Dawn Steel

“Foreign revenues are tremendously important, but foreign audiences are dying for American movies, not for films they could make themselves.”

“In my family, education was something you endured. My parents weren't educated past high school, and the only book in our house was a 'Reader's Digest' condensed book. Can you imagine?”

“I'd like my epitaph to read 'Given the amount of time she had, she did the best job she could.' Also that I'm a nice person... and a good mother.”

“I felt more comfortable in TV than in the film world where the players were more erudite and intellectual.”

“A really hard lesson to learn is that most of the time, it's not about you.”

“I'm not Mary Poppins, but I think I functioned with integrity.”

“Historically, Vietnam movies have been profitable. All of them. 'Platoon,' 'Full Metal Jacket,' 'Apocalypse Now,' 'The Deer Hunter.' You're looking at movies that have been not pretty succes...”

“The first war movie I ever saw was 'Platoon,' and I was eight months pregnant. So my husband, producer Charles Roven, wasn't sure I'd make it.”

“I've gone far in the movie business, but no matter how far I go, every time I pick up the phone to call Tom Hanks or Robin Williams, I wonder if they'll call me back. And you know what? Some...”

“I was the first studio executive to meet with Sean Penn after 'Taps' in 1981. I was anxious to develop things with him when nobody knew who he was.”

“I have to tell you, I'm a great teacher. Ask anybody who worked for me, except some secretaries who weren't very good.”

“What sets Iris Stevenson apart is her success in a system that in no way supports her - with the hardest possible children to convert.”

“I love stories about underdogs.”

“It's unfathomable how you live without your mother.”