I went to a Catholic school. The private school was good - the teachers wanted all of us to have the freedom to think for ourselves. The education was good at the Catholic school, but you only got that one ideology.
Luckily, I was raised by people whod already seen all the yuck stuff, which is why they originally didnt want me to act. I understood the difference between getting a part at a Hollywood party and getting a job.
I don't care, but I don't get bitter about anything as long as I can work and do the things I love. And it would be a beautiful world if those things I love and that mean something could remain as they are.
I knew you had to go in and audition and maybe they'd hire you, and that's where you start. I had a good understanding about press: that it's the actor's responsibility to publicize his or her films.
It's very easy to get caught up in - there's a hype going on now that I haven't seen in years, and it's actually more about press than it is about an actor's work or what films they've been in.
I like movies about longing and desperation, and dark and light things, stories about people struggling to raise children, and to have relationships and be intimate with each other.
Whether a movie part comes to me or I seek it out, there's always this journey to darkness through light, or vice versa; that element has been in almost everything I've done.
It sounds like a cliché, but mother is really one of my closest friends, and so's my dad. He and I weren't very close when I was younger, but now we're best friends.
What about good small roles for women? I've told my agent, if there are two great scenes in a film, I don't care, if it's something with that great edge to it.
When you're playing someone who has a strong ego about themselves, you can't play them when you have the opposite opinion of the one they have of themselves.
I hope we can be consummate artists as women or revolutionaries, or whatever women want to be, and also have love, not only for ourselves but from a partner.
Whatever character you play, it gives you the chance to expose another side of yourself that maybe you've never felt comfortable with, or never knew about
I really don't consider myself to be a conventional Hollywood star. I've never really been marketed by the big studios to do mass market box office films.
I'm interested in human nature. That's why I chose to become an actor. Whatever people are struggling with, the struggle is often where the drama is.
I love to rescue animals.... The pounds were so crowded they were putting animals down almost immediately. Seven thousand dogs were put to sleep.
As someone who has been asked to ask David Lynch what his movies mean for 25 years, I'm very careful about asking artists what their art means.
I still have a lot to learn. I just have two cats, and when I'm in a bad mood - you know, it would be very easy to throw a cat across a room.
![I left our home to work on a movie, and while I was away, my boyfriend [Billy Bob Thorton] got married, and I've never heard from him again.](https://quotes.thefamouspeople.com/images/quotes/laura-dern-135588.jpg)
I left our home to work on a movie, and while I was away, my boyfriend [Billy Bob Thorton] got married, and I've never heard from him again.
I'm lucky enough that directors sometimes seek me out for little projects that people don't even know about, that just surface later on.
I made a commitment to myself: that I wanted to be an actress, and I wanted to do films that make a difference... It has to move people.
Wild at Heart made a few people angry-they thought I was exploiting women by showing that when a woman says no she really means yes.
You don't have to run away from life your whole life. You can really live. You can change. And you can be an agent of change.
What do you say when someone has truly inspired you? How do you express to an artist how deeply their work has affected you?
Unfortunately, overall, movies are a conglomerate. People buy and sell people in this business, which can get really ugly.
It's really fun to act like a bimbo. But it's fun to act like a bimbo only when people know that you really aren't one.
My mother opened a bank account for me when I made $60 on my first day of work as an extra. She's that kind of mother.
I don't turn my nose up at anything. If it's a great part, it's a great part. I'd love to do a box-office hit.
We like our archetypes and heroes to be what they are at face value. And life doesn't work out like that
I feel that movies are gifts that come to you, and there are no accidents in what you end up doing.
I wanted to go to Jupiter. That was my plan from day one, and David Lynch gave me the ticket.
