Top 60 Mariette Hartley Quotes

Dad was a hunter and had guns in the house all the time.

If I could change two things, it would be my chest.

After I played the frigid doctor on the ‘Peyton Place’ series, all I got for a long while was offers for more frigid doctor parts.

Drinking made me a lot more free sexually; the restrictions were off. I was a compulsive, compliant ‘good girl’ by day and a ‘bad girl’ at night.

I loved the feeling of pressure that you can get in Hollywood.

But I will say that TV was a great education for me. It allowed me to develop techniques for getting the job done. It’s the best training ground since B movies.

It’s much easier to do a TV series because an actress can stay put.

When you sing, you’re releasing so much more than you are when you’re speaking. You risk more as a singer.

I modeled myself after Deborah Kerr for her romantic, untouched quality; Ingrid Bergman for her strength; and Kay Kendall for her wonderful sense of humor.

There are problems in Canada. There is a certain inconsistency in the acting. I don’t mean to sound chauvinistic, but we do have a larger supply of good actors in Hollywood. There are good actors in Canada, but not as wide a choice.

I talk only about my journey because that’s all I know. That’s what the audience always pulls me back to. There’s a hunger out there for the spoken journey, just to share the experience, the strength, the hope.

One of the wonderful things about Shakespeare is that he trusted an audience to move quickly with him. One moment tragedy, the next comedy.

My karma doesn’t seem to be a big screen karma: it’s definitely a little-screen karma.

I’m impulsive, spontaneous; I have a joy in my life today that doesn’t quit.

I’ve been able to survive a lot of things, and I am especially interested in survivor stories.

I got used to certain things that normal kids don’t get used to, like, when my mother went into the kitchen for things other than just cooking. I could hear the bottle open up and I could hear the chugs. Then the next morning, none of it was discussed. You grow up feeling crazy.

During the years I was growing up, I was trying very hard to be a regular person.

I’ve never done a musical before. I’ve sung, off and on, all of my life. But I have never, ever done a musical.

I think I know what middle America enjoys seeing.

I’ve never had a homosexual or bisexual experience, but it doesn’t make me uncomfortable to dip into those feelings. I think a lot of women have those feelings without acting on them.

What took some time for me to figure out was how to have a life outside my career, to find a way to be inclusive rather than exclusive. It came only after years of psychotherapy and deep soul-searching.

I’m a firm believer in therapy.

My father was a farm boy who never learned to be holding and supportive.

Bipolar disorder is something that is mine. And it is very difficult to talk about it.

I had married, had a child. I was content to stay at home. I had let go of the fantasy of stardom.

What people don’t realize is that I’ve been trying to get to Bethlehem since I was four years old. By that, I mean I’ve been trying to attain perfection since I was kid. And it took me more than 40 years to learn that it wasn’t going to happen.

I don’t even consider it therapy anymore. I consider it availing myself of a guide.

I enjoy live television a lot, but I’m not crazy about the hours.

For me, that is what my mission seems to be in my life on earth – to be awake, to stay awake, and to bring a certain kind of consciousness to the world, and to myself.

I give as much detail as I do about the bad times because people out there don’t know that others have been through hell but then through the process of amazing grace. You hope that someone out there will hear what you have to say, and that it may matter.

It seems to have taken me a long time to find my identity.

The problem with ‘Today’ was whether it was an entertainment show. Tom Brokaw and I had that battle for three weeks. He’s a purist, and I was brought in for entertainment.

I don’t know how much longer I can go on without my becoming known as ‘the camera woman.’

I’m not a compulsive worker, and I’ve never been a workaholic, so if I have a three-week vacation, I don’t want to do a movie-of-the-week.

It hasn’t been easy for me to get roles in movies after so much exposure on television. There’s an anathema about TV, and breaking away from it is difficult for almost everybody.

I can’t lose my spontaneity.

Humility is a very tough thing to have, especially when you’re a tough guy.

My family is really a classy ‘Simpsons.’

I think the reason why ‘Star Trek’ works so well was its small family feeling. The show felt small, you could see the mistakes, you could see rocks weren’t rocks. You caught them at it all the time, but you didn’t care because you were so hooked to the people and to the stories. It was a fabulous show.

Once we make the commitment to help ourselves, we are able to help others – and the universe supports our commitments.

My household, as I was growing up, was a house of hidden shame.

My father was a very strong male figure to me as a child. He was very dashing, had a wonderful sense of humor and was romantically handsome in the Scott Fitzgerald genre.

I think I’ve proven that I’m issue-oriented and I’m not apolitical. But I’m not a journalist and I don’t want to be one with that veneer exterior.

When you are shooting a movie in a week, there’s not much time to travel.

I’m at my best when I’m thrown, even though I don’t like to be thrown.

Theater has always been my less-fickle friend.

I’ve tried to tone down some of my peppiness, but for those who don’t like it, just as many do like it.

It’s hard to be a long-distance mother.

I consider myself an articulate actor, and I don’t consider myself a second-tier actor.

I always tell kids, in high school or acting students, to do something else around acting, or not around it, just in your life that is of service.

I started acting when I was 10.

My life was a legacy of death and humor.

It was a stumbling career at best before the Polaroid commercials. I think they definitely, if there’s a word to use, focused – pardon the pun, ’cause I don’t mean it that way – my career.

My training was in theater, and I was asked to be a journalist.

I’ve been in front of the camera the last 20 years, and it’s just become a friend.

Mariette is a nickname. My real name is Mary Loretta.

I feel my free-est when I don’t know where I’m going, when I’m not scripted, and doing crazy things.

My happiest moments are when I’m on my high wire with the Johnny Carsons of the world. I don’t have that opportunity if I’m doing other people’s scripts.

Success in a career sometimes comes in strange ways. You grab it in whatever way it happens.

At some point you’ve got to get to yourself and say, ‘Wait a minute, I’ve been handed this legacy but I have to become accountable so I don’t hand a lot of it on to my children.’