That's very unusual for an actor, to have gainful employment that they are secure in, that they know is going to be there year after year.
When I heard 'incurable'... incurable is a tough word.
I've had very deep moments of sadness. What I do is really sob, really cry, do whatever it is, and then kind of release it. Then I can go cook dinner or make a phone call to a friend.
I'm talking about enjoying and finding pleasure and interest and happiness and curiosity every moment.
Death is out there for all of us.
Miracles occur, or people die the next day.
You have to look life in the face, doing what you can where you can.
Sometimes I yell at my cancer cells, sometimes I make myself laugh.
I'm not dying until I do.
I loved working in the theater.
The body is just a rooming house.
Stop working so hard at being interesting and focus on what's outside yourself. There are universes out there that need to be explored. And, an interested person is extremely interesting.
The movie that really 'did it for me' was 'All About Eve.' The backstage feeling, the authenticity, the passion those people had for their lives in the theater. I must say, the movie 'All About Eve,' what a great movie! 'All About Eve' had a profound effect on my life.
What we really wanted to call it was 'I Rhoda Book.'
I think drama and comedy are pretty much all the same, and the issue is whether or not you have a sense of humor.
I'm a perfect person to tell people not to give up.
I am a cancer patient, and I continue to fight with the hope that a cure may be just around the corner. I am grateful to my family, friends, loved ones, and to fans that I am in their thoughts and prayers. That support gives me great hope.
Don't waste the time you do have.
'Incurable' is a tough word. So is 'terminal.'
I have had acupuncture regularly, and I engage in visualization, which is actually an actor's tool, visualizing myself kicking out the cancer, making up scenarios.
Keep your chin up, and don't go to the funeral - mine or yours or your loved one's - until the day of the funeral because then you miss the life that you have left.
Talk about a woman of a certain age - Pearl Buck was a great prototype of continuing to work. She was in the hospital dying of cancer, and in the next room was her secretary, typing out her next book.
Comedy is saving me.
Do not tell somebody how to vote, just go up to them and tell them what Fahrenheit 9/11 meant to you. Fahrenheit will probably not win an Academy Award, but if you put it first on your list, it will become a nominee.
I have had a magnificent run.
Cancer reminds me of a very bad but tenacious performer who, although no one wants to see, insists on doing an encore, having a return engagement, making a comeback and, worst of all, going on tour.
Life is amazing; live it to the fullest. Stay as long as you can.
As long as you're alive, you can do something.
When you age, you can do all kinds of roles. You don't have to look great. You can be the mom, the aunt. You can have a small part. You're an actor.
I think you just take each day and get the best out of it and do what you can and have fun.
The first Broadway play I ever saw was 'The Bad Seed' by Maxwell Anderson and with Patty McCormack. 'The Bad Seed' was from an extraordinary novel by William March.
I really got the 'Rhoda' flavor from studying my stepmother, Angela, who's Italian, not Jewish. There's really so little difference between the speech patterns and family attitudes of Jews and Italians in the New York area, anyway.
I've always been a team player.
I wouldn't give people advice except to share with them what I'm doing, which is, You're alive - stay alive.
Whatever happens, who cares.
I've had a good run; what more can I ask for?
It can be frightening. I think, 'I don't want to go.' But I give myself room to grieve.
Though I'm 75, I'm not looking forward to death, but it's there for all of us.
Knowing that you have something you have to deal with, rising to the occasion, builds character.
Mine's called leptomeningeal carcinomatosis. It's incurable. It's terminal. And it's in a tiny space - a huge area all around the brain and up and down the spine. But it's small area where the spinal fluid is. It's microscopic. You can't see it. It isn't lumps that they can say, 'Oh we can zap that.'
We're all terminal; none of us are getting out of this alive.
I love sitting at home. I love laying in bed watching television.
As physics has proven, we're ultimately particulate matter, which means we are all one. That's why racial and gender bias is so ridiculous.
Magazines airbrush everything. If you think it's an illusion, then it probably is.
If I wake up in the night terrified, I try to find a way to not let the fear have me. Every moment you spend in fear of cancer is a moment you've wasted enjoying life. Replace that fear - get in the moment and enjoy it.
I never did stand-up. If I've been funny ever, it was with other actors.
My mother was a Book of the Month Club devotee. I remember she always looked forward to Pearl Buck's books.
My husband is the best caregiver in the world.
