do not shrink

last night i watched ingmar bergman's fanny and alexander. my favorite line came out of the grandmother -- a widow, a mother, and a former stage actress -- when she was talking to the ghost of her son, "some roles are nice, others not so nice. i played a mother. i played juliet and margarita. then suddenly i played a widow or a grandmother. one role follows the other. the thing is to not shrink from them."