- Milos Forman doesn't want to discuss anything with his actors.
- [In sign language to her deaf parents, upon winning the Oscar for Best Actress] I want to thank you for teaching me to have a dream. You are seeing my dream come true.
- The Communist Party was my Nurse Ratched! [Milos Forman, in Milos Forman: Co te nezabije... (2009)].
- That's the main reason I gave up my career after John was born and I was pregnant with Andrew. I could not handle going away day after day. The thought of going away before they got up and coming back after they were in bed was intolerable.
- Live television drama was like live theater, because you moved without thinking about the camera. It followed you around. In film you have to be more aware of what the camera is doing.
- [on Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)] Life had stopped for her a long time ago. She was so out of touch with her feelings that she had no joy in her life and no concept of the fact that she could be wrong. She delivered her care of her insane patients in a killing manner, but she was convinced she was right.
- I really would rather have gone to New York, since all my training had been in theater, but I didn't have the guts to go there alone. I knew only one person in New York, and that was a man. What I needed was a woman. That's the way Southern girls thought.
- From the time I was very young, maybe five or six, I thought a lot about being an actress. I didn't tell my friends about my ambitions, though, especially when I got older, because I thought they would not receive them well. I never talked about what I wanted to do.
- If I fell down and hurt myself, I never cried. There was no one to hear me.
- She and my uncle were very sociable and would have a lot of people over at night to play cards or whatever. The high spot of those evenings was when we kids got dressed up to do a skit or something to amuse the guests. I loved it.
- [2012, on why she can no longer bear to watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)] I find it too painful. It comes with age. I can't watch movies that are inhumane. I was really shocked in those scenes where I was actually so cruel.
- [1995, reflecting on wining an Oscar in 1976] Just enjoy it; it'll make you wonderfully happy for a night. But don't expect that it'll do anything for your career... Sure, it changes your life enormously in personal ways, but it was not a guarantee of anything. I'm realistic. I have to be. I got the Oscar when I was 41. If I was 23, it would have been hard to deal with. Hell, at my age it was hard to deal with. It was like being thrown an explosive.
- You know, I lived in the real world. I grew up around handicapped people, lots of times deaf people. My father was a missionary to the deaf. You cannot come from that kind of background and suddenly feel like a movie star.
- [speaking in 1995] Frankly, how many parts are out there for people like me? I'm not going to be a person who complains about roles for women; there's a long line of people doing that. I'm working. Even if I don't think something is so great, I still do it. I'm one of those actresses who have to work for a living. I don't have huge savings... I was up for a lot of good parts, but the competition is keen. I think I'm not that easy to cast. Other actresses are associated with different kinds of roles. I'm associated with strong, sort of realistic women. I'm trying to do some comedy now. I would have loved to have done the mother's part in Terms of Endearment (1983), but if I was casting that movie, I wouldn't have put me in it either.
- When I die, I know that'll be at the top of my obituary, 'Louise Fletcher, who won an Oscar for . . .' That changes your life. People around you change; they think you have some special wisdom or magic touch. You become familiar-looking. With me it's usually, 'Do you work in my bank?' or 'Do you teach at my son's school?'
- One of the biggest -how should I put this?- struggles that I have had in my career was [when] I did a part in a movie called Flowers in the Attic (1987). It was the most miserable time of my life because I was not allowed to make her a human being. She had to be like this scarecrow, this witch. "Scare me to death" - that was my direction. And I had to do a lot of reshoots because I was just so uncomfortable. It was against my grain, against the way I work.
- [on Brainstorm (1983)] I had the most wonderful time making that movie because I loved my part, and I loved Douglas Trumbull. I was looking forward to playing a kind of heroine. She was a sympathetic character, even though she had her issues. I got to spend one whole week alone with the crew, being the only actor on the set. It was insane. I've never had that before.
- There is competition in our business and rejection. People ask me, "I want to be an actor. What's your advice?" My advice is "Don't do it."
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