Juliette Lewis Quotes

I don't want to be famous as a movie star and have the whole world love me, I want to be a creative actress.

When I do a film, usually I work from my director. That's my boss. The director is interpreting the writer's vision, and we all interpret it, and they create their own vision as well.

What I get in rock 'n' roll that I don't get in movies is that connection with people. With music it's instantaneous, and just to watch people light up, it's really amazing. I love that connection.

In acting, you have a writer, a director, a character - you're working through being another person - and the irony I always tell people is when I acted early on as a teenager, it actually kept me out of trouble.

Fame can be just so annoying because people are so critical of you. You can't just say "hi". You say hi and people whisper "Man, did you see the way she said Hi. What an attitude."

Understanding human nature. Perception. That's how I see acting - perception and communication.

As early as when I was five or six I wanted to perform.

I can write a song in the back of the bus, where I am right now, or in my living room, and I can perform it that night and have an instant reciprocal exchange - an emotional, impactful exchange - and it's a less technical medium. It's a pure expression from my soul to other souls.

Nobody would ever think, "Oh, get into acting so you can live the straight and narrow path," but it gave me a sense of discipline and focus.

The worst thing you can do to a kid is tell them that their dreams are invalid.

Because I'm not perfect looking, I get to play better roles.

I was like twelve or something, when you first kiss a guy and you see the way the guy reacts, how they get really excited, or whatever. And I'm perceptive, so I think, "Ah, jeez, is that something that I'm able to do?"

Music is kind of my everything.

Sometimes I can be on a cloud and then two hours later feel really small.

Like everybody I have many different sides.

I made a joke with my sister... I said, "I don't know what's more nerve-wracking, job insecurity or job security." There's opportunities and things you compromise with both. When I had endless freedom of schedule, or when I commit to a movie for two months, then I could manage my music and go on the road.

The old footage of my dad, I always knew we were cut from the same cloth, because my dad was such a renegade and always marched to the beat of his own drum. To see where we were both dancing and being silly together, it's too beautiful for words. I was really happy to have that.

Being wild can be wearing a silly hat. Being wild can be dancing weird. Being wild can be shooting people. What do I think being wild is? Nothing. Actually, the whole world is wild. Everything is wild.

My dad kept me away from people who treat children wrong. It's just amazing that there is such a way to raise a person without giving them complexes. But nobody does it. They think it should be the old school. But look at the products. Wouldn't it be great if you could avoid the complexes? Then you could deal with the complexes of life.

I'm less of a straight-up, traditional vocalist.

When I first started, I wrote some songs with Linda Perry. She's so instrumental in a lot of artist's lives, listening to you and then helping you write songs that are you, that bring the most of what you are out, whereas a lot of producers might put their stamp on you. I gained confidence because I'm less of a straight-up, traditional vocalist.

I had an upbringing in which I was allowed to be free and use my mind. My parents only helped me to be myself. It was only in my teenage years that I met people who made me start having doubts about who I was. They said you shouldn't be confident, you shouldn't be strong. It is only when you meet those other people that you lose confidence.

As actors, we want to go find the humanity and make it more nuanced and fill in the colors, rather than just being suit people who crack cases, 'cause they aren't that.

My main objective was finding my individuality as a vocalist.

I never think I have success even when I have it, for better or for worse.

I think early on I avoided singing because it was so personal and I didn't know how to sit in that intimacy. I wrote songs when I was little and I wrote a journal, but I don't think I knew how to let that truth come out yet.

With movies and TV, storytelling, it's a different medium. I really love it, but I'm one part of many, many pieces of that puzzle and a lot of it is out of my control.

All the musicians that I know want to act.

[There's] this idea of "I want to take care of myself," but at the same time I want to be brave, daring, and expressive.

Adults are just children sometimes. But evil, hurt children.

The thing is, I want to play real characters and not all girls can be pretty. The thing is, you get these girls who say 'I'm a character actor' then you see them in a role and nothing has really changed but the outfit.

I'm always revving the engine. In this industry, there are so many twists and turns. You never have it made.

I collect clothes-they keep building and building. I buy them instead of having them washed.

I think I can be beautiful with all the little stuff done, and I can be ugly. A lot of attractive actresses can't be ugly.

I knew I could live no other way, that the one thing I wanted was to act and do it well.

I like people like Tina Turner, Chrissie Hynde, Debbie Harry, and Stevie Nicks; you only hear that person in their voice, they sound like nobody else.

All that schooling never prepares you for the reality of life.

Rock'n'roll to me is a rebellion against the sterile pedestal culture of movies.

I know what I'm doing. And I even know when I don't know what I'm doing. Then there are people who don't want to know that you know what you're doing.

Success is a nice by-product but what I really want is work.

All that evilness is always just from pain and fear, and that's what I've come to understand. I've come to understand people now. Before, I would blame them for treating me in such a naïve way. I don't hate evil, vicious people anymore.

Dreams, they're what sets us apart from being mere a brain and a body.

What's exciting to me is the live show medium itself; it's the last untouchable medium. I don't think it will ever go away. It has gone on from the beginning of time with little performances around a campfire, I'd imagine, like cavemen doing some chants, rhythm, and sounds, beating on things.

I kind of imagine myself at eighty, a cat lady.

Art is the only thing that helps people stay alive, and it is the only thing that has allowed people to create joy in this insane, suppressive universe. And art is the only thing that they can't get rid of. They've tried, but ultimately they can't stamp it out.

The bravest thing I ever did was continuing my life when I wanted to die.

Being beautiful can be a curse, especially if you want to be an artist and create.

My focus, my life, my world is now. You just can't plan the future.