Shannon Purser Quotes

I find myself really feeling like it's possible that maybe the greater contribution I'm going to be able to make through this next phase of my life might be as a writer writing wonderful parts for women, or even writing wonderful parts for myself, you know?

It's how I express myself - through storytelling and characters. They often reveal very intimate, vulnerable sides of myself.

After many of years of getting cast in sweet, angelic roles, I'm finally getting to play closer to my real life as a horrible person.

I always get offered the pretty, popular girl roles, but I want to do something dark, really challenge myself and get out of my comfort level.

I said, I'm on this TV show and I love doing it, but I don't want to be known always as the silly 'Scrubs' guy... So part of me was like, You know what? Life's short. Let's go for it.

You have to ask yourself if you want to be the kind of actress who's interesting, or the kind of actress who's meant to play the pretty-but-uninteresting wife of a chubby guy on a network sitcom.

I was looking to show people I could act. I was looking for something that would take me away from the whole hunk riding off into the sunset thing that people wanted me to play after Brown Sugar.

Doing acting opened up other creative outlets; it made me feel freer as an artist.

I started off as an actor thinking that I would be this Romeo, this dashing leading man. It turns out that I'm a character actor.

To me, it's really not about how I look - it's about who I can be. It is my job to bring the character to life and my duty to fit into the jigsaw in that story.

'Ugly Betty' has been the most important thing I've ever done, easily. I was able to do more with one character than I can ever imagine doing again - Hilda was hilariously funny and emotionally deep... I really got to showcase what I could do with a character.

The art of transformation is a very important thing to me, and I always believe I can say something more truthful through characters that are further away from me.

You know one of the things about going from modeling to acting is it's so much more fulfilling. With modeling, you get your picture taken, which is great, good for you, you know? But in acting, you're able to reach in and show a little bit more of yourself.

'Gaana Bajana' gave me an opportunity to experiment with my looks. I played a tomboy in that film, a role that I hadn't essayed before. I have no regrets for having done the film.

I think all my life's story is condensed in my face. It is neither innocent nor coy. It speaks volumes.

So often with beginning writers, the story that they want to start with is the most important story of their life - my molestation, my this, my horrible drug addiction - they want to tell that most important story, and they don't have the skills to tell it yet, so it ends up becoming a comedy. A powerful story told poorly becomes funny, it just makes people laugh behind their hands.

If life is a blank canvas and all people are artists, the big challenge we all face may be expressed this way: Will we ultimately produce something approaching a masterpiece, an acceptable but not particularly memorable work of art, or a creation that wouldn't even be purchased at a yard sale?

If you can't play all the instruments in the orchestra of story, no matter what music may be in your imagination, you're condemned to hum the same old tune.

I realized that once I graduated from college, there might be a period of time where people might typecast me or be more limiting, and I might not be able to play a crazy character. For me, it was important to do that at least in school.

As my kid gets a little bit older, if I feel like I have a little bit more time on my hands, I'd like to get more into developing ideas and writing things.

I feel my characters are valid, my characters are people, my characters have hope. Hope is the thing that'll take us through.

A good movie humanizes people.

What's the trick to writing a great female character? Make her human.

...there are two kinds of writing: the one you write and the one that writes you.

One of the most satisfying aspects of writing is that it can open in us deep wells of hidden treasures that are beautiful for us as well as for others to see.