Glenn Close Quotes

1. (on "Dangerous Liaisons" (1988) We filmed in France and I had given birth to Annie seven weeks before we started preparing for the film. For the first time in my life, I had these great breasts. It'll never happen again, but for one brief, shining season, I had the most incredible breasts. James Acheson, the costume designer, who won the Oscar this year for "Restoration" (1995), did the costumes, and I just loved it because they pushed my breasts up and made me have cleavage. I guess I should be saying something more intellectual about the film, but I just remembered how great it felt to have those breasts.

2. There are a lot of big spec houses now all across Connecticut, a lot of ostentatious showing of wealth.

3. (on her role in The Paper - 1994) I love Ron Howard, he's a wonderful director, incredibly prepared. But I have to criticize my performance in that movie. It all took place in one day. My character was having a bad day, so she's having a bad day throughout the whole movie. But this was a comedy, and I think I was too serious, too dense. Yes, I think that describes my failure there.


4. There's something about a catharsis that is very important.

5. (on "Fatal Attraction"(1987) The original ending was a gorgeous piece of film noir. She kills herself, but makes sure that his prints are all over the knife, and he gets arrested. He knows he didn't do it, but he's going to jail anyway. But audiences wanted some kind of cathartic ending, so we went back months later and shot the ending that's in the movie now.

6. Listen to that little voice that says: "Mmm, I don't think so." Because when you override that, you basically override who you are.






7. We have to be vulnerable as actors, but we have to protect ourselves.

8. (on her Oscar-nominated role as Albert Nobbs) Albert is a survivor and I think she chose an invisible job. An invisible person chose an invisible job. In nineteenth-century Victorian times, servants weren't supposed to look at anybody in the eye. They don't see you, they don't talk to you, you don't talk to them.

9. I've often been mistaken for Meryl Streep, although never on Oscar night.









10. (on bringing Albert Nobbs (2011) to the screen) I really hope it engenders a lot of conversation because I believe there are a lot of people who put on faces. We all do it, every time we walk out the door. And there are a lot of people who have to hide who they are. And I think this story speaks to that.

11. It always amazes me to think that every house on every street is full of so many stories; so many triumphs and tragedies, and all we see are yards and driveways.






12. I never wanted to be a man. I feel sorry for them.

13. What's so fascinating about people is what they don't show. People are masters at it; usually actors show too much.

14. When I hear that somebody's difficult, I think: "Oh, I can't wait to work with them".





15. I love the chemistry that can be created onstage between the actors and the audience. It's molecular even, the energies that can go back and forth. I started in theater and when I first went into movies I felt that my energy was going to blow out the camera.

16. I get bored talking about myself, but I can talk about the work.



17. Good live theater disturbs molecules. You create an energy source around yourself and it alternates between you and the audience. Anybody who sees live theater should come out a little rearranged.

18. (on her 1984 Tony win for playing Annie in "The Real Thing") It was the cherry on the cake for one of the great experiences of my career.

19. We were fortunate enough to have several good books detailing the camps and the women. Some were by the survivors. I also got to talk to some of the women who had been in the camp, survivors.

20. (on Bette Davis) She wasn't trying to please people. She didn't say: "Love me." She had the courage to play unattractive characters with only the hope that people understand them in the end.

21. (on her role in Mary Reilly - 1996) I called Stephen Frears, who had directed me in "Dangerous Liaisons" (1988), and I said: "C'mon, everyone from Dangerous is in this film, I want a part." I felt left out. So he gave me the part of a bordello owner, and I thought it would take a week-go to London, have some fun, and come home. But it was hard. They wanted this Liverpudlian accent and Stephen was great, because he kept pushing me to do stuff that I didn't know how to do. The character, I think, was quite interesting. But she's in only three scenes.

22. I don't have the body or the face for romantic comedies, so I've never been offered those. The challenge is that a lot of people see you only as your last character, so you're constantly competing with whatever your last movie was.



23. As an actor, I go where the good writing is. That's the bottom line.

24. I don't think the tabloids find me very interesting.

25. I had a great time on "The Shield". From working on it I have a totally different view of law enforcement.


26. I never got into this business thinking I'd be like a movie star.

27. When they tested "Fatal Attraction", the audiences were so upset by her behavior, they literally demanded her blood.

28. I think there are certain actors that have that kind of energy about them, that taking over a room energy.

29. You have to love the characters you play, even if no one else does.


30. I knew the term Stepford Wife, and I knew what that meant. I never read the book, and I think before I started filming I watched the movie. I thought it was very dated.


31. I'm an actor, that's my contribution.

32. Ismail Merchant was just the most seductive, passionate, outrageous, driven, genius of a man.

33. I've been sacrificing my life for my work for 30 years, and now I want it the other way around. I want to find work that fits into my life and that would be based here.



34. It is very difficult for girls. They're told to look one way, but to act another way.

35. It puts you in a kind of a strange situation where everybody is looking at every little thing you do.




36. It's not good to be in a situation where people don't want to direct you or don't want to question something.

37. It's gotten out of control. It's taking bigger and bigger names to make smaller and smaller films. I worry that important films without a big name attached won't get made at all.


38. The best thing I have is the knife from "Fatal Attraction". I hung it in my kitchen. It's my way of saying: "Don't mess with me".

39. I think the diva is kind of a cliche. My definition of a diva is somebody whose talent does not match what they're trying to play, so all this temperament comes out.



40. With the hugely talented women I've worked with or observed, it's not a question about temperament or ego; it's a question about getting it right. If they've got a reputation for being difficult it's usually because they just don't suffer fools.

41. Acting, to me, is about the incredible adventure of examining the landscape of human heart and soul. That's basically what we do.


42. Diva has a negative connotation.

43. All great art comes from a sense of outrage.

44. Celebrity is death - celebrity - that's the worst thing that can happen to an actor.

45. Taking power away from a man is a dangerous thing. Someone always pays.

46. Bunny boiler is now part of our language, and I'm proud of that.

47. Good roles are hard to find no matter what age.

48. I don't like public venues. I never know what to wear.

49. I am extremely shy. I am not happy in crowds of people.





50. I had a dresser who literally squeezed me in like Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With The Wind."


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