[on what it was like working with John Wayne on The Shootist (1976), after she had turned down a role in Wayne's The Green Berets (1968)] What is this going to be like? Well, Wayne had been through a lot. I found him to be so open to my way of working. He was completely sweet and vulnerable--unlike every macho story you ever heard about him. When we were rehearsing, he'd hold both my hands in one of his. He would never lose contact. Whenever I wanted to find him on the set, I'd sniff for peanut butter. He was always eating peanut butter-and-jelly crackers. And every chance he got, he'd play chess with Ron Howard. He was so different than his image--and I was so pleased to have had that opportunity.

Of all the actors I've worked with, the three most ego-less, most humane, real people were Robert Ryan, Karl Malden and Tom Selleck.

[in a 1983 interview] There's still the same reaction when producers hear my name. They remember me as the blond who was to have taken over from Marilyn Monroe.