Laurie Metcalf Quotes

I was too practical to major in theater. Acting - what was I going to do with acting? There was no future in it.

I was an office secretary for a long time. A good secretary.

One of the hardest things about directing is just to be patient and remind yourself that you've been in Week 1 of a rehearsal process yourself, and you know what it feels like.

I was horribly shy all through grade school and high school. But somehow I got up the nerve to audition for one play in high school - 'Auntie Mame.' I got a small part as the fiancee who comes on in the end. I got laughs. I wasn't shy at all doing the part. I can do anything on stage and write it off as a character.

Onstage I'm the one in control - I'm not at the mercy of how an editor chooses to put the scene together later. I can do things onstage that I would never do in real life. It's very freeing.

Theater opened up a whole new world for me. It was a freedom I'd never known before.

I'm hideously shy as myself, but on stage I can run around naked and bite the heads off fish.

When one thing ends, you put it away and start from scratch on the next thing.

I almost never give interviews. It's not because I want to play hard to get. It's just that I never seem to have anything interesting to say.

When I go to see something I'm in, or my friends are in, it's like a home movie. When I just go to the movies and don't know anyone in it, then it's a real movie.

You know, if a TV show dropped into my lap out of the blue, I would have a hard time turning it down because there just isn't the money in theater that there is on TV.

I've been directed by other actors, and being an actor doesn't make you a good director.

I've loved every minute of every hour I've spent doing theatre.