I've always loved words. I ate up all the books I could get my hands on, and when I couldn't get books, I read candy wrappers and labels on cereal and toothpaste boxes.

I hated the whole idea of being an actress. I used to throw up before every performance and cry afterward.

Of course I work hard. Why shouldn't I? Who am I to think I should get things the easy way?

If you can handle a nightclub audience successfully, you can handle anything

In repose, my face looks as though I had gone through a terrible deal in the last five minutes. I have to disguise the expression and get a glassy-eyed look. That's something I learned from my dog.

I am not an 'instant' actor... to really do anything, I've got to try it five or six or a dozen times.

I'm a born and bred New Yorker. I belong here. Everytime I leave it's like losing a leg.

Never do nothing you wouldnt want printed on the front page of The New York Times.

Nobody can give a good performance unless the authors and composers have written a good part, a fact which is often overlooked.

I'm trying to eliminate every vestige of my own personality, style, approach and get into somebody else's skin. Sometimes I feel I've accomplished it. But when I don't, I'm nobody at all, having left myself at home

We were wavering around like a ship without a sail.

You have to be smart to play a dumb blonde over and over again and keep the audience's attention without extraordinary physical equipment.

I get very nervous whenever I think about it. I've never done a serious play, and I have such awe of the woman - she's really my only idol. It's going to be a big stretch - certain people come out on stage and your face muscles automatically tense and you get ready to smile.