Quotes

"I believe people are entitled to a private life. I'm not sure where it's written that because you're in the public eye you are required to expose your private business, with anybody. It is nobody's business, and it's interesting because obviously in today's marketplace people don't abide by that. There are no boundaries that people won't cross... We're in a bit of a "Wild West" thing with media, and, I think, it's just kind of like no holds barred - the Internet. You know, there are no criteria on the Internet... I've chosen a public life to express myself, not to tell what I do with my husband in bed, not to do, to talk about my parents and my family life. And I just think it's wrong, and obviously it's an insatiable appetite that people have for gossip and innuendo and things that are nobody's business. And there's a term that they use in this called "legitimate public concern". What is legitimate public concern? If an elected official has an illness, that's legitimate public concern because they're our president or elected official. We, we, we need to know that they're healthy because we want them to live a long life and protect, you know, the Constitution... but in the marketplace, in the world, I don't believe it's anybody's concern. And that's what I think." --comments made on The View, September 19, 2000.

I thought, while they're up and firm [her breasts], why not shoot them once or twice. - on screen nudity.

I'm Laurie Strode's guardian angel.

When I did Sesame Street (1969), Elmo was not the worldwide phenomenon he is now. I understood Elmo was special, and I said that the only way I would do Sesame Street was with Elmo. Kevin Clash, the young man who did the voice for him, was a very sweet guy and I predicted Elmo's meteoric rise to fame way in advance. I am a trendsetter without knowing it. Two years later the Elmo craze began, but I was ahead of the curve.

When asked if she regretted making any films - Easy. There's a piece of shit called Virus (1999) which I made because another movie that I was supposed to do fell through. It was a bad choice and the movie is a piece of shit. The runner up is a movie called Grandview, U.S.A. (1984), which is this benign but still bad coming of age movie, which is just bad. I will never, ever see those films again. They are laughable, ludicrous movies and I'm bad in them. They're nasty.

Believe me, none of it works. - on cosmetic surgery.

In some circles, my Caesar salad is more famous than my body.

My life is so filled that for me to accept acting work now means that I have to basically let somebody else do the job that I want to do, which is raise my children. It's not that I'm retired, it's just that I no longer accept acting work.

The more I like me, the less I want to pretend to be other people.

Family Circle, 4-18-06.

About Madonna: "Holiday" came on the radio the other day and I remember where I was the first time I heard it: in West L.A. on my way to aerobics class. (In Style magazine, September 2006).

I'm not an actor anymore. I really don't imagine I'll do that again. I'm just focused on my family and just can't imagine anything that's going to pull me away from them right now.

I don't expect to hear from him on my birthday or Christmas. I see him when I see him. He's like a ghost - on her father, Tony Curtis.

[on Tony Curtis] Because I didn't really have a relationship with him, he couldn't let me down. I just happened to be one of the last people who hadn't been disappointed too many times. For years, I didn't know who Tony Curtis was as much as other people told me who he was.

[on Eddie Murphy] Despite all his success, Eddie acts like he's 22 years old. His life is cars and girls, girls and cars. More cars. More girls.

[on the death of Michael Jackson] The pain he suffered was from his birth, from his being and becoming the commodity that then made him the King of Pop, he was in the spotlight since childhood.

[on the paparazzi] It's part of my job, but it's one thing if you take a picture of me head to toe, it's another thing when they focus in on your nose or something and that's all they're shooting because they're doing a story about nose jobs. Then you go, 'why did I allow that to be a part of my life?'

[Speaking at the funeral of her father Tony Curtis] All of us got something from him. I, of course, got his desperate need for attention.

[on Tony Curtis] I'm proud to be his daughter.

[on her father Tony Curtis] He was not a father; he was not interested in being a father - and this is not a slam against him - he did what he had to do from a financial standpoint, which was honorable of him to do, but he wasn't an involved father. Therefore, I look at him much more from the perspective of being a fan of him. I was more of a fan of his work, of his spirit, of his joie de vivre (joy of living)... My mother was never a diva, my father was bigger than life, who lived in Vegas! There was no bond, not at all. Except for the fact that I inherited genetically a part of him.

For me, I just show up and do what I do. And for me it has to be real -- anything I do, I don't care what it is. On Halloween (1978), I can remember, John Carpenter's first and only real direction to me was, "I want people to believe this is a real person." All I care about is trying to make anything real -- and then because I'm brave I'll try anything.

I'm not sure what fame is for if it isn't to focus on charitable work.

Everything good in my life has happened when I wasn't expecting it.

[giving the commencement address to graduating students of New York Film Academy's Los Angeles campus on June 8, 2013] This isn't about a show. It's about truth and integrity and honesty and communication, bravery and risk, and adjectives that should make you get out bed in the morning, excited to be what it is you choose to be.

[on The Fog (1980)] I am surprised that it has such popularity because I just don't think it's that good a film.

Halloween: Resurrection (2002) was a joke.

