Glenn Close refuses to make her career the sole focus of her life

She told this week's edition of People magazine: "Acting isn't everything. This profession will eat you up if that's all you care about. An actress, Jeanette Landis, told me on the first job I had on Broadway, you should never compare your career to anyone else's.

"Oh my God, that is so hard, but it's so true. You have to have incredible resilience, certainly in the beginning, because you will have disappointment after disappointment, rejection after rejection. You have to have a crazy engine that keeps you going. You should also have interests and curiosities beyond what you do. A great education keeps you curious, and that's really, really important for an actor.

The '101 Dalmations' star has also made a concerted effort to avoid taking on a role just because it may have the potential to win her an award and would never want to "repeat" anything because she would end up "bored" in her career.

She said: "Don't do it for the accolades. I choose to do something because I personally think it's good, not because it will win an award. Even my worst experiences, and I haven't had a lot, were my biggest learning experiences. If I have any rule that I've tried to hold myself to, it's never to repeat myself, just for my own sake. I think I'd get bored."