F. Murray Abraham Quotes

I never pictured myself in California. I just thought I would be a character actress in New York on the stage. I never really had that stardom goal; I just wanted to be able to work as an actress and not as a waitress.

I did a lot of TV work for more than 30 years in New York and L.A., but I would get on the stage whenever I could.

I moved to LA and decided to do films and television, mainly because the theater in New York is totally dead.

I went to theatre school for four years and just wanted to do theatre. I had no ambition to be on TV or to be on camera. I just wanted to go to New York or London and be on stage... I did a lot of theatre in Montreal, got involved in TV in Toronto and then moved to L.A. I hope that film and TV will take me back to theatre.

I loved my time doing 'Private Practice' in Los Angeles, and I was quite challenged and excited to learn about the art of television, but I missed being on the stage.

I could count my modeling jobs on my hands and toes. When I graduated from college, I moved to New York specifically to study acting, and I needed to pay the bills, and it's better to make a couple thousand dollars in one day than to wait tables six days a week.

I didn't act in school. I didn't study acting, either. I learned everything when I got to New York.

I went to high school in Los Angeles, and I grew up riding horses, so that was kind of my life. I always wanted to act.

I began my career performing in plays and musicals in New York, but by the mid-'80s, opportunities in Hollywood beckoned and I made the move to Los Angeles. It was a good decision. Work took off, but most important, I met my family out there - my husband, Bill, and the children we would adopt: Elijah, Mae-Mae, and Aron.

People have this impression that once you move to America, that becomes your interest. But I never moved to Los Angeles; I stayed in New York because I do theatre, so my aim is not just Hollywood.

When I was younger, all I wanted to do was be a singer, and then I got into a great acting class in New York and became obsessed with that.

I said, going into acting, 'I'm never moving to L.A.,' because it scared me. But there was no way you could build an acting career in Orange County.

I hope it's always going to be a mix between theatre, film and radio. I've been very lucky living in London that you can do all that - in New York and L.A., there's more of a structure for film in L.A. and theatre in New York. In London, our industry is smaller, but it produces brilliant work all in one place.

My parents were both in show business. My father was an actor, my mom an actress, and both singers, dancers and actors. They met in Los Angeles doing a play together and so I grew up in a show biz family.

I think every leading man wants to be a character actor, and every character actor wants to be a leading man.

Music, in Mexico, just wasn't working out. So, I fell into acting and I just fell in love with it. It was amazing! It was a great safe place to just vent.

In terms of acting, I've been acting from a very young age. I've always loved it and wanted to have a career in acting or something to do with it.

I never really considered acting as a career until I moved to New York.

I didn't know what my passion was until I discovered the dramatic arts in junior high and high school and I realized, 'Oh, I like this. This is something I feel like I'm good at.' But, the idea of moving to Hollywood and becoming an actor was really unrealistic.

My plan was I just knew, I think the first time I was in a high school play, and I liked the feeling of that. Getting on the stage and entertaining and audience. Eventually, I went to New York and studied my craft, and I was in school for two years in the same class with Joanne Woodward and Steve McQueen.

The truth of the matter is I stayed in L.A. raising my children, and when they went to college, I packed my bags along with them and came to New York and looked for parts in the theatre, because that's always what I preferred doing.

Most people don't think of Los Angeles as a theatre town, and that you have to go to New York to be in theatre, and it's really not true.

I know at some point I would like to take on more dramatic roles.

Acting was all I ever really wanted to do.

Growing up in Seattle, I had the opportunity to take classes since I was 7 years old. I did theatre. I auditioned for film, television, commercials, and built up not just a resume but also some confidence. I learned how to master my craft before arriving in Los Angeles.