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All Quotes by author - Ellen Barkin
" Acting is a matter of giving away secrets. "
Acting
Secrets
Matter
" A successful marriage isn't necessarily one that lasts until you're dead. "
You
Successful
Marriage
" But one of the hardest things for me to do was to access anger. I could do it on stage. But when I did it on film it was hard for me. That probably has to do with the intimacy of film. And my own personal issues with expressing anger. So I had to learn how to do that. "
My Own
Own
Personal
" Gabriel Byrne is an extraordinary human being. We have two extraordinary kids and we work at it. We were always friends. He stuck by me through very hard times, and I hope he'd say the same about me. "
Me
Friends
Hope
" I am to a fault an introspective person. But I am not a reflective person - except for a big mistake, and then I really think about it. "
Person
Fault
I Am
" I'd never say I'll never have a facelift, but I'm way too scared of looking like a different person. I have no philosophical or political position on plastic surgery; I just don't want to look crazy. And I don't like not being able to tell how old someone is: It's creepy. "
Look
Political
Say
" I eat cheese and salami and a lot of fried chicken. I eat a big bag of oatmeal-raisin cookies every night and I don't gain weight. I still look OK as long as I'm dressed. "
Night
Bag
Long
" I guess if you're lucky enough not to have to pay your rent, then you or I take much more seriously the kind of work that I do, what it takes for me to leave two teenagers of my own and six stepchildren and a husband and four grandchildren. "
Work
Me
Husband
" I guess I worry about weird existential things, like how do we spend our final act. This is a very emotional question. I can't answer it without crying. I think, You're 56 years old, what did you do? You raised two good kids. What am I going to do now that is as meaningful as that? I don't know the answer yet. "
Good
You
Worry
" I have huge hands and feet. I'm 5'6" and wear a size 10 shoe. "
Wear
Feet
Hands
" I have no problem being 53. Why would I want to be 35 again? I want to discover who I am in my 50s. And if I tried too hard to look younger, it would seem that I was uncomfortable with who I am, wouldn't it? "
Look
Want
Problem
" I have skinny genes. My mother weighs 90 pounds. "
Genes
Pounds
Skinny
" I just would never go audition, and yet I was in very visible places where people would come looking for actors. I say I'm lazy, though I'm sure if I were in therapy for a lot of years, it would turn out to be a lot more than laziness. After awhile, it was, like, too embarrassing for me not to go on auditions. I had to be humiliated into it. "
Say
Looking
Me
" I like being married. I like taking care of people, having someone to make dinner for. "
Like
Someone
People
" I'm a little more extreme than a homebody. Unless there's some event I really have to go to, I don't like to leave my house. "
Like
Go
Leave
" I'm just curious, who's more fit to raise a child? A loving committed same-sex couple or an unmarried 15-year-old with no income and really no skills to parent? "
Child
Skills
Parent
" I'm Method trained. How is this character like me? What does she think of her mother? What does her mother think of her? It's like construction, and then, yes, you hope you're talented and that the universe aligns and captures the kind of laborer's work you've done and whatever else sprinkles down on you, and it's all caught on film or onstage. "
Mother
Me
Hope
" I'm not limited by my gender, and I don't think anyone else should be either. Because I am the age I am and I sort of rode the crest of the first profound post-suffragette feminists, I wasn't fighting to burn my bra. Those women fought that fight just seconds before I came into womanhood. "
Fighting
I Am
Think
" I'm tenacious, I think - I know - and I do also have a quality where if you tell me I can't do something, if I know I can't do it I'm the first to raise my hand and say, 'I can't do that.' But there is a big Bronx, New York Jew in me that just says, 'Really? Really? You think I - yes, I can. I can do it. I can do it.' "
Quality
Me
New York
" I remember my first friend who got sick. It was 1981, and the disease was called the gay cancer. I don't think the word 'AIDS' came out until '84. I just remember it being terrifying as more people got sick. We didn't know how you could catch it, you heard all kinds of crazy things. "
People
Think
Remember
" I studied acting for 10 years before I went for an audition. I studied with Lee Strasberg and Actors Studio teachers, and went to the High School of Performing Arts. "
Acting
Teachers
School
" It is clear I was never the Pretty Girl. I had my two front teeth knocked out when I was 10 and didn't fix them until I was 19. I have a crooked smile and a nose that looks like it's been broken 12 times but never has been. My nose was always red, so people called me Rudolph. My whole face is off-center. "
People
Smile
Face
" It's no stretch to picture me standing next to Al Pacino or Robert De Niro. Those are ethnic New York men. I'm an ethnic New York girl. Everybody has their limitations. I mean, I should never be cast as Queen Elizabeth. "
Men
Girl
Me
" I was trained by Method acting teachers and we were taught that aside from whatever gift you may or may not have or the level of that gift, that you were obliged to know how to build a table. It's a craft. It's like being a ballerina or a violinist. "
You
Acting
Know
" I wish I had a little more ambition. But then what would I do? Turn down more roles with more vehemence? Me no likey worky. "
I Wish
Down
Wish
" I would love to do a television show in New York City. "
City
New York
Television
" Men who love their mothers treat women wonderfully. And they have enormous respect for women. "
Women
Who
Respect
" My first movie was 'Diner.' My second movie was 'Tender Mercies.' I did really good work. "
Good
Work
Diner
" My husband thinks he's compromising if we have one cook instead of three. "
He
Cook
Three
" My nickname was Skinabo - 'skin and bones.' "
Nickname
Bones
Skin
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