Linda Hamilton

Linda Hamilton: (About Arnold Schwarzenegger) He's a delight - I'm a big fan of Arnold's. I love him for who he is. He's a monolith, larger than life, but he's reasonable, good humored and a loyal friend. I really appreciate him.

Linda Hamilton: Having my children. They made me really appreciate what selfless love is. I remember many times coming home from playing Sarah Connor and being so exhausted that I couldn't even lift my arm. It would take me an hour just to get all the tangles and blood out of my hair, but I would just sit on the kitchen floor with my baby son and it would all go away - everything else just didn't matter.

Linda Hamilton: (about bulking up for "Terminator 2") I was surprised and overwhelmed by all the attention my body got. I was suddenly being hailed as this new icon of feminine power. I was like, "What me? No, no, no - I smoke two packs of cigarettes a day and eat lots of cake."

Linda Hamilton: (about her reaction to Arnold Schwarzenegger being cast as "The Terminator") I didn't take Schwarzenegger very seriously as an actor at that time. I said, 'Oh Lord, why cast a man who looks like a machine as a machine? Cast somebody who's very thin to do these superhuman acts.' And I was wrong. He was used tremendously effectively, and he was served very well by that film.

Linda Hamilton: (about her divorce from James Cameron) I love him as much as I ever did. But that doesn't mean that the heartache wasn't huge and I haven't suffered. I knew how Jim was when I married him and I love him still.

Linda Hamilton: (about leaving Beauty and the Beast) I died doing that show - 48 mini-movies exactly the same. I wanted the characters to evolve, but the network always stuck with the formula. Besides, I had a baby and wanted to be a good mother, which I couldn't do working 16 hours a day. So, as valuable as the experience was, I needed to move on. Repetition is really something in which I have no interest.

Linda Hamilton: The script I saw just didn't have the soul that the others did and I didn't want to be part of it. Despite all the action of the first two Terminator movies, they were actually pretty high minded. There was a message about the human condition and Terminator 3 seems to have no regard for human life whatsoever.

Linda Hamilton: (on why she chose not to appear in "Terminator 3") I turned down "T3" because I really did feel that it was so complete, that the character arc was completely there and could not be improved upon. And the script that I read proved that to me! But I'm retiring a champ.

Linda: As a teenager, even as a younger girl, I had some depression but no one really noticed that it was depression nor did I know in those days that that's what it was but I did feel different from other people. I was in hiding a lot of my childhood, although I had a wonderful upbringing and a very normal middle-class upbringing.

Linda: My heart is so light that it's amazing. I get to play all this grief, all this loss, all this disaster and chaos. It's hysterically funny. I am very light. I keep saying I'm Lucy Ricardo trapped in somebody else's body.

Linda Hamilton: (about the character Sarah Connor from "The Terminator") A woman who grows and transforms on screen is always a wonderful thing to play. Sarah went from a vulnerable, normal girl to someone who finds all of her deep reservoirs of strength and comes through it all.

Linda: There are drugs that expand the soul, but cocaine is one that just closes the heart. It's a very alone, horrible sort of shrinking drug. I quit on my own, but there was a time when I feared I would have to go in for treatment. I really was in trouble.

Linda: I try to keep a balance. I actually believe that children want normal parents, they don't want celebrities or important parents or anything different from all the other parents.

Linda: I carry Yeats with me wherever I go. He's my constant companion. I always can find some comfort in Yeats no matter what the situation is. Months and months and months go by and I know I need to switch to Shelley or somebody else, but right now Yeats is enough for me.

Linda: We don't want to make any money. We want to break even.

Linda: My heart is so light that it's amazing. I get to play all this grief, all this loss, all this disaster and chaos. It's hysterically funny. I am very light.

Linda: I have not yet decided that acting is the best way to contribute to this world, and I'm a big contributor. I really would like to take a huge step and head the United Way, be a traveling ambassador. Whatever I can do to be a source of light. I want to hold the crack babies. I want to travel to Africa. I want to do something for the rain forests.

Linda: I go to Alaska and fish salmon. I do some halibut fishing, lake fishing, trout fishing, fly fishing. I look quite good in waders. I love my waders. I don't think there is anything sexier than just standing in waders with a fly rod. I just love it.

Linda: Life has worn me down to a very real shape. I'm a fully realized person, one that is truly in the world with talents and flaws.