Gaby Hoffmann Quotes

My parents never pushed me to be an actress. You can come from a family of actors, and sometimes there have been families that grow you up as an actor, but this wasn't my situation. It's very important to find your own way because it's something you then have to confront yourself.

I don't have an exact moment when I decided I wanted to be an actress - it kind of was just really a part of my growing up.

Ralph Fiennes was a pivotal influence on me. He asked me, 'So what is it you want to do?' I very shyly, timidly admitted that I wanted to be an actor. He sighed, and he said, 'Lupita, only be an actor if you feel there is nothing else in the world you want to do - only do it if you feel you cannot live without acting.'

I needed the time to go to college and spend years with people who aren't in the business and become a person on my own in order to be the person that I am and the performer that I am. I wouldn't give that up to be in blockbusters or have more money.

Although I did end up trying out several different fields before committing to acting, I knew in the deepest part of heart that I wanted to be an actress.

My parents are amazing, but when I was like, 'Well, I'm going to be an actress,' and they're all doctors, that wasn't the best and easiest thing to do. I'm sure that I probably went through a year period when I wasn't telling them exactly what I was doing. But that's going to evolve.

I don't remember a time when I wasn't acting. I have taken time off to figure out if it's what I really want to do, and it is. The only other job I'd want is to be a psychologist, as I spend most of my time analyzing people and emotions.

I didn't even realize that I was interested in film until I was in college, and since then, I've had a very uncertain and sort of lost decade.

You have to remember that for more than half my life - probably until my children were born - acting was everything to me. I was obsessed by it, and I spent so much time just trying to get to the point where I was being paid to do it. Literally, I spent every waking moment thinking about acting.