”

“For me, nothing has ever taken precedence over being a mother and having a family and a home.”

“Successful model? That's a myth. The year I modeled was the most painful year of my life. Editors would always talk to you in the third person as though you were merely a piece of merchandise.”

“It comes down to something really simple: Can I visualize myself playing those scenes? If that happens, then I know that I will probably end up doing it.”

“One of the things I love about acting is that it reveals a certain something about yourself, but it doesn't reveal your own personal story.”