Rachel Ward

“Having done something like The Thorn Birds gives you enormous longevity. You can keep picking and choosing the roles for a bit longer.”

“Part of me wanted this more than anything else in the world—to have someone to hang out with, be like everyone else for a while. The rest of me screamed to get the hell out of there, not to get sucked in.”

“We all know we're one day closer to the end when we wake up in the morning. We just kid ourselves that it's not happening.”

“And just when I though things were starting to get better, everything had gone wrong again.”

“I've been as critically rubbished as acclaimed and the worst thing about that is that it usually plays into your own self-criticism.”

“Writers are very much undervalued in the creative process.”

“Life's not that simple. Not so easy to move on when the anger you've got is what keeps you going.”

“However cozy things seemed, the facts of life were the same. You couldn't escape death: It would get us all in the end.”

“You get use to someone—start to like them, even—and they leave. In the end, everyone leaves.”

“I got pigeonholed a bit. When I wanted to be an actress, I never wanted to be the kind of actress I became.”

“All anything takes, really, is confidence.”

“I remember having to take detours around the Hollywood sign to avoid having to see this grotesque poster of myself on Sunset Boulevard.”

“I don't understand, Jem. I don't understand why you'd leave me. Why would you that?”

“You're in a movie because you're appealing and because you represent the aspiration, the fantasy, the ideal.”

“It's okay to talk about it. Death is so normal, I don't know why everyone gets so hung up about it. We all have to deal with it. Most people that you talk to have lost someone, but nobody talks about it.”

“And then, a strangely comforting thought trickled through me—I had nothing, so I could do anything now. Anything I wanted. I had nothing left to lose.”

“He loved me and I loved him, but the number in my head was telling me that he was going to die today. And the numbers had never been wrong.”

“How easy to be a bird or an animal, living from day to day, unaware you're alive, unaware that one day you will die.”

“My best day ever. Got up. Had breakfast. Came to school. Bored, as usual. Wishing I wasn't there, like usual. Kids ignoring me, suits me fine. Sitting with the other retards—we’re so special. Wasting my time. Yesterday was the same, and it's gone, anyway. Tomorrow may never come. There is only today. This is the best day and the worst day. Actually it's crap.”

“I always tell young actors to have a back-up. You don't want to find yourself at the age of 30 still struggling to make a living out of acting.”