I wear my Halloween pin with great pride. I tried very hard through twenty two years now of making movies to always hold up Halloween and say 'you know, it was the best experience I'd ever had, it was by far up until True Lies the best part I ever had. I tried to point out the irony that in those exploitation movies I was intelligent, forthright, fought back against adversity, and was the lead in those movies for that role.

[on her first day of filming Halloween] I remember the first day we shot, I remember exactly what we shot and I remember going home thinking I was going to be fired. I just thought I sucked and that.... you know. And I remember being at home and my roommate said 'Jamie, the phone's for you, it's John Carpenter' and I thought 'Aw man, this is it'. And he called to say how happy he was with the day's work and I just thought that was great. It's never happened to me again.

We are no longer innocent. Particularly in America, 9/11 removed all of our innocence. Yes, there are still small towns and yes, there are still people within them babysitting and stuff, but I think innocence has been ultimately lost because the brutal reality of life came into our lives.

[on the lasting appeal of Michael Myers] I'm talking out my butt because the truth is, I don't know anything about why he endures. I'm just glad he does because he's my buddy. Me and my shadow. Where would I be without Michael Myers - you know what I'm saying? I'm grateful to him, for all of his badness.

[on Halloween H20: 20 Years Later] - When Halloween was, like, 19 years old, I remember calling John and Debra and we had lunch. I said to them, 'Guys, the movie's going to be 20-years-old next year, and we're all still doing the job 20 years later.' I said to them, 'Why don't we revisit it?' And there was a conversation, but then everybody was busy, and it turned out not to be what I wanted it to be. Initially, I wanted it to be with John directing, Debra producing. And that didn't happen, for myriad reasons. And John didn't write it, so then we had to hire a writer, and then Debra had something else. By the end of it, I was the only one involved with it.

Now, to this day, I regret that I didn't say to everyone, If Debra Hill's not the one producing this movie, I'm not doing it. But what ended up happening was, she wasn't part of it, John wasn't part of it, and I was still part of it, and it was a machine going down the road. I was excited about it, and, honestly, I was going to be paid well. I hadn't made any money on the Halloween franchise at all. I mean, really, in all of those years I hadn't really made any money. It just gave me a lot of fame. And now I was going to get a paycheck.

And I was excited about it, because I liked where we were going with [the film]. It was, in a weird way, a movie about post-traumatic stress then. The difference [from the new Halloween (2018)] was, it was someone who had run. So, she had fled from Haddonfield, she had changed her name, she had run as fast as she could in the other direction, and Michael Myers caught up with her. But, you see, she told no one, no one knew who she was, she was a new person in a new town. She had a child and her life was proceeding. And I liked that. By the way, I insisted she be an alcoholic, I insisted that she not be traumatized. And then, of course, there's a moment when she turns back. Because really the intent of that movie was to say, You really aren't alive if you're running for your life all the time. If you're running for your life your whole life, you're not alive. So, you're really dead. So, if you're dead, why not try to face the fear, and in the facing of the fear maybe you'll die, but if you don't die, maybe you'll finally live. And that was really the emotional intent of that movie.

If you see that movie, it's not a great movie, it's a good movie, and that emotional intent is in the movie. But it was never what I hoped it would be for all these reasons that ended up being things that were out of my control.

[on Halloween (2018)] I sold yogurt that makes you shit for 7 years. And it's really beautiful to be able to have done something that has some depth. It's been amazing.

[on what she believes happened to her character Laurie Strode after the events of Halloween (1978)] Now, there are a lot of people that spend their lives helping people through traumas, there are a lot of trauma centers, there are a lot of recovery centers for that. There was nothing in 1978. I believe Laurie Strode went to school November 1. I think she went to school with a bandage on her arm, maybe some stitches from the emergency room. I think her parents sent her back to school. Two days before, she was an intellectual honor student, heading off to be the valediction of her class, no doubt. She was going to get out of Haddonfield, she was going to go off and expand her mind. And two days later, she was a freak. Two days later, she walked down the hall and everyone was whispering. That's the trauma that violence does to people.

[why she did so many horror films at first] Well, I was too young - 19 or 20 - to turn away work. And why should I, when the characters were good people? I didn't have to swear, I didn't have to wear tight jeans or bounce my tits! I played Intelligent women, usually the lead.

[on auditioning for “Halloween” ] I auditioned many, many, many times. And then it was between me and one other woman, whose name I know but I will never say publicly. I'm sure the fact that I was Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis's daughter, and that my mother had been in "Psycho"-if you're going to choose between this one and this one, choose the one whose mother was in "Psycho," because it will get some press for you. I'm never going to pretend that I just got that on my own, like I'm just a little girl from nowhere getting it. Clearly, I had a leg up.

[nudity in Trading Places] I was 21 years old and the part required Ophelia to take off her dress. Did I like doing it? No. Did I feel embarrassed that I was doing it? Yes. Did I look OK? Yeah. Did I know what I was doing? Yeah. Did I like it? No. Was I doing it because it was the job? Yes.

[would she perform nude now like she did early in her career] I wouldn't do it today, it's the last thing in the world I would do now. I also am married for 37 years, I wasn't married then. I'm a mother of children. Absolutely not.