Annette Bening

I love the luxury of the camera. The camera does so much for you. I like the secrets a camera can tell.

Acting is not about being famous, it's about exploring the human soul.

There are so many different kinds of relationships, so it's sort of difficult to define what is considered normal.

When I watch my kids, and I see the primal level at which the sibling relationships are formed, then I completely understand what these unresolved adult sibling problems are based on. You know, 'Mom liked you better' and, 'You got your own room and I didn't.'

Even with a stable character, you want something surprising to happen, hopefully because that's what the camera loves the most. That's what is great about film.

What makes us love a character is a character that tries.

I saw a Shakespeare play when I was - I guess I was in junior high. And I just fell in love with the theater because, for me, it was a combination of big ideas and feeling.

And if there's anything movies can do in a way that I just love, and I love as an audience is, 'Show me something I don't know about. Show me something I haven't seen.'

Right now, I love the fact that I have so many opportunities, but I know this privileged position cannot last. That doesn't mean that I'll stop working. I picture myself as an old actress doing cameos in films with people saying: 'Isn't that that Bening woman?'

Everybody has a public life, and they have their own private life. Everybody has their secrets. Everybody has their own private, you know, agonies as well as joys. And that's what great drama, whether it's the movies or the theater, that's what it shows.

My mother is not somebody who's troubled by aging.

I don't really have a choice. I'm getting older.