I started writing to reassure myself that I was still all here.

Usually, the worst films become cult films.

First of all, the leads aren't the kind of acting work that I like. The parts that are meatier are not the ones that have to have a romance.

Film and television were out. I was 24, and it went on until I was 36. For an actor, those are your years. I got a great urgency and education during the blacklist, and it made me grow up in a way I never could have before, and in very good ways, too.

After the Oscar for 'Shampoo,' I had a sense, even as I was walking up to get it, that this was the height of where I was going to go as an actress. And I felt that now was the time, if I wanted a longer life in the arts, that I had to jump from acting to directing.

I was 24 when I was blacklisted. I was 36 when I got off the blacklist. How much of a life does an actress have in L.A. past 25? ... I was really scared of having producers know that I was on my way to 40.

I find that the stuff on television is more exciting than the films, which are for teens almost.

I watch a lot of television. The stuff that they're putting on television, series like 'The Americans' and 'Game of Thrones,' it's so superior to most of the films that are coming out of Hollywood in terms of drama, certainly in terms of what we're interested in.

When I was on stage in the '50s, it was a glory time, a golden time with Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. There was real talent. And now, the theater is a little Disney-fied.

You can take your life into your own hands in terms of directing. There are ways for you to finance yourself and to write and make a film.