If I can help one person in this world, then it's enough, and I've done my job.
Diane Ladd
Have a little faith, kick a little dirt.
We all have the same destiny. The difference is opening ourselves up to possibilities to joy, hope, and happiness along the way. Give yourself and others a chance to take advantage of what's out there and available.
If you try to talk about yourself honestly when you're an actor, you come off as stuck on yourself.
You know what I did? I turned down an offer to do 'Enemy of the People' with Steve McQueen. It doesn't matter that the film was never really released. A movie like that, successful or not, adds to your credits. It leads to other roles.
Many years ago, I used to say, 'I haven't lived long enough to be great.' Now I don't say that.
They do awful things in the press. One newspaper in England said I was 12 years older than I am, and I was ready to sue.
Maureen O'Sullivan did 'Hannah and Her Sisters' with Mia Farrow, her daughter, but O'Sullivan had a very minor role.
I wanted to be a district attorney and solve hidden problems or maybe even be a leper-colony missionary and save people.
I always had a trunk full of good reviews. I'd get magnificent reviews, and I'd be standing out on the unemployment line!
I lost many a role to actresses who couldn't do the job one-hundredth as good as I could.
My personality just steps away, and I'm in direct connection when I'm on stage.
I can do Shakespeare, Ibsen, English accents, Irish accents, no accent, stand on my head, tap dance, sing, look 17 or look 70.
I had to force myself not to be overly protective because I had lost one child.
I wanted to do 'Texas Trilogy' on stage. But it didn't do well in New York. In fact, it did very badly there, thanks to the critics. It was said that Preston Jones, the author, died of ulcer complications, but the truth was that the critics killed him.
For 30 years, which I never talked about in Hollywood, I actually worked with doctors lecturing and doing some medical intuitive counseling both in a medical setting and for the community at large.
What the advertisers are trying to do by eliminating residuals is the most appalling form of greed that I cry thinking about it.
Chemotherapy is such a hard, hard kiss. Anything we can do to alleviate its side effects should be intelligently explored with an open mind.
Did any agents ever put Diane Ladd up for some of the great parts, even though she always got great reviews? No! But do they put up the girlfriend of the studio executive who's gonna do them a favor later? You betcha.
It took 17 years to get 'Rambling Rose' made from the time Calder Willingham wrote the script adapted from his novel. Ed Scherick, the producer, was interested in it. Martha Coolidge was interested in directing it.
The big thrillers may make people aware of the violence in the society, and I guess that serves a purpose.
To work with someone you love is something special, an incredible experience. But it could be a negative. You have to make a strong commitment to be honest; you're not just being polite, like strangers on an airplane; you're working.
I really can't stand not to be loved. I really can't. If I walk into a room and feel there are people who don't really like me, I have to leave.
After all these years in the business, I really feel that actors are used. People treat actors worse than they treat children. It's always, 'Do me a favor,' it's always, 'Help me out,' it's always, 'You carry the load,' and then they don't want to admit what you've done.
