DIANE LANE

When I was 12, all I wanted was to be good at school, and to do something admirable, something you can't take away from me because I'm not popular or beautiful enough.

I don't want to live in a bubble, in my craft or in the world... I can't, I would be cheating myself out of my generation and the world we live in.

I love my work, but there is no price you can put on what you miss when you are away from your kids.

Because that's what intimacy is: It's a willingness to be vulnerable, a willingness to bite my tongue and a willingness to set an example of what I believe in.

I try not to be overly analytical.

For me, going away to work is the hardest part of my life and career.

I don't know what it is, exactly, but there's a negative drag on film sets after the second week or so, a mutinous vibe because the infinite capacities of the directors and everybody else become quite finite and everybody's under the gun and it becomes work.

Because I tend to kind of hide under the sheets when it comes to reality television. I've seen probably one episode of maybe five different shows, and that's about it.

I love the rebelliousness of snail mail, and I love anything that can arrive with a postage stamp. There's something about that person's breath and hands on the letter.

When I really young yet feeling very old, I offered up a lot of myself to the press; I knew it was good copy.

I'm not a bad parent and partner, even if I make a thousand mistakes.

My roles are in some way like children to me. You don't ever really want to scrape one off your shoe.

Well, I didn't really admit that I anywhere until my daughter started school and I knew I couldn't pull up and leave when I felt like it.

I grew up loving horses. I was relatively obsessed, starting with my rocking horse at age 2, all the way through my painting and drawing phase.

To me, there's no greater reward than being around people you care about and can be present with.

If people knew what made hits they'd make more of them, so to have the illusion of control over one's career isn't something I can even pretend to have.

I feel like I'm the most forgiven actress I can think of, probably because of this short memory people have!

For me, I don't even like to promote my films but I have to because it's in the fine print of my contract.

I loved acting, I started as a child and it is interesting because I didn't compare myself to others that were doing the same thing. I just felt that I needed to stay focused and stay out of trouble.

So now I'm left with cigarettes, and I'm trying to scrape that off my shoe and then I'll be done.

I think that directing is the ultimate martyred task of filmmaking, that it has nobility to it. It takes three years to make a film, for the most part. I think it requires the attentiveness of a mother hen.

When I was growing up in New York City, my father was a taxi driver for a time.

But I do love horses. They are such an expression of joy.

I want to sit down, and I want to laugh. Nothing works better for me than watching somebody slip on a banana peel.

I was raised by free-spirited people, though my father gave me a very strong work ethic.