I've learned to think in terms of having a long career. Actors can have very long careers that last until the day we die but there will be moments when you'll feel like you're a failure or when you're disappointed in yourself.

We now live in a world where the only thing to have is success but failure is marvelous. It's fertiliser it's like living fertiliser because you're forced on yourself.

Before I was married I didn't consider my failure to manage even basic hand tools a feminist inadequacy. I thought it had more to do with being Jewish. The Jews I knew growing up didn't do 'do-it-yourself.' When my father needed to hammer something he generally used his shoe and the only real tool he owned was a pair of needle-nose pliers.

If you have a level of expectation in your life that you have to be a quote-unquote star whatever that means you might be setting yourself up for failure.

If you've gone into a marriage and you haven't been clear about how you're going to handle money how you want to raise kids who is going to work or stay home or what have you then you've set yourself up for failure.

As I said there is nothing wrong with failing. Pick yourself up and try it again. You never are going to know how good you really are until you go out and face failure.

There is no winning or losing but rather the value is in the experience of imagining yourself as a character in whatever genre you're involved in whether it's a fantasy game the Wild West secret agenst or whatever else. You get to sort of vicariously experience those things.

It was a very profound experience getting in touch with that part of us in all of us human beings that is committed beyond yourself to the point of giving everything you have including your life for other people for your fellow man.

It is often difficult to watch yourself onscreen especially 60-feet high. As an actor it is an uncomfortable experience.

I wouldn't go up on a stage now if you paid a thousand dollars for one minute of acting. It's a nasty experience. You're up there all by yourself. You're so damn exposed.