I loved the movies and I wanted to be like Marilyn Monroe. I thought she was so glamorous and everyone seemed to love her. I wanted to be like that and I told everyone I would be the next Marilyn Monroe.

I think we have to be not so afraid of scarcity. We have to be willing to give away all things.

I thought it might be a good move to get into a beauty contest so I tried for Miss Pennsylvania and won. I think that helped me get noticed, at least by the people of Pennsylvania.

I tried for modelling work but it was a bit slow and that's when I took a part-time job at McDonalds. It gave me income while I was waiting for my big break and at the very least I could eat.

It was not always easy because I was always an individual and found it difficult to be one of a group. One person who was very supportive was my father. My mother was great but my father really recognised my individuality and supported me in that.

Many actresses do that kind of shoot when they are in their early 20s but I didn't think I had anything to worry about so I decided to go for it. I was very pleased with the results and it was also nice to surprise a few people.

Nobody took me too seriously but I was grown up even as a baby.

There are a lot of good things about being famous but there are a few not so good things too.

To be happy, to make other people happy, to get into movie production more and probably to give some other people the chances that I had, to carry on enjoying being a mum and never to stop having flowers bought for me. I've still got a long way to go.

Well, I think when we can turn to the person sitting next to us and really see them with kindness and see ourselves reflected back - when there's some dignity and compassion traveling back and forth.

When you're a regular gal, you look in the rearview mirror, and in the bright daylight you see that line around your mouth, but when you're an actress and you see that line up on the big screen, it's, like, seven feet long.

You know, sometimes I feel well and vital in the world, and sometimes I just feel so distressed I want to pull my hair out by the roots.

I've had the same breasts for my entire adult life.

I think it's really important that the people who are going to make decisions for other people have fair, truthful and compassionate regard for all people, not just some people.

When I'm with my friends' teenage children, I always say, 'Are your friends having sex yet?'

My personal style and public style are very different. When I go out, I play dress up.

I like to drive with my knees. Otherwise, how can I put on my lipstick and talk on the phone?

Any man in Hollywood will meet me if I want that. No, make that any man anywhere.

I always thought I would adopt. Even when I was young, I used to look up how to adopt.

I understand what it's like to go to hospitals and there's no medicine, and the best thing you have to give the patients is compassion.

I am big into aromatherapy.

I don't really want to be fat, so I stop before I am. I'm not a vegetarian, but I might go through a phase when I'm not interested in eating protein for a week or so, and then I might go through a phase when I eat nothing but steak.

People are really emotionally affected by actors. And it's hard to know how to behave in a way that doesn't impose or withdraw. Because everybody wants your attention. Everywhere you go, you know?

I'm not big on plastic surgery for me but I don't fault it for someone who wants it for them. You have to do what makes you feel good, but it's not my thing.

I was, like, forty at birth. When I wasn't even a year old, I spoke, I was potty trained, I walked and talked. That was it. Then I started school and drove everybody crazy because they realized I had popped out as an adult. I had adult questions and wanted adult answers.

I think, for a long time, people just did not know what to do with me. I looked like a Barbie doll, and then I had this voice like I spend my life in a bar, and I said things that were alarming and had ideas that didn't make sense.

People are really emotionally affected by actors. And it's hard to know how to behave in a way that doesn't impose or withdraw. Because everybody wants your attention.

I wear Aveda Energizing oil. I am big into aromatherapy.

Dior makes the best lip glosses going. I'm nuts about them, especially the clear one with the silver sparkles. I got addicted to DiorShow Mascara, too. It makes you look like you're wearing false eyelashes. It's the only one that rivals Maybelline.

It seems to be unfathomable to people that I just happen to be 49 and look good. I am totally capable of accepting myself.

There was a point in my 40s when I went into the bathroom with a bottle of wine, locked the door, and said, 'I'm not coming out until I can totally accept the way that I look right now.'

Every time I exercise, I do something different based on which areas need to get in motion.

I swear to God, I went in to buy bikinis, and the lady's like, 'You're not getting out of this store 'til you get down there and show me what you do for those abs and the arms.' She wouldn't sell me my bikinis! I had to get on the floor and do the stomach thing.

I go on benders where I just exercise like a maniac. And then I go on benders where I just can only take baths. Like, I have to lay down to bathe, and I could go on that for six months.

The most fun I ever had on a movie was working with Albert Brooks. He's the caviar of comedy. I mean, nobody's funnier; nobody is smarter than Albert Brooks.

When I started acting, I was asked said, 'What's your dream?' 'What would you like to achieve?' I would say, 'Oh, I'd like to sit opposite DeNiro and hold my own.' But, you never think it's gonna happen.

I like porterhouse steak, rib-eyes and New York strip. This works for me because I have very low cholesterol and low blood pressure. It's not good for everyone; you have to talk to your doctor about that. I also eat fish and cheese. I like clean food prepared as simply as possible.

I think, at a certain point, it's better for women not to have any alcohol because it can make your face, breasts and midsection get very bloated.

I've been famous for a long, long time. So I don't think of it - I think of it very differently. It's the normal temperature of my room.

I'm relentless. My mother says I could sell ice to the Eskimos.

I eat right, I sleep, I work out, I'm happy. I have a beautiful family, nice friends. I choose the good things. I choose the happy, healthy things. I don't choose the bad, unhealthy, unhappy things.

I really get pursued by men in their 20s, like, a lot. They probably know there's food in the fridge and that somebody's going to talk to them and ask them how their day was.

I don't thrive on the concept of being naked at every possible moment, but it's not the biggest deal in the world to me.

Whenever I play something, everybody just thinks that's who I am.

I don't think Julia Roberts is as innocent as her image suggests. You have to be a really smart cookie to create an image as clean and pure and on-the-money as hers.

It's funny, but I never knew I was hot or could be beautiful until I saw 'Basic Instinct,' and I was so shocked when I saw how pretty they made me.

When I was young, all I wanted to be was a movie star. At a certain point, I started to grow up and really care about what I did.

I don't take myself very seriously. I like to make people laugh. You know, it's like, if a woman can't be happy for another woman's work, they have to go work on that.

Believe me, when people say, 'We want to pay you X-million to do this movie,' I won't be the girl who hangs back saying, 'Oh, I really don't deserve it,' I'll be, 'Un-hunh, hand it right over.'

Always carry a book on a date so that when you get bored you can slip into the Ladies for a read.