Jessica Lange Quotes

I never shot on sets, but if I was traveling somewhere or on location, I would always have my camera, and I'd always be - it's that kind of fly on the wall approach to photography, though. I don't engage the subject. I like to sneak around, skulk about in the dark.

Because Shakespeare's language is so expansive, we're under this misconception that it's difficult. But I discovered that it's easy because it's so brilliantly written. The words are perfect, and the language is intelligent and very emotional.

For me, nothing has ever taken precedence over being a mother and having a family and a home.

To work on the actual location I think is great. This thing of going to Canada and pretending you're in New York, it's terrible.

It was easier to do Shakespeare than a lot of modern movie scripts that are so poorly written.

That's always been like a fascination to me - watching my family, three sisters and a brother and all growing up basically in the same situation and each one being so totally different and going on to completely different areas and directions. But for me to go into psychoanalysis really steadily, would be putting too much energy into trying to figure out why I am the way I am ... Basically this is how I am and it's alright and I don't want to know why I'm this way.

If you're really in the process of photographing, you are absolutely aware. You are looking.

To stay interested in acting, I have to keep trying stuff I've never done before.

Yes, and you should question your government.

Families survive, one way or another. You have a tie, a connection that exists long after death, through many lifetimes.

I am coming to the end of acting. I have a list: another stage production, maybe one or two more movies, one more season of American Horror Story ... and then that is it for me. Because I think that's enough. I want to go out with a bang ... or should I say, a scare?

What I love about photography, and it's the same thing I love about acting, really, is that it forces you, like, right into the moment, where you can't be distracted, where you can't be, like, thinking about other things or ahead of yourself or behind yourself.

It took Sydney Pollack a long time to get me to do Tootsie. I asked myself if I wanted to play some frothy, ditzy character after I had just done Frances. Obviously, I'm thrilled that I did.

All through life I've harbored anger rather than expressed it at the moment.

I could be making a lot more money now if I had chosen a different kind of movie, but none of that matters to me ... I've done the parts I wanted to do.

We are not the originators of the story. I think it's actually the opposite when you're an actor. You're telling somebody else's story.

One of the things I love about acting is that it reveals a certain something about yourself, but it doesn't reveal your own personal story.

I regret those times when I've chosen the dark side. I've wasted enough time not being happy.

I have a life that's just been a well of loneliness.

Don't be absent from your own life.

I have always followed the most passionate course.

I like playing characters who are out there on the edge, where they can explode at any moment or fall off the precipice.

I've worked with some teachers and coaches over the years, but I didn't really study theater or technique or voice or any of that stuff extensively.

I had never done Shakespeare before, but I don't think you can be an actor and not do it. There were moments when I thought, I'm just not going to be able to pull this off.

Acceptance and tolerance and forgiveness, those are life-altering lessons.

Successful model? That's a myth. The year I modeled was the most painful year of my life. Editors would always talk to you in the third person as though you were merely a piece of merchandise.

To my mind the election was stolen by George Bush and we have been suffering ever since under this man's leadership.

If I didn't have children I'd be a much better actress. I wouldn't be so distracted. I could pour 100 percent of my energies into it, to promote the investigation which acting is.

I am tortured when I am away from my family, from my children. I am horribly guilt-ridden.

To work with a director that has emotional commitment and passion toward the characters, and the piece, and the experiences, it only enriches your work.

I like to work in costumes, makeup, and hair that allow me tremendous freedom.

I've never been a sunny personality. I've never been outgoing. I'm a solitary person.

If I had to start over, I'd pursue photography - probably to the exclusion of acting.

Digital doesn't interest me. It's too many steps removed from the actual tactile thing. I still read books. I don't read online.

There are no explanations, there are no answers.

The natural state of motherhood is unselfishness. When you become a mother, you are no longer the center of your own universe. You relinquish that position to your children.

So much of my sense of who I am is tied to mothering. When they left home, I fell into a huge, empty, black hole. Your children are grown and your career has slowed down - all the stuff that took up so much attention is gone, and you're left with expansive time and space.

This idea of selfishness as a virtue, as opposed to generosity: That, to me, is unnatural.

I never felt like I belonged in Minnesota when I was growing up there. That's why I was out the door as soon as I turned 18.

I never think of the future. I never imagine what comes next.

In families there is always the mythology. My father died when my kids were quite young still, and yet they still tell his stories. That is how a person lives on.

As an actor, you have to have trust and believe that somebody is taking care of you or watching your back. With a part like this, especially with where we're going with it, I can't pull any punches. I can't do it halfway, especially when you're dealing with madness and this descent into madness.

I have been a waitress, and I was a damn fine waitress too, let me tell you.

Photography was a blessing because it filled my time.

Be present. I would encourage you with all my heart just to be present. Be present and open to the moment that is unfolding before you. Because, ultimately, your life is made up of moments. So don't miss them by being lost in the past or anticipating the future.

I never just slide through anything. I explore everything to the fullest, whether good or bad.

I want to live my life with no goals anymore, but just completely free, like I did when I was younger.

At certain times you really feel as though you have to do something.

I do love acting. But to work as a photojournalist would have been extraordinary.

I worked on my voice for Sweet Dreams, but only to match my speaking voice to Patsy's actual singing voice. That was my way into that character.

When I am home for like a two-year stretch, I get antsy, because I want to work.

I love being a mother. I loved being a daughter, a sister, a wife. I love being a woman with men. I love having given birth.

For me, acting was always a way to explore emotions - to dip into the well and really try to reach rock bottom down there. That was the most exciting part of it. I hadn't found anything that really allowed me to do that until I came upon acting.

Sometimes the odds are against you-the director doesn't know what the hell he's doing, or something falls apart in the production, or you're working with an actor who's just unbearable.

Moments of pure happiness come upon you unexpectedly. Don't be too preoccupied to experience them.

We must remain hopeful that for our children and our children's children, that we are not a warring nation, but we will embrace and practice true compassion and honor the ideals of peace and freedom, and we will not give up.

The only place I've felt was really my home is my cabin up north. There's something in the water there that connects me to that place. There's also this sense of isolation and loneliness about it that I've never been able to shake.

I couldn't toast a piece of bread with the amount of heat they were putting on you