Melissa Leo Quotes

I think that there is a sort of spiritual power that is translating into our bodies as we perform. Performers give, and giving is so important. It can heal. That is my experience, anyway.

I grew up in Middle America and I don't think my family was very funny, but I watched 'The Princess Bride.' I always wanted to be an actor. I didn't know anything about it. I'd never seen any plays or anything and I watched that movie over and over and over again.

One of the things I like about acting is that, in a funny way, I come back to myself.

I love to sing more than anything - more than acting, even.

I adore doing comedy, I think it's fantastic. I never saw myself doing exclusively comedy.

I love doing comedy, and that's the thing I will always go back to, really, but I'd love to have the freedom to do sort of 'meaty' roles but also have the freedom to do the sort of films I want to make, like what Woody Allen does. You forget he's funny because you're so gripped by the story, but they still make you laugh.

I think when you're at your best as an actor, it is cathartic.

Acting is always therapeutic.

It's a funny thing about rap, that when you say 'I' into the microphone, it's like a public confession. It's very strange.

I believe acting to be my own journey through connection more than anything else, but that's only my take on it.

I did not expect to be allowed to be an actor, to be allowed to eventually direct things.

The feeling of being at sea has put me in touch with who I am to a greater degree than if I had been on land all these years. So, in a roundabout way, I imagine it does inform my acting.

I think impersonation is a great art. It's something that I enjoy doing, in a frivolous and lighthearted way. But I don't flatter myself to think I'm an impersonator.

Art is for healing ourselves, and everybody needs their own personal art to heal up their problems.

The interesting thing about acting is using all your own stuff and having some kind of personal catharsis while you're working.

I think anything that's creative really takes my mind off whatever it is that I'm going through in my life. If you're going through heartbreak, and you can write a song, it's a wonderful win-win, because it takes your mind off the heartbreak, and you get to vent.

As an actress, you're part of what the director is creating, and as a model, you're representing a designer's vision.

My music is a very personal reflection of me, whereas, acting a role, that's a reflection of another character.

For me, acting was always a way to explore emotions - to dip into the well and really try to reach rock bottom down there. That was the most exciting part of it. I hadn't found anything that really allowed me to do that until I came upon acting.

I wanted to do an hour-long show, and I wanted to something that was dramatic and sometimes funny and humorous, as well. I'm just delighted to have this opportunity to be a part of this project.

I found out a long time ago that if I didn't have a good story for a song, I could just make one up! Now it seems over half the stories in my show are made up. The funny thing is, those seem to be the ones that resonate the most with the audiences.

I'm trained in the theater, and acting, for me, is about the imaginative life I create for myself, not about basing it on something real. I think that whatever I create becomes the reality for the audience.

Acting was a way of me finding myself, which I think is the case of a lot of actors, regardless of where they come from.

Dancing gives an innate physical awareness - it's physical training. Acting feels like the same medium but just with words.

I've enjoyed the process of understanding who I am through my work and who I am in relation to others: the intense collaboration that acting requires and thrives in.