Jessica Lange Quotes

It comes down to something really simple: Can I visualize myself playing those scenes? If that happens, then I know that I will probably end up doing it.

TV is sort of the only way to go for an actress my age to make a decent salary; with independent films, you just can't.

Usually, you get a script and you have the whole story. All the acts are there, for a play. You know what happens in the first, second and third acts, and you know how it starts, where you go and where it finishes. [With American Horror Story: Asylum], it's a whole new experience. I don't know where it's going, and I don't know what's going to happen next. It's been an interesting way to work. It's made me work in a much more fluid, braver way, just taking every chance that comes along.

I've got nothing left to lose at this point. The work I've done is out there.

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.

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.

I take a jazz class and I also take just a regular exercise class with a man who gives me acupressure treatments. It's just stretching and elongating the muscles.

I love men. I've always been drawn to poets, artists, and madmen. Sometimes all three in one

I have made decisions based from purely an actor's point of view.

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.

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.

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

What can I say? I hate Bush; I despise him and his entire administration, everything he represents and everything he has tried to do, not only internationally, which is horrific, but domestically as well. In my country the atmosphere is poisoned. Unbreathable for those of us who are not on the right. So thank you for inviting me to this festival and allowing me to leave there for a few days.

Once I started on 'Frances' I discovered it was literally a bottomless well. It devastated me to maintain that for eighteen weeks, to be immersed in this state of rage for twelve to eighteen hours a day. It spilled all over, into other areas of my life.

There are no explanations, there are no answers.

...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.

If Ive got a clean pair of jeans and a T-shirt, thats usually a good day for me.

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

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

There can be no better measure of our governance than the way we treat our children, and no greater failing on our part than to allow them to be subjected to violence, abuse or exploitation.

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.

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.

Yes, and you should question your government.

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.

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

It [military action on Iraq] makes me feel ashamed to come from the United States. It is humiliating.

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

Photography was a blessing because it filled my time.

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

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.

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.

When you think about it there's never really been a realistic exposition of Hollywood, I mean - from the inside - showing Hollywood what it can do, what it has done, to people.

I went to the University of Minnesota to study art. I left the university to come to New York and live in Soho. I got involved with like a small kind of like experimental theater-mime company and we discovered that Étienne Decroux, a great mime, was still teaching in Paris so I went to study with him for several years.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Everything is transient. Everything is constantly changing. The only thing we have is now.

Allow the diversity to exist. There is nothing wrong with it. Hell, we put up with the religious right-we can put up with transgendered human beings.

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.

American Horror Story re-energized me; it re-energized my career. There’s no shame in recognizing that. It’s exposed me to a whole new generation, which is a little strange. I’m not used to young people thinking I’m cool.

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

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

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

There's something magical still about it when I get in a darkroom, and you've shot a roll of film and you develop it and you look at your negatives, and there's like imagery there. That always stuns me.