Jessica Lange

I never felt like I belonged in Minnesota when I was growing up there. That's why I was out the door as soon as I turned 18.

I had never done Shakespeare before, but I don't think you can be an actor and not do it. There were moments when I thought, I'm just not going to be able to pull this off.

To my mind the election was stolen by George Bush and we have been suffering ever since under this man's leadership.

So much of my sense of who I am is tied to mothering. When they left home, I fell into a huge, empty, black hole. Your children are grown and your career has slowed down - all the stuff that took up so much attention is gone, and you're left with expansive time and space.

The only place I've felt was really my home is my cabin up north. There's something in the water there that connects me to that place. There's also this sense of isolation and loneliness about it that I've never been able to shake.

In families there is always the mythology. My father died when my kids were quite young still, and yet they still tell his stories. That is how a person lives on.

I could be making a lot more money now if I had chosen a different kind of movie, but none of that matters to me... I've done the parts I wanted to do.

For me, nothing has ever taken precedence over being a mother and having a family and a home.

This idea of selfishness as a virtue, as opposed to generosity: That, to me, is unnatural.

There was that feminist myth that we can do everything. I don't think you can.

I love being a mother. I loved being a daughter, a sister, a wife. I love being a woman with men. I love having given birth.

What I love about photography, and it's the same thing I love about acting, really, is that it forces you, like, right into the moment, where you can't be distracted, where you can't be, like, thinking about other things or ahead of yourself or behind yourself.