Melissa Leo quotes

Acting is the business of truth, so that we can see ourselves reflected back and learn. (Melissa Leo)

An actor has to be very, very careful, as one of the most wonderful props - and actors love props - is a cigarette. There's so much to do with it: you can bring it up to your face, play with the smoke. It's just the greatest - ever since I was 16 and in acting school in England, I've been playing around with cigarettes.

Melissa Leo

I am a smoker, I'm ashamed to say. I had given it up for many years, then picked it up again. It's a horrible habit. I struggle with myself all the time. And I love to smoke.

Melissa Leo

Well, I don't think of myself as a feminist at all. As soon as we start labeling and categorizing ourselves and others, that's going to shut down the world.

Melissa Leo

I haven't had a lot of experience with glamour. I've never had to mask myself, as many now not-so-young actresses have had to do. Female actors in that regard have a different lot in life than male actors.

Melissa Leo

Being an actor on a movie set is like going to the playground at recess.

Melissa Leo

The key to acting has much more to do with listening than with talking.

Melissa Leo

The power of television - it's so present in our lives, we don't even know how powerful it is.

Melissa Leo

The climate informs the character.

Melissa Leo

I think the funny thing about acting for me - and I hold it in a very holy, spiritual way - not to be overly fundamentalist about it, but it's that important to me - is that it is an ancient healing art.

Melissa Leo

That's probably the biggest secret of acting: If the actor believes it themselves, they can make you believe it. (Melissa Leo)

As an actor, you live a little bit of a cloistered life. It's a lonely life. You oddly, strangely find yourself all alone, quite often, with a lot of time to think.

Melissa Leo

I think this notion of acting and glamour is getting in everybody's way.

Melissa Leo

I have some close friends I keep in touch with. I knit. I watch a little too much TV. I ski, if the weather's right for that. If I can find a group of buddies, I go rock climbing.

Melissa Leo