Quotes

In 1987: "Acting is like sex. You should do it, not talk about it."

Being married to Paul is being married to the most considerate, romantic man.

I don't like getting myself in hot water. But suddenly I find that every minute I have to stop and think about what I'm saying. I can see what's going to happen. I'm going to have to stop giving interviews because I'm always saying the wrong thing. I don't want that to happen.

The September 11th tragedy forced us all to look at the world in a different way and it reminds us all of the importance of living every moment.

Who could direct you better than the person you live with? Paul knows everything there is to know about me. I wish he could just direct every movie I ever do.

[on her Rachel, Rachel (1968) director and husband Paul Newman being snubbed in the Best Director category by the Academy Awards in 1969] "How do you figure it? He even won the New York Film Critics award that year for it, but didn't get in as one of the five Oscar nominees. I was really hurt about that. And I have to admit that I still don't think the awards mean what they say they mean. The Oscar has become a political gesture, or a business gesture. People tell you it adds $5 million to a film's gross, and I believe it, but that's not what the Oscar is for. It didn't use to be that way."

[on her Best Actress nomination for Désirs d'été, rêves d'hiver (1973)] "I remember when I first won the Academy Award, and how much I loved it. I just wish there was an award around that you could really believe in again".

Actors and writers need to come back to the theater because it's a place where you can learn. You have to pay your dues; and people who haven't paid their dues in the theater, I think, have a hard time creating a whole career. - June, 2000

There aren't a lot of movies for people our age, and I was never terribly enamored of making movies -- mainly because I like to work on stage. I didn't make a lot of movies. I'm very happy doing what I'm doing now: I like to direct and act occasionally on stage. Once in a while, I do television. It's more likely that somebody my age can find a part in television. - June, 2000

[on filming Rachel, Rachel (1968)] It was not at all like Hollywood, where the grips play poker and have no idea what the movie is about. Everyone, from the little boy, who helped the grips, was involved.

[on a live late night interview, on the subject of husband Paul Newman being a sex symbol] I don't get it. He's over 40, has 6 kids and he snores.