Jessica Lange

“I had never done Shakespeare before, but I don't think you can be an actor and not do it. There were moments when I thought, I'm just not going to be able to pull this off.”

“Families survive, one way or another. You have a tie, a connection that exists long after death, through many lifetimes.”

“It was easier to do Shakespeare than a lot of modern movie scripts that are so poorly written.”

“The worst is when I talk myself into something. Sometimes you take things because you want to work with a certain actor, or you want to work with a director, even if the script or the part's not that great.”

“Box office success has never meant anything. I couldn't get a film made if I paid for it myself. So I'm not 'box office' and never have been, and that's never entered into my kind of mind set.”

“Photography was a blessing because it filled my time. If I had to start over, I'd pursue photography - probably to the exclusion of acting.”

“I've never been a sunny personality. I've never been outgoing. I'm a solitary person.”

“I am tortured when I am away from my family, from my children. I am horribly guilt-ridden.”

“All through life I've harbored anger rather than expressed it at the moment.”

“I like playing characters who are out there on the edge, where they can explode at any moment or fall off the precipice.”

“To work with a director that has emotional commitment and passion toward the characters, and the piece, and the experiences, it only enriches your work.”

“Acceptance and tolerance and forgiveness, those are life-altering lessons.”

“At a certain age, death becomes familiar to you-or a loss becomes familiar-the tragedies that are more commonplace in life.”

“I regret those times when I've chosen the dark side. I've wasted enough time not being happy.”

“I've been thinking a lot about next year, which will be the first time in 25 years that I don't have a child at home.”

“Sometimes the odds are against you-the director doesn't know what the hell he's doing, or something falls apart in the production, or you're working with an actor who's just unbearable.”

“I've worked with some teachers and coaches over the years, but I didn't really study theater or technique or voice or any of that stuff extensively.”

“I never think of the future. I never imagine what comes next.”

“There's something magical still about it when I get in a darkroom, and you've shot a roll of film and you develop it and you look at your negatives, and there's, like, imagery there. That always stuns me.”

“This idea of selfishness as a virtue, as opposed to generosity: That, to me, is unnatural.”