Quotes from Debra Winger

I was never afraid of failure after that because, I think, coming that close to death you get kissed. With the years, the actual experience of course fades, but the flavor of it doesn't. I just had a real sense of what choice do I have but to live fully?

When I was younger I probably didn't understand something basic about tact, but I think it kept faint-hearted people at arm's distance and that's not such a bad thing, because life is short and I know the kind of people I want to work with.

I don't think it is worth trying to look 10 years younger through surgery.

I just want to sleep, and eat, and learn about what's going on in the world.

Show me the story. I just want to tell a story that pulls me forward.

Actors always want you to believe something else even though that's the truth and to do that well it's almost a dying art.

Most bad behavior comes from insecurity.

I think it's a little irresponsible for women who choose surgery to then say they can portray the average woman on the street, because if the average woman can't afford those treatments, then she's going to say, 'I'm 53 and I don't look like that,' and start thinking she's ugly or inadequate.

Bad acting is the ultimate inconsideration.

Just because we're on schedule is no reason to shoot bad acting. Someone once said to me, 'You're inconsiderate.' And I said, 'Inconsiderate? Bad acting is the ultimate inconsideration.' It's a collective slap to a million faces at the same time.

Ultimately, however, the script an actor enlivens is someone else's words.

Denying the lines on our faces makes a comment about age and wisdom I don't care to make.

A good marriage is different to a happy marriage.

I never lost my interest in acting but I did lose my interest in the business and what I had to go through to make a film. I felt saturated, you know, like a sponge when it's saturated - it's not good.

There's a small club of women who are willing to age.

My grandmother gave birth to 13 children and I come from a long line of women who gave birth in their 40s.

People pay to see movies with women looking beautiful, but I think there will be a place for me to play women looking my own age.

An actress in a film starts every day with an hour and a half in front of a mirror, with hair and make-up and costumes.

I hope to find the roles that are age appropriate but not yearning to be younger, or parenting ad nauseam.

I don't believe in careers. I believe in work. I'm not interested in some 'big picture that would be really good for me'.

Granted there are only seven stories in the universe. And I agree with that. But give me a great variation of those stories. And literate.

I never thought I would start working again, and I did, but it was really hard, and I don't know that I would advise anyone to step back the way I did.

I was the all-American face.

It's such an amazing thing to be loved for who you are.