Quotes from Gena Rowlands

But you base everything on people you know.

The thing about acting is you don't want to let on how enjoyable it is or then everybody would want to become an actress. But it really is. It's a pleasure to go and exchange your identity.

I can never have a poker face. Anybody looking at me can tell exactly what I'm thinking.

Never in my life have I ever even thought about anything else [ being anything other than an actress].

I'd wanted to be [an actress] all my life.

I like subtitles. Sometimes I wish all movies had subtitles.

Bette Davis had very strong opinions and was not afraid to express them. She wasn't afraid of anything that I ever saw. And she was so funny. She's just funny and she was laughing all the time.

Paddy Chayefksy was writing and it was a time where everybody was happy to be there [on TV].

I think that I was lucky to have that period of time [ like coming to New York] because everything was so exciting and new.

I love independent filmmaking. I don't agree with a lot of it, but that's the point.

People in independent film have a passion; they're not in it for the money.

I just loved Bette Davis and the fact that I had a chance to work with her [on the 1979 TV movie Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter] was momentous.

You just can't complain about being alive. It's self-indulgent to be unhappy. When asked how she has coped since husband's death.