You may know Ellen Burstyn as an actor, the kind of natural performer who isn’t self conscious, but did you also know she’s a deeply spiritual person with a passion for Sufism? Read Valerie Reiss’s interview with Burstyn here.

An excerpt:

“I try and have the first words out of my mouth everyday be ‘thank you.’ I sometimes forget, but I know that gratitude is the highest form of praise. So I try and keep myself in this state of gratitude all the time. I meditate, not consistently but always before a performance, and always when I’m not traveling or in a situation where I can’t. I pray.”