Quotes

I don't prefer much of film over stage... The only thing I prefer is the paycheck.

Singing really oxygenates your blood. You stretch your lungs and take in much more air into them than before. It's really good for your health.

I feel like theatre gives me the grounding, and keeps me alive, basically. Film gives me the thrill, and it's like a one night stand. But I do enjoy being around people who love it so much.

[on marriage and starting her own family] I'm not that big a fan of marriage as an institution and I don't know why women need to have children to be seen as complete human beings.

[on her role in The Wrestler (2008)] What didn't appeal to me was, frankly, New Jersey, naked, winter!

[on Gena Rowlands] As a young actress I saw her in Opening Night (1977). She was so larger-than-life, yet her performances are so detailed- no color is left out. She's ferocious, beautiful, elegant, compassionate, funny, sexy. A broad in the best sense of the word - that's what I aspire to be.

[on pole dancing] It's really physically hard! That pole work is crazy hard; to be really good on that pole and you have to be really strong.

[on being nude in films] I definitely feel like I didn't want to do that kind of thing when I was younger because I didn't think that it was something a serious actress would do, in a way there is validity to that. It's harder to be taken seriously when you're younger, doing that but I've also come to a point of being able to handle the reaction to it - that probably would have been more difficult when I was younger.

You can't really be old in L.A., it's kind of like a crime.

(1996) I think the fantasy of being a movie star is more powerful than the reality. So, for me, even if it's not a great film or a great play I'm doing, to know that you went for it. You had an experience that made you grow artistically and personally. What's really satisfying is knowing that you did a good job.

(1996) When I was first starting, I went to an agent who told me, 'Listen, you'll be lucky if you do summer stock. Pack it up.' Once in a while I think about him, but I'm happy with myself. So, what does he matter?

[if she had social media when she was younger] I would've made a fool of myself many times over.