Dishonesty, lack of integrity catches up with you.
Dawn Steel
You're not free in life until you're free of wanting other people's approval.
An epic is the canvas Brian DePalma paints on.
There's no training for the business, no credentials necessary to enter... It's all about entrepreneurs, innate street intelligence, and instincts. It's a business which encourages people with dreams. That's the essence of Hollywood.
I was so busy climbing up this ladder, staying above the water. If there was only room for one woman in a room, I wanted to be her. I'm not proud of it. I certainly don't feel that way now. It was an absolute evolution for me.
What sets Iris Stevenson apart is her success in a system that in no way supports her - with the hardest possible children to convert.
If you can market smut and toilet paper, you can market movies.
Don't believe everything you read in the trades.
Visibility is dangerous because if a guy cuts you off in traffic, you can't call him a name - it might get to the press.
In my family, education was something you endured. My parents weren't educated past high school, and the only book in our house was a 'Reader's Digest' condensed book. Can you imagine?
When I get anxious and scared, I probably lose my temper more than I should.
I don't want my child to have unhealthy values.
Foreign revenues are tremendously important, but foreign audiences are dying for American movies, not for films they could make themselves.
I'm tired of being the bad guy all the time, saying 'no' to people I like.
Some friends of mine had parents who made school a treat, a gift - not something to be endured.
I was the first studio executive to meet with Sean Penn after 'Taps' in 1981. I was anxious to develop things with him when nobody knew who he was.
A really hard lesson to learn is that most of the time, it's not about you.
I was trained to be loud, passionate, direct. I didn't realize for the longest time I was intimidating.
The more I can stay on the creative side, the happier I am.
I'm not Mary Poppins, but I think I functioned with integrity.
We have to make some movies we have passion for, respect for.
I just love the idea of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, whether it's the success of 'Cool Runnings,' which is the success of four guys from Jamaica who had never seen snow, or whether it's my success, just as a human being.
You have to persevere, you have to just not give up, and you have to know what you want. You have to be able to see your dream.
If I can do it, anyone can do it.
Some children's music is aimed just at kids, and it can be very childlike.
I think exciting sexuality is part of the fantasy, part of the entertainment of a love story.
If the doors are going to close on me, it's a little late.
We manufacture a culture in the movie business, and whatever we put out creates a dark side and a bright side, too.
It hurt me deeply, this reputation as tough, hard, mean.
In some ways I was curt because there's an unbelievable amount to accomplish in a day.
I wanted to be respected by filmmakers, and why should they respect me if they saw that my superiors did not treat me with respect.
I would walk into my office, and I would close the door, and I would say, 'I won't cry, I won't cry, I won't cry'... At least, I wasn't going to let them see me cry.
That's my proudest accomplishment: that I don't feel like a grown-up.
I have to tell you, I'm a great teacher. Ask anybody who worked for me, except some secretaries who weren't very good.
It's unfathomable how you live without your mother.
I had an obsession with underarm shields - pointy ones, round ones, full ones, half ones.
Working together is the quickest road to marital problems.
I'd like my epitaph to read 'Given the amount of time she had, she did the best job she could.' Also that I'm a nice person... and a good mother.
I wouldn't want anyone to think that work is the major thing in my life.
Having money is better than not having it, but I've been poor, and I've survived.
It's about passion, and if somebody is passionate about a development deal, they're going to get it made.
The men I worked for didn't look at me as having any gender at all. They regarded me more as a workhorse.
People on the lower rungs are more vulnerable to sexual harassment than those at the top.
I love stories about underdogs.
Historically, Vietnam movies have been profitable. All of them. 'Platoon,' 'Full Metal Jacket,' 'Apocalypse Now,' 'The Deer Hunter.' You're looking at movies that have been not pretty successful, but very successful. The foreign numbers have been extraordinary.
You do sequels because they are tent poles. They open well, and they hold the tent up. But in between, you make a movie you respect.
I hate management. I hate management. I just do.
I felt that if I shared the lessons that I learned - both the good ones and the bad ones - that I might make the climb a little less painful for other women.
I react to stress badly. I handle it better these days. But I'm a very straightforward person.
I don't know that I would say abrasive. In some ways, I was curt because there's an unbelievable amount to accomplish in a day, and maybe I was insensitive considering the pressures and responsibilities of these jobs.
