I felt 'Gone with the Wind' would last five years, and it's lasted over 70 and into a new millennium. There is a special place in my heart for that film and Melanie. She was a remarkable character - a loving person - and because of that, she was a happy person. And Scarlett, of course, was not.

What bothered me was playing one-dimensional parts in films which were really about, 'Boy Meets Girl,' 'Will Boy Get Girl?'

I was just a mini-star when we did 'Gone With the Wind.'

Playing good girls in the 30s was difficult, when the fad was to play bad girls. Actually I think playing bad girls is a bore; I have always had more luck with good girl roles because they require more from an actress.

I grew up in a pretty economically safe, physically safe household, and, you know, now my life is defined by other people's trauma and by other people's emotional experience with it, and I think I'm richer for that, frankly.

No matter how much we try to run away from this thirst for the answer to life, for the meaning of life, the intensity only gets stronger and stronger. We cannot escape these spiritual hungers.

It's a funny thing, life... as much as you don't want the sun to come up, it comes up the next day. Life continues on and you have to make a choice in how you handle it.

That really important freedom in my life, the freedom to marry, came about because of choices that were made by policymakers who had power over me and millions of others.