My father used to say that you could only access culture before cinema by learning to read and write, but that once cinema was invented, knowledge was available to anybody.

Adoption has the dimension of connection - not only to your own tribe, but beyond, widening the scope of what constitutes love, ties and family. It is a larger embrace. By adopting, we stretch past our immediate circles and, by reaching out, find an unexpected sense of belonging with others.

I didn't want to become an actress because the competition with my mother would have been to much to live up to.

If we are completely honest with ourselves, everyone has a dark side to their personalities.

I believe in a set of values I cannot live by. I set high goals for myself, I seek perfection, dream of exotic faraway places. But ultimately, what I long for isn't far away at all. It's in my own backyard. Imperfection charms me, familiar things move me... a celebration of what we have, instead of what we long for. That for me, is glamor.

David Lynch came out of it a genius, and I came out of it a fat girl. I'm sorry that the only comment I get about the part is the way I look. Commenting on the critics' response to her performance in Blue Velvet

Food is a big part of my culture, so everyone knows how to cook. When I came to America and asked a babysitter to softboil an egg for my son and she didn't know how, I was shocked.

I don't think a Hollywood actor is safe from acting in the rain: it all depends on the film.

A lot of the advertisement is done by saying: first of all, have a complex about who you are.

But I don't really see myself as a role model. I'm not a dictator, or someone who wants to be adored!

From the time I was a child I wanted to be like my mother. Not necessarily an actress - I never dreamed I'd have the courage. But an active, volatile woman like she was.

I always loved experimenting in film.

You dont do an experimental film to become rich, so the people who are involved are involved because they enjoy the creative aspect of it.

I am much more radical in my beliefs than my products represent me to be.

I believe in a set of values I cannot live by.

I think my mother became the muse because she had everything when she was in Hollywood: she had the marriage, the success, the money, all the films she wanted to do and yet even her, she had a longing and wanted to work with a film that had meaning, something more profound. And I think that was very touching to father.

I was always fascinated by the infinite, strange and 'scandalous' ways that insects copulate.

But my mother loved The Elephant Man, and my father gave David Lynch a scholarship to study in Rome.