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I Have A Tendency To Think Of Myself As The Mutt Of The Litter. I'm Not Purebred.

-Sally Field

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I Have A Tendency

Sally Field

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I Have A Tendency To Think Of Myself As The Mutt Of The Litter. I'm Not Purebred.

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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

You May Be A Little Older, Or A Little More Neurotic, Or A Little More Closed Off. But Inside, You're Just The Same.

I Haven't Had An Orthodox Career.

I've Had Such An Odd Career. I Always Wanted To Be A Great Actor. I Wanted To Be Katharine Hepburn - Ish - There Was A Bit Of Nobility About Her. Instead I've Always Felt Like The Mutt Standing On The Sidelines, Panting And Saying, "me, Too! How About Me?" That's Just Part Of My Personality.

There Are Some Actors Who Are My Contemporaries Who I Think Of As Purebreds And I'm Not.

I'm An Actor. I'm Trying To Be The Character And Do What They're Doing.

I Didn't Back Into Being An Actor, I Was Born One.

If I Hadn't Fought Back, I Might Have Been Gidget Forever.

I Find That I'm Not As Worried Anymore About What Other People Think. That's A Comfortable Place To Be. And I'm Starting To Let Go Of The Feeling That I Need To Push Myself To Do Things I Don't Want To Do - An Impulse That Has Always Been Linked To The Feeling That I'm Not Enough.

But There Isn't Any Second Half Of Myself Waiting To Plug In And Make Me Whole. It's There. I'm Already Whole.

I Never Felt Safe. In High School, Acting Is What I Did To Stay Sane. It Wasn't About Showing Off; It Was About Revealing Parts Of Myself That I Couldn't Reveal Anyplace Else.

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.

The Roles... The Deep Roles That I've Gotten To Play Have Turned My Course. They've Changed My Life Experience.

Life Experience

I've Had Such An Odd Career.

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.

You Just Do The Best You Can With What You've Got... And Sometimes Magic Strikes.

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.

You Know, People Really Don't Understand What Actors Do.

I Wanted To Be Katharine Hepburn-ish - There Was A Bit Of Nobility About Her.

We Just Fight Our Way Through It. But You Can't Just Get Up And Walk Out Without Repeating The Behavior Over And Over.

I've Grown Used To Being Lonely Over The Years, So I Don't Seek To Change It. But Aren't There Many People Who Are Lonely?

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.

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.

I Think That's Very Sad, That I Haven't Allowed My Heart To Be Broken. I Have Broken A Few.

When You're Old, You Are More Certain Of Who You Are, And That May Be A Good Thing Or A Bad Thing.

I Did Comedies For 10 Years And I Learned A Great Deal.

I'm Highly Emotional, So I'm Highly Aware Of Humiliation.

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.

Not Good Enough

It Took Me A Long Time Not To Judge Myself Through Someone Else's Eyes.

I Came From A Real Working-class Show Business Family.

To Watch How Lovingly Your Children Parent Their Own Children Is To Know Profound Achievement.

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 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.

Change Is Never Easy.

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.

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.

I Don't Know What Happiness Is. I Have Periods Of Feeling Joyous And Peaceful And Excited About What I'm Doing, But I Am Also Frequently Very Sad.

When It Came Down To Doing The Nude Scene, I Couldn't Hide How Humiliating It Was For Me; I Burst Into Tears.

Never, Ever, Have I Felt Really Accepted In Hollywood.

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.

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.

Don't You Be Afraid, Sweetheart. Death Is Just A Part Of Life, Something We're All Destined To Do.

Last Year I Was Diagnosed With Osteoporosis.

When I Was Born, The Doctor Looked At My Mother And Said, "congratulations, You Have An Actor!"

Congratulations

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.

You Can't Help But Feel All The Human-rights Issues.

Get Over It. Get On With Your Life.

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 Must Go To What Desperately Frightens Me - The Chance Of Failure.

I'm So Vigorous, And I So Take It For Granted, Because I've Always Been A Real Physical Person.

Physical Attraction

I'm Looking For A Bunch Of New Tchotchkes That Represent The New Part Of My Life.

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.

I Joined The Actors Studio And Began To Work With Lee Strasberg, And That Changed My Work.

What Does The Academy Award Mean? I Don’t Think It Means Much Of Anything.

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.

If Mothers Ruled The World, There Wouldn’t Be Any Goddamn Wars In The First Place.

'forrest Gump' Is Filled Full Of Moments Where Your Heart Just Cheers.

There Are Parts Of Me That I Feel Are Beautiful, But They Don't Have Anything To Do With My Nose.

You Try To Get Rid Of The Things That Are Weighing You Down.

When You Have Kept Yourself Isolated, No One Relates To You, You Have No Way Of Understanding Actually Who You Are.

I Really Like Cable T.v.

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.

My Agent Said, "you Aren't Good Enough For Movies." I Said, "you're Fired."

I Can't Deny The Fact That You Like Me! You Like Me!

Acceptance Speech

I Have A Tendency To Think Of Myself As The Mutt Of The Litter. I'm Not Purebred.

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.

The People Who Stand On The Sidelines And Criticize Aren't Actually In The Arena, Spilling Their Blood.

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.

Western Costume, And The Old Universal Wardrobe That Is Huge And They're Getting Rid Of So Much Of It Now, Which Is Sad.

I So Believe That Older Women Have Tremendous Value To Their Families, Their Community, Their Country, The World.

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.

I Always Wanted To Be A Great Actor.

People, I Just Want To Say, You Know, Can We All Get Along?

The Whole World Is Waiting. The Whole World Needs You.

I Had To Let My Ego Go A Long Time Ago.

I Never Really Address Myself To Any Image Anybody Has Of Me. That's Like Fighting With Ghosts.

I Have Never Been Beautiful In Cliche Terms.

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.

Fear Is Where The Information Is.

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.

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!

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.

Many People Must Have Looked At My Life And Thought I Was Quite Fortunate. But I Felt Lousy About Myself - And As You Now Know, I Didn't Come From A Place Where I Had A Lot Of Self-confidence.

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.

I've Never Had My Heart Broken.

Broken Promises

I Was Just Lucky Enough To Grow Up In A Time When They Actually Had Drama Departments In Schools.

I've Done Some Good Work And Some Not-good Work.

It Took Me Getting To My 50s Before I Could Say "whatever!" About Other People's Criticism, Especially When It's Not True.

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.

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.

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.

Thinking About You

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.

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.

My Last Son Is Leaving To Go To College; My Grandchildren Are Being Born. My Mother Is Living With Me.

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.

The Opportunities I've Had To Play Really Complex Characters - Which Haven't Been A Lot, But Some - You Never Get Over Them.

I Think The First Thing I Did Was Several Scenes From Romeo And Juliet.

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