Top 40 Jennifer Jason Leigh Quotes

I hate parties. I don’t like big crowded things.

I think I live in this mythical world where doing the parts I do is not going to hurt me, and telling people my age is not going to hurt me. And it actually does. It’s a bit sick-making but, you know, I can’t change who I am.

Acting for kids is like playing house, you know? But growing up in Hollywood, it just made it seem possible.

I love being in therapy. It’s just constantly fulfilling for me.

I loved acting as a kid because I was kind of shy, so it brought me out of myself.

I don’t want to play the same person twice, that’s not why I wanted to act.

People can have so many ill-conceived ideas about me based on the parts that I play. I’ve had guys, when I’ve been single, come out of the woodwork to date me and I’ve found out very quickly that they were expecting some kind of whirlwind, some dramatic crazy person – and that’s just not me.

I loved being on the set with my stepfather. I loved the magic of movies. I went on the set of ‘The Mod Squad’ – I mean, can you imagine? Just walking into a living room and then walking behind the living room, and it’s just flat. There’s nothing I love more than being on a sound stage.

I really go against drama in my life. Life is too short.

I’d love to have children, and I think marriage is great, I really do.

I’m not great at judging a career. Or planning one.

I remember I once went to a nutritionist who said I come from good Russian-Jewish peasant stock, which means I can hold a potato in my body for a week, if need be.

When I find a role I want to play, I just go after it.

When you get called to come in and audition for Tarantino, it’s incredibly exciting.

Writing, producing and directing, I must say, is incredibly satisfying and gratifying. I’ve never been happier.

I’ve always had so much admiration for my mom. She’s so inspiring as a woman and as an artist.

I just don’t plan things. I live a month at a time.

I sort of spend every moment that I’m not working doing things with my son. You do the best you can, and you make the most of the time you have.

People equate success with youth. And if you haven’t had a certain amount of success by a certain time in your life, it’s never going to happen. There’s a fear about that. So people start lying about their age really young. I’ve never done that because I think it’s so insignificant.

On film, I’m very mysterious, but in life I’m very dull.

You know, you really do choose your existence in a way.

I think I am talented – but I also think I’m very lucky.

My mom’s a screenwriter, and before that, she was an actress, and my father was an actor; my stepfather was a director, so I was on sets a lot as a kid. I loved the magic of the set. You walk in, and it’s a living room, and you walk outside, and it’s just a piece of wood held up by another piece of wood.

I love acting, but I am a mom, and the roles just weren’t coming because of a mixture of things: because I’m not ambitious, and because I’m older, and I had a baby. I really felt like I had said a graceful and completely happy goodbye to acting in a significant way. And I had sort of made my peace with that.

I could never play the ingenue, the girl next door or the very successful young doctor. That would be a bore.

I used to go to Haagen-Dazs and order three banana splits at a time!

I like a movie that the audience actively has to participate in and not just casually observe.

I like to investigate all different kinds of people, I guess, and find out what makes them who they are, and try to be honest in the portrayal, and truthful, and find out how to understand that person, how to communicate that person’s experience.

I’m a fraidy cat. I play everything very safe in my life, so I think that’s why I like characters that don’t.

Susie Waggoner in ‘Miami Blues’ is just such a sweetheart, such an innocent. When I watch that, I really feel like I’m watching Susie Waggoner. I don’t really see myself. And there’s a simplicity to it that I really like.

I’ve always done roles that really appealed to me on a gut level and which I found inspiring.

I think that’s an incredible thing that we can do as actors – to feel empathy toward someone that you may otherwise detest, you know?

‘Georgia’ is very personal to me. ‘Anniversary Party’ was great. ‘Anomalisa’ is also another one that, particularly, is in my heart and will be forever. I do think it’s a masterpiece; I really do.

Not to compare an actor to a painter, but you can go through different phases and still be the same artist, y’know?

I’d much rather be in a movie that people have really strong feelings about than one that makes a hundred million dollars but you can’t remember because it’s just like all the others.

I don’t really watch my moves all that often; I mean, really, I don’t.

I used to hang out by the food table at parties because you don’t have to talk to anybody. If you do then you can talk about the food.

There’s a lot of magic involved in movies that as a child I really appreciated. So I love bringing my son to set. It reminds me of what I loved doing as a child, and also, as an actor, you have a lot of down time.

I like a movie that the audience actively has to participate in, and not just casually observe. Whatever my part in it, just as an audience member, I find that exciting.

I feel like I had a great career in a way. Maybe not the most successful monetarily or in other ways, but creatively, I feel incredibly fortunate.