Joanne Woodward Quotes

In 1987: "Acting is like sex. You should do it, not talk about it."

"Being married to Paul is being married to the most considerate, romantic man."

"I don`t like getting myself in hot water. But suddenly I find that every minute I have to stop and think about what I`m saying. I can see what`s going to happen. I`m going to have to stop giving interviews because I`m always saying the wrong thing. I don`t want that to happen."

"The September 11th tragedy forced us all to look at the world in a different way and it reminds us all of the importance of living every moment."

"Who could direct you better than the person you live with? Paul knows everything there is to know about me. I wish he could just direct every movie I ever do."

(On her Rachel, Rachel (1968) director and husband Paul Newman being snubbed in the Best Director category by the Academy Awards in 1969) "How do you figure it? He even won the New York Film Critics award that year for it, but didn`t get in as one of the five Oscar nominees. I was really hurt about that. And I have to admit that I still don`t think the awards mean what they say they mean. The Oscar has become a political gesture, or a business gesture. People tell you it adds $5 million to a film`s gross, and I believe it, but that`s not what the Oscar is for. It didn`t use to be that way."

(On her Best Actress nomination for Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973)) "I remember when I first won the Academy Award, and how much I loved it. I just wish there was an award around that you could really believe in again".

"Actors and writers need to come back to the theater because it`s a place where you can learn. You have to pay your dues; and people who haven`t paid their dues in the theater, I think, have a hard time creating a whole career." - June, 2000

"There aren`t a lot of movies for people our age, and I was never terribly enamored of making movies -- mainly because I like to work on stage. I didn`t make a lot of movies. I`m very happy doing what I`m doing now: I like to direct and act occasionally on stage. Once in a while, I do television. It`s more likely that somebody my age can find a part in television." - June, 2000

My daughter, the one who lives nearby, is raising her children to be very much aware. We went on a nature walk on Monday; I`m learning so much from her.

Intensity is so much more becoming in the young.

I`m upset when I see that people don`t seem to observe what`s happening with the environment, what`s happening in terms of global warming.

Sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, ah, now that`s a real treat.

And, of course, when I was a tiny girl, I lived in south Georgia, where everything grew, and you picked it - melons, watermelons.

I also had a wonderful great-aunt who was an avid gardener, who told me all about the flowers, their names and where they came from.

An activist is someone who makes an effort to see problems that are not being addressed and then makes an effort to make their voice heard. Sometimes there are so many things that it`s almost impossible to make your voice heard in every area, but you can sure try.

There can be no one best way of organizing a business.

Well, I was born and raised in south Georgia and South Carolina, and I went to school in Louisiana. Nature is very much a part of life in those areas.

I was down in Washington when 9/11 happened. We were in the middle of putting together the next summer season, and all I could think of was something somehow must make sense to us. Our Town kept coming into my mind.