Debra Winger Quotes

1. Most bad behavior comes from insecurity.  


2. I don't think that I'm that easy to live with. I have to be reminded that I can have fun. I need my family to remind me in a loving and nice way to lighten up.

3. A good marriage is different to a happy marriage.

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

5. 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.

6. Bad acting is the ultimate inconsideration.

7. But I never worried about having a child in my 40s, which is unusual - normally, I'm the queen of worry.

8. 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.


9. I always loved working as an actress, but I didn't understand why I couldn't just opt out of being famous. And then I realized you can, and I think I did. And eventually, I came to understand that you can do that and also keep working.

10. I am lucky enough to be married to a guy who tells me I look beautiful every day.

11. I am one of the happiest people I know. And that's a weird place to have arrived at from being a depressed Jewish kid.







12. I became an actor because I couldn't not.

13. I do admit to being challenging, but it's always for the work, it's never personal. I will walk out on a scene if it's all lit and ready to go but it's not happening.

14. I do not need a lot of money to be happy.



15. 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".

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

17. I happen to be interested in watching a face age. I like faces of women aging so it makes me personally quite sad. That's a beautiful gift from God. If people don't want to see that anymore then I won't be in anymore movies.





18. I had a very insightful friend who warned me back when I stopped reading scripts: "It's easier to change directions while you're still moving." If you stop, it's harder to get started again. I still don't think I made the wrong decision, but he was right.

19. I have enjoyed a wonderful run in films, so far, and I may, at some point, come back. But it will be in my own time and in my own style.


20. I just live in the truth and think that every moment counts.

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

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

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. I push for what I think can be the best, and if I feel they're not going for the best, it kills me.

26. I tend to wear outfits that match the walls.

27. I think when it comes to Botox and surgery, actresses should do it or not do it, but be honest about their choices.

28. 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.

29. I used to love going on a junket and promoting a film when it was not a 24-hour news cycle, and when there weren't so many media outlets. You could actually talk about the film.

30. I want to start a trend of women as we really look. Some good things, some not so good. I am tired of looking at frozen faces.


31. I was the all-American face. You name it, honey - American Dairy Milk, Metropolitan Life insurance, McDonald's, Burger King. The Face That Didn't Matter - that's what I called my face.

32. 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?

33. I've been acting all along. I understand that I haven't been in people's viewers, but acting has never not been a part of my life, just more time in between and less high-profile.





34. If you want to get a facelift, get a facelift. Don't sit there and talk about why you got it because of the pressure.

35. If I could have one prayer answered, I would pray for patience. I move so fast sometimes. I try to slow down.

36. In the early part of my life I carried the flame for fiery women: perky women who were not dumb.




37. It's inconceivable to some people that wouldn't be the sexiest thing to do in the whole world: to be a movie star, and make money, and be pampered, and whatever.

38. It's no secret that I didn't love "An Officer And A Gentleman" then, and I certainly don't love it now, so at least no one could accuse me of being inconsistent.







39. 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.

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







41. Never say never, but the thought of electively cutting oneself is beyond my grasp, and I also object to it politically. Denying the lines on our faces makes a comment about age and wisdom I don't care to make.

42. 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.


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


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

45. People who make lots of money at what they do should just shut up about it.

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


47. 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.

48. When you connect with a cause, it's like falling in love.

49. You see people on TV flying in to places just to pick up a baby, or brush some flies away. That's great if they can bring that issue to public attention. But that's not what I wanted to do. I was interested in committing to something that I could function in whether I was Debra Winger or not. Because nobody might care about that next week.




50. I have trouble with star billing. I remember thinking on Cannery Row (1982): "How can I put my name ahead of Steinbeck's?"

51. (on Bernardo Bertolucci) For me, Bernardo is The Function. The only way I can explain it is in the analogy with mathematics and the word "function" - addition, subtraction, multiplication, anything that numbers go through and change because of it. And when the function is a function of love, the drapes on the windows, the doors that are hung, the characters, the clothes, everything goes through this function and comes out touched and inspired by it. There are a lot of numbers but what really matters is the function.

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