Diane Keaton is excited about Oklahoma City visit

Keaton will speak Sunday at 5 p.m. at the Civic Center Music Hall as part of the Integris Women's Health Forum. The free event is full. The health forum runs from Saturday to Sept. 22 with several events in the city.

In May, Keaton released her book “Then Again,” a memoir about her mother and herself. To write the book, she read her mother's 85 journals and used portions of those journals throughout the book. In “Then Again” she writes, “Mom continues to be the most important, influential person in my life.”

In a phone interview with The Oklahoman, Keaton talked about her upcoming trip, her mother and her career:

On her upcoming talk in Oklahoma City:

“It's really a speech about the effect of love on our lives, and how love is this extremely misused word and how hard it is to define it and the role it plays in our lives.”

On her mother's 15-year battle against Alzheimer's:

“It's a personal tragedy for everyone who has to go through that. It defines to me how you treat somebody who's ill, which is with as much independence with the least amount of judgment and just being there — just being there. I think too many people try to help too much. Especially with somebody with Alzheimer's, you just want to go along with what they're saying. ... Care and empathy are key components to somebody going through such a horrible illness, such a slow, cruel losing of their ability to judge and think for themselves.”

On caregivers for people with Alzheimer's:

“To be a good caregiver is a huge, enormous gift. It's a grace. It's like an art. I think that caregivers really don't get enough attention, particularly people who really are hands-on day to day. Doctors come in, and they have all this knowledge, and they help as best they can, but really the heart of it is the people who are there all the time — the nurses and the family — people like that.”