There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag...

We use our parents like recurring dreams, to be entered into when needed.

A simple grateful thought turned heavenwards is the most perfect prayer.

Whatever you're meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.

If a fish is the movement of water embodied, given shape, then cat is a diagram and pattern of subtle air.

Every child has the capacity to be everything.

Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities simply by being given the opportunity to do so.

What's terrible is to pretend that second-rate is first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.

Things are not quite so simple always as black and white.

You have to be grown up, really grown up, not merely in years, to understand your parents.

There is nothing more boring for an intelligent woman than to spend endless amounts of time with small children.

The sooner you master your mind, the sooner you master yourself.

Mississippi Mermaid was a very special experience because we only had the dialogues for the scenes we were shooting the night before.

The people who did you wrong or who didn't quite know how to show up, you forgive them. And forgiving them allows you to forgive yourself too.

Happiness is a sort of action.

I could never before say that I loved color or that I understood color. But Oscar de la Renta opened up a side of my brain.

Nothing can be further apart than true humility and servility.

I wanted to do my artistic work, and in Iran you have censorship. It was difficult for me to do the work I wanted to do.

After doing STAR TREK for so many years, to do just regular makeup is such a treat. Just put some makeup on and "thank you very much," you're on your way.

Unlike aboriginal hunters, commercial seal hunters leave the carcasses on the ice to rot.

No, I'm not clever. I've always cared more for people than for ideas.