Holly Hunter Quotes

A lot of people think I'm cynical when I talk about acting. The truth of the matter is, I just don't want someone to get some lame advice that will send them in the wrong direction.

My mom got me into some commercials, and I basically, I guess, just got out of my shell I was in at the time because I can't remember. I've just been blessed ever since.

Dustin Hoffman was the greatest. He had so much information to give and he mesmerized me. He really feels for actors who are just starting out and remembers his early days like they were yesterday.

I think 99 percent of actors have gone through severe rejection before they ever landed a single role. I probably auditioned for 100 projects before I was cast in even the smallest role.

The funny thing about acting is, there's no 'right' way to make it. Some people need to work their butts off, and some don't. They're just naturals. I wasn't a natural. I sucked.

I have no regrets, except perhaps one: I should have tried harder to be a better actor.

I became an actor, and because I had success as an actor, I became famous. I was acting for quite a while before I got famous; television made me famous. I guess that it's television that is responsible for everybody's desire to be famous.

It's a funny thing. You sort of never figure it out with acting. You're always learning.

I think I have been very lucky as far as my acting career goes.

Anytime you get to work with an actor who is beyond you in experience and talent, I feel like they make you a better actor. You really bring up your game.

I had never dreamt I'd become an actress. It was destiny that put me in the right place at the right time and gave me the right opportunities.

I think, being an actor, it's just a relief every time you get a part.

Experience tells us that whereas that degree of recognition can happen for one or two actors, for the vast majority it doesn't, so what matters is to try and be a better actor.

Each character I play has different dimensions. I'm not interested in words that pull them together.

I recognize how lucky I am as an actor. I've been working as an actor since I was 9 years old.

I didn't really make up my mind to be an actor until I did 'The Hitcher' with Rutger Hauer. I was about 17 or 18 when I did that, by which point I'd probably done a dozen or more movies or TV things, but 'The Hitcher' was the experience that made me want to study and commit and learn how to do this for my life.

But most of what I've learned about acting - and a lot of what I've learned about life in the past seven years - was taught to me by Robert Altman.

I didn't want to be an actress at all, or famous even. I certainly enjoy acting now, absolutely. Time will tell whether or not I enjoy fame.

I think - I honestly think that my story is not 100 percent that unique. I think that I'm - just the whole rock star part kind of throws an interesting twist on it.

With acting, it was really more of a general kind of experience of really just loving being in the theater.

There is a horrible misconception that you can either act or not. But experience is everything.

Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of acting: character acting and lead acting. And in my life, to begin with, in the 1980s, it was all character acting. And then when, by fluke, through 'Four Weddings', I got into doing lead parts, it's a completely different thing.

I was so green, and my background was mostly in theater. The only thing I'd done in front of a camera, besides an infomercial and one commercial, was 'Brothers McMullen.'

I want to dip my foot in some acting. And most definitely want to mentor upcoming artists and give them the wisdom that was given to me.

I don't offer advice to actors only because I've seen actors become successful through ways that would never even occur to me or that wouldn't work for me. But this has worked for me: Never memorizing a scene.