Top 40 Dawn Steel Quotes

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

I was trained to be loud, passionate, direct. I didn’t realize for the longest time I was intimidating.

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? Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t.

If you can market smut and toilet paper, you can market movies.

I love stories about underdogs.

When I get anxious and scared, I probably lose my temper more than I should.

I would walk into my office, and I would close the door, and I would say, ‘I won’t cry, I won’t cry, I won’t cry’… At least, I wasn’t going to let them see me cry.

The more I can stay on the creative side, the happier I am.

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.

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.

The men I worked for didn’t look at me as having any gender at all. They regarded me more as a workhorse.

I think women’s relationships with other women are very complicated and depend on their relationships with their mothers. Mine was fraught with problems. So I didn’t necessarily trust women for a long time.

I was so busy climbing up this ladder, staying above the water. If there was only room for one woman in a room, I wanted to be her. I’m not proud of it. I certainly don’t feel that way now. It was an absolute evolution for me.

Some friends of mine had parents who made school a treat, a gift – not something to be endured.

Dishonesty, lack of integrity catches up with you.

I think exciting sexuality is part of the fantasy, part of the entertainment of a love story.

I react to stress badly. I handle it better these days. But I’m a very straightforward person.

It hurt me deeply, this reputation as tough, hard, mean.

I don’t know that I would say abrasive. In some ways, I was curt because there’s an unbelievable amount to accomplish in a day, and maybe I was insensitive considering the pressures and responsibilities of these jobs.

We manufacture a culture in the movie business, and whatever we put out creates a dark side and a bright side, too.

There’s no training for the business, no credentials necessary to enter… It’s all about entrepreneurs, innate street intelligence, and instincts. It’s a business which encourages people with dreams. That’s the essence of Hollywood.

I thought it was great being the only girl in the room. I loved the attention. After I got used to it, I didn’t want to be the only girl in the room. I had no one to talk to.

I felt that if I shared the lessons that I learned – both the good ones and the bad ones – that I might make the climb a little less painful for other women.

It’s unfathomable how you live without your mother.

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?

If I can do it, anyone can do it.

Working together is the quickest road to marital problems.

I’m tired of being the bad guy all the time, saying ‘no’ to people I like.

An epic is the canvas Brian DePalma paints on.

We have to make some movies we have passion for, respect for.

I started with nothing. Less than nothing.

You’re not free in life until you’re free of wanting other people’s approval.

I just love the idea of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, whether it’s the success of ‘Cool Runnings,’ which is the success of four guys from Jamaica who had never seen snow, or whether it’s my success, just as a human being.

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

You have to persevere, you have to just not give up, and you have to know what you want. You have to be able to see your dream.

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

I’m not Mary Poppins, but I think I functioned with integrity.

Visibility is dangerous because if a guy cuts you off in traffic, you can’t call him a name – it might get to the press.

If the doors are going to close on me, it’s a little late.

I wouldn’t want anyone to think that work is the major thing in my life.