Sally Field quotes:

Had there not been a Mary Todd, there would not have been an Abraham Lincoln. She found him when he was a young lawyer and really a bumpkin. No one knew of him, but she recognized his brilliance.

But I was losing so much bone density that I would have been in grave danger. And I mean grave danger. If I had let it go just a few more years I could have broken my hip or spine just picking up my granddaughter.

I wouldn't mind having my heart broken because it would mean that I had that much feeling connected to somebody. And that would be really great.

I think that's very sad, that I haven't allowed my heart to be broken. I have broken a few.

I'm looking for a bunch of new tchotchkes that represent the new part of my life.

I've never had my heart broken. It's a very sad state of affairs. I think everybody should have their heart broken. I don't think it says anything good about me at all.

I so believe that older women have tremendous value to their families, their community, their country, the world.

I joined the Actors Studio and began to work with Lee Strasberg, and that changed my work.

I've never had my heart broken.

I grew up in a show-business family, but we were working-class show business. There was nothing glamorous about it. You had great things one day and the next day, nothing.

My last son is leaving to go to college; my grandchildren are being born. My mother is living with me.

I was just lucky enough to grow up in a time when they actually had drama departments in schools.

I had to let my ego go a long time ago.

The roles... the deep roles that I've gotten to play have turned my course. They've changed my life experience.

I always wanted to be a great actor.

I mean, the only thing that matters to me is getting to the work - getting to do the work. And I don't really care where it is: whether it's on stage or on television or in film.

The only thing that matters to me is getting to the work - getting to do the work. And I don't really care where it is: whether it's on stage or on television or in film.

I would take plays and I would cut out all the other dialogue and make long monologues because I felt the other kids weren't taking it as seriously as I did.

There are not a lot of places for an actor to explore what it's like to be a woman in her 60s. There aren't any films about it and there very few TV series about it.

In the 1970s and 1980s, I got to do some great work. The Oscars are really nice, but the best part is that I had the opportunity to do that kind of work.

There are parts of me that I feel are beautiful, but they don't have anything to do with my nose.

I came from a real working-class show business family.

But I was losing so much bone density that I would have been in grave danger. And I mean grave danger. If I had let it go just a few more years I could have broken my hip or spine just picking up my granddaughter

Forrest Gump' is filled full of moments where your heart just cheers.

Like a jerk, I went to a nutritionist and I ate the most repulsive, awful things. I didn't allow myself to eat chocolate cake and french fries and cheeseburgers.

You know, people really don't understand what actors do.

I've done some good work and some not-good work.

I'd been kind of a hiccup in my parents' lives. They lost track of me and I didn't know what I was going to do with myself. And then fate reached in and took me in its hands. I was discovered right out of high school and started getting work.

The opportunities I've had to play really complex characters - which haven't been a lot, but some - you never get over them.

I was raised to sense what someone wanted me to be and be that kind of person. It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else's eyes.

Motherhood is given the brush-off in our society. 'Oh, I'm just a mom,' you hear women say. 'Just' a mom? Please! Being a mom is everything. It's mentorship, it's inspirational, it's our hope for the future.

It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else's eyes.

For almost every character I've played in the 43 years I've been working as a professional actor, I've found parts of myself. We are all bipolar in the tiniest essence of what it is. We are all multiple personalities, in a sense, and to be healthy mentally, I think, learning what those multiple personalities are and inviting them in your life is really important.

I have a tendency to think of myself as the mutt of the litter. I'm not purebred.

I haven't had an orthodox career, and I've wanted more than anything to have your respect. The first time I didn't feel it, but this time I feel it, and I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!

Last year I was diagnosed with osteoporosis.

But there isn't any second half of myself waiting to plug in and make me whole. It's there. I'm already whole.

There was really a snobbery from people in film - they did not want people who had come from television. It was the poor relation of show business, and especially situation comedy.

I think the first thing I did was several scenes from Romeo and Juliet.

I really have no ulterior motive in taking on certain roles. I have no larger issue that I really want to show people. I'm an actor, that's all. I just do what I do.

Last year I was diagnosed with osteoporosis. I was over 50, Caucasian, thin, small-framed, and I have it in my genetic history. It was almost a slam-dunk.

'Forrest Gump' is filled full of moments where your heart just cheers.

You can't help but feel all the human-rights issues.

When I was born, the doctor looked at my mother and said, 'Congratulations, you have an actor!'

Change is never easy.

My agent said, 'You aren't good enough for movies.' I said, 'You're fired.'

You lose your habitual behavior, which allowed you to sort of zone out. You have to be here, you have to be now, you have to be present.

I can't deny the fact that you like me! You like me!

Acting has been my lover and best friend. My confidant and my tormentor. It has given me support and broken my heart and mended it.

All people want on this earth is to connect with others. Other than eating and sleeping. Human beings need to connect with other human beings. Otherwise, they lose their mind.

And I realized that sometimes the greatest triumphs in your life come in on little cat feet and sit on silent haunches and it's up to you to see it before it moves on.

Don't think for one minute, whoever you are, that you're not important. You're so vitally important to stand up and be heard and do what it is you do.

Don't you be afraid, sweetheart. Death is just a part of life, something we're all destined to do.

Fear is where the information is.

Get over it. Get on with your life.

I am such a notorious hermit - almost pathological. And, I'm not a hoarder. But that's just a symptom of things that I do feel.

I certainly have a very colorful nature, filled with great highs and great lows... in my early adulthood I probably was grappling with some serious depression issues.

I did comedies for 10 years and I learned a great deal.

I didn't back into being an actor, I was born one.

I don't want to look old and worn, but what can you do? My real focus is being an actor. I care more about having the opportunity to play roles that I haven't played than I care if my neck looks like someone's bedroom curtains.

I find that's one of the great things about acting-you have the opportunity to stand in somebody else's shoes. Each character faces a dilemma in her life, and as an actor you're able to step into that character's skin, look through her eyes. You leave transformed, a different person, because once you live a little bit of someone's life, it changes you.

I have never been beautiful in cliche terms.

I haven't had an orthodox career.

I MUST go to what desperately frightens me -- the chance of failure.

I never really address myself to any image anybody has of me. That's like fighting with ghosts.

I really like cable T.V.

I started to repeat to myself "If I'm not where I want to be, it's because I'm not good enough... yet." Which meant it was up to me.

I think when you're reaching outside of something you're comfortable doing, you're just heading towards a light. I don't think you stop to justify it.

I wanted to be Katharine Hepburn-ish - there was a bit of nobility about her.

I wouldnt mind having my heart broken because it would mean that I had that much feeling connected to somebody. And that would be really great.

If I hadn't fought back, I might have been Gidget forever.

If mothers ruled the world, there wouldn't be any God-damned wars in the first place!

If you have the opportunity to play these characters that are three-dimensional and very deeply rooted in an emotional level, they stay with you. They lived in you anyway, the density of them. It takes a while to realize how they've influenced you.

I'm an actor. I'm trying to be the character and do what they're doing.

I'm highly emotional, so I'm highly aware of humiliation.

I'm so vigorous, and I so take it for granted, because I've always been a real physical person.

In reality, people are people. Age does a weird thing to your body on the outside. It makes your face fall and weird things happen all over. But inside, you're the same person you always were.

I've had such an odd career.

Louis Armstrong said you have to live a life. And that's right. If you don't live a life, you don't got nothin' to come out your horn.

My agent said, 'You aren't good enough for movies.' I said, 'You're fired.

Never, ever, have I felt really accepted in Hollywood.

People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?

Quit thinking about your weight and start thinking about your worth and who you are and what you haven't done yet. What you want to accomplish.

The bad thing about being with an actor is that the role he's in stays with him all the time. The good thing about being with an actor - well, I can't think of any good thing.

The whole world is waiting. The whole world needs you.

There are some actors who are my contemporaries who I think of as purebreds and I'm not.

There were the days when women were under contract, and they were thought of as a commodity, so they hired the best writers and a lot of them were women at the time. This was in the thirties and forties, to make product for the people who were under contract, who were their assets to the studios. But that doesn't exist anymore - and as a result, the people who are in the industry write products that interest them.

There's always been a shortage of roles for three-dimensional women, no matter what age. If you look at the statistics on women in film, be they behind the camera or in front of the camera, and it's pretty nauseous-making. It always has been.

To watch how lovingly your children parent their own children is to know profound achievement.

Western Costume, and the old Universal wardrobe that is huge and they're getting rid of so much of it now, which is sad.

What does the Academy Award mean? I don't think it means much of anything.

When you have kept yourself isolated, no one relates to you, you have no way of understanding actually who you are.

When you're old, you are more certain of who you are, and that may be a good thing or a bad thing.

You just do the best you can with what you've got... and sometimes magic strikes.

You like me, You really like me!!!

You may be a little older, or a little more neurotic, or a little more closed off. But inside, you're just the same.

You try to get rid of the things that are weighing you down.