Diane Lane quotes:

When I was growing up in New York City, my father was a taxi driver for a time.

I think the secret to happiness is having a Teflon soul. Whatever comes your way, you either let it slide or you cook with it.

I've found there to be a tremendous amount of East Coast snobbery in the journalism world.

I love the rebelliousness of snail mail, and I love anything that can arrive with a postage stamp. There's something about that person's breath and hands on the letter.

Sometimes I think opposable thumbs were invented so teenage girls could use text messaging.

I'm not a bad parent and partner, even if I make a thousand mistakes.

You really can't take a cat and turn it into a dog, or try and get lemons off an apple tree, or what have you.

I don't really know how to relate to a long-term day-in day-out kind of comfortable relationship.

Independent films have a very different cachet than success films.

For me, going away to work is the hardest part of my life and career.

I grew up loving horses. I was relatively obsessed, starting with my rocking horse at age 2, all the way through my painting and drawing phase.

I feel like I'm the most forgiven actress I can think of, probably because of this short memory people have!

I think that directing is the ultimate martyred task of filmmaking, that it has nobility to it. It takes three years to make a film, for the most part. I think it requires the attentiveness of a mother hen.

I want to sit down, and I want to laugh. Nothing works better for me than watching somebody slip on a banana peel.

I think fun is an important part of the entertainment industry, and it should be. Anybody who's not incorporating some of that into their work needs to take a break, go away, and have an attitude adjustment.

I can tell you that, you know, when I went to my first movie premiere, it was my own movie, and I wore the best jeans I had and my favorite top. You know, I made sure my hair had some wave in it because I braided it the night before myself.

I don't lie. I would never stuff my bra because it's going to come off and the truth is going to be revealed. I don't like that padding. I try to be completely - if not brutally - honest.

Because I tend to kind of hide under the sheets when it comes to reality television. I've seen probably one episode of maybe five different shows, and that's about it.

But I do love horses. They are such an expression of joy.

When I really young yet feeling very old, I offered up a lot of myself to the press; I knew it was good copy.

It's always refreshing to step into another time.

I've always had this unresolved desire to prove that I could get a Ph.D., or contribute something else to the world.

It's nice to have a pause to parent and to be more present at home, teaching them how to drive cars and navigate boys and all this sort of thing.

The industry's memory is quite short, it's true.

To me, there's no greater reward than being around people you care about and can be present with.

Well, I didn't really admit that I anywhere until my daughter started school and I knew I couldn't pull up and leave when I felt like it.

I wish I could always look like I've just finished a really good laugh.

You can't get work without working.

I'm fascinated by how Hollywood has changed since I started. Today it's about immediate delivery. There's less risk and less art.

Americans are like Pac Man. We just eat our way through the day. There's always something going into the mouth.

I loved acting, I started as a child and it is interesting because I didn't compare myself to others that were doing the same thing. I just felt that I needed to stay focused and stay out of trouble.

My roles are in some way like children to me. You don't ever really want to scrape one off your shoe.

So now I'm left with cigarettes, and I'm trying to scrape that off my shoe and then I'll be done.

You see the movie with the music and the editing and all the parts that you weren't there for when it was being filmed, and you really appreciate all the names that are scrolling by. You realize that you accomplished so much.

I was raised by free-spirited people, though my father gave me a very strong work ethic.

I think that anybody that smiles automatically looks better.

Well, I can fake my way around some things, but I don't think I would be good at betting.

When I was about seven, I started touring the globe as part of New York's La MaMa theater company - without my parents!

For me, I don't even like to promote my films but I have to because it's in the fine print of my contract.

I love my work, but there is no price you can put on what you miss when you are away from your kids.

Because that's what intimacy is: It's a willingness to be vulnerable, a willingness to bite my tongue and a willingness to set an example of what I believe in.

I have just enough attention to feel glamorous and important.

I like someone who's suffered from both sides.

Blessings come in disguise. And challenges can be a blessing.

You'll never have any mental muscle if you don't have any heavy stuff to pick up.

I would say chemistry between two people is very powerful. You have to fight to keep it, but if you don't have it, you can't manufacture it.

I bought into the myth that you are not complete without romantic love, without a mate. And it can really distract you from your goals. But sometimes you have to take a leap.

There is something wonderful about coming to terms with time - that it is finite. You want to have as much joy in your life as possible, and you take responsibility for your own joy.

If people knew what made hits they'd make more of them, so to have the illusion of control over one's career isn't something I can even pretend to have.

I don't know what it is, exactly, but there's a negative drag on film sets after the second week or so, a mutinous vibe because the infinite capacities of the directors and everybody else become quite finite and everybody's under the gun and it becomes work.

I try not to be overly analytical.

When I was 12, all I wanted was to be good at school, and to do something admirable, something you can't take away from me because I'm not popular or beautiful enough.

Every film is its own experience, its own planet, its own family. It seems infinite when you're working on it, and then it's suddenly very finite, and it's done.

I know I've made the right decision when I've followed my heart.

More yoga in the world is what we need.

I don't want to live in a bubble, in my craft or in the world...I can't, I would be cheating myself out of my generation and the world we live in.

My parents treated my like I had a brain - which, in turn, caused me to have one.

I take comfort that aging happens to everybody. It's part of life. Aging offers great lessons in dignity, since the indignity wins in the end. Yes, it bothers me when I have lines or puffiness or droops. But it connects me with the human race. Like weather bringing people together, aging brings people together.

I think I'd be in an entirely different business if it were easy.

Catholics have guilt and Jews have guilt, fine. But mothers can trump them all.

You can only be a virgin once. There can only be one first time.

That's why they call it work, because it's not what you'd prefer to do with your free time.