I was very determined. The straight-A girl. I wanted to succeed. Driven. Let's face it: very driven.
— Faye Dunaway
I am who I am and, you know, I've done the best I can with what I've been given.
If you don't eat properly, it affects your energy level. You are an athlete when you're onstage. You can't get tired.
For a long time, I couldn't cry on stage. I cried very rarely as a child.
When someone is successful, there's always a feeling that they were lucky. Luck plays a part, sure, but to be successful, you must have iron discipline. You must have energy and hunger and desire and honesty.
I regret so much. I've made mistakes. I've hurt people. I've done things I'm not proud of. But on the other hand, that way lies madness, you know?
I didn't think my face was beautiful. I guess I found a lot wrong with it.
I'm a loner. I kind of like to be alone and do my work and, you know, be focused on my own things.
Work is a salvation. Work is how you connect with who you are, no matter how painful it might be.
I mean, I was always interested in people like Lenny Bruce, people who are breaking the old rules and making new ones.
I'm kind of a recluse.
It's true, I did a lot of great movies, and I'm happy. It was what it was, and now I think all of that has fed into where I am now, and I think it has taught me a lot.
So Liam and movies are obviously big passions, and I read and write.
When you're younger they always try to get you to do every ninny role that's going.
I'm still the little southern girl from the wrong side of the tracks who really didn't feel like she belonged.
I think that somehow I got the notion that I had to be successful, to be the best in the world.
I like the Four Seasons. It's a nice hotel.
I always think I would like to have a partner in life, and I would - if I could find the right person, I think.
Acting is different from mental gymnastics. You try to discover as much about the character as you can, but a large area is mysterious.
The minute you start believing your own success, you're on the road to ruin.
It's not age that makes a life. It's what you do with it.
You can't be ashamed of the work you've done. You make a decision, and then you have to live with the consequences.
All my life, I've been the kind of person who could shatter easily.
Do you know what I'm working on now? My first feature as a director.
I often say the last role I played that really touched me and where I was able to access what I really am was Bonnie, which is kind of sad when you think how early in my career that was.
I've been working on this feature script for Master Class, a play by Terrence McNally that won a lot of Tonys.
My mother's passion for something more, to write a different destiny for a dirt-poor farmer's daughter, was to shape my entire life.
So many people are called but few serve as actors, you know what I mean?
Years are not important, my dear.
You just sort of let them go for a while, but it was time to have something done to my teeth. I'm glad. It's going to be good. Tom Cruise has braces now, too. I'm right in style.
I want to play real people. Real women. I want to be where the fun is - closer to humanity.
Unless you come to terms with your past... it haunts you, and you never leave it.
I get angry when people push people around.
I sort of dropped the ball after 'Bonnie and Clyde.'
Once you reach a certain age, you realize that men aren't as important as you once thought they were.
When I was discovered, everything happened like dominos. I don't know how to talk about it now because it's too mindblowing. It's so unreal, and yet it's real.
'Network' was formidable in the sense that I was playing a strong, avant-garde woman.
I feel like I'm a beginner in everything in life.
God bless McNally, it's got some fantastic stuff in it, but it's no easy task to make a movie out of.
I still have, I hope, a lot of years and there are still a lot of things I want to do.
It's interesting as one grows older to keep in touch with the cutting edge.
Since Star Wars, that film's success led to bigger budgets, more hardware, that the great movies like the ones I did, which were studio movies, are now independent movies. They range from half a million to several million, and a lot of those have very interesting roles.
Well, softness and femininity like yours people don't expect of me; so when they find me emotional and capable of real vulnerability, they're surprised.
You are an athlete when you're onstage. You can't get tired.
