Top 25 Laurie Metcalf Quotes

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.

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

I watch the Oscars in my pajamas like everybody else.

That was the beauty of ‘Roseanne’ and Roseanne herself. It could go dark; it could do issues.

I tend to root for characters who have a lot of negative qualities, but what’s driving them forward is their passion. They’re on a mission, and maybe their approach is misguided, but you can’t fault them for giving 150%.

My profession is about as far away from growing up in southern Illinois as you can get.

I gravitated back to theatre again, and when I heard about this little independent movie called ‘Lady Bird,’ I thought, ‘This will be a project where I can dip my toe back into the water.’

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

I’m incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to bring Mae to work with me as I take on the guest role of ‘Mary McGowan.’

I wasn’t turning down film roles, let’s put it that way. I was never really on that radar.

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

I like to let the work speak rather than to have to talk about it.

I watch episodes of ‘Rosanne’ now where I don’t even know what the ending’s going to be.

I’m happy whenever I’m in a rehearsal room. I’ve always gotten all my energy and creativity in there.

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.

‘Three Tall Women’ is kind of fascinating. I had never seen it itself, and I imagine the audience will find it very intriguing to watch the reveal of who these people are and how they interact in the second act.

Every part I get, I just think I’m so lucky. They’re so hard to get, you know.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

I am a kind of competitive person. I am competitive with myself. I won’t let anything go until I am satisfied with how it is.

I’m not trying to blow out a camera lens or make the audience’s hair go straight back from my sheer volume, sheer energy level.