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I grew up watching old black and white movies where Marlene Dietrich or Jean Harlow would go walking down some cobblestone street in ripped stockings and head into some smoky boite and sing for a pathetic living. That's so what I wanted to be.

Despite my mother saying I have been destined to be an actress my whole life, I remember being the kid who grew up not knowing what I wanted to do with my life.

I didn't want to give up my career. That's what kept me alive, kept me going. I couldn't stop - didn't want to stop - being all these different characters.

I didn't have any confidence in my beauty when I was young. I felt like a character actress, and I still do.

I didn't want to escape my life and become a big actress and live my dreams. That was never the way it was; it was just these amazing opportunities that happened.

I wasn't straining at the bit to become a movie star any more than I had plotted to get out of vaudeville and into Broadway musicals.

Even when I was young I wanted to be an actress.

I wasn't even prepared to be an actress. I was 17 when I came out of high school, and suddenly became Miss World and then I became an actress.

I don't remember sitting down and saying, 'This is why I want to be - an actress.' I just knew. It was never a conscious decision or a revelation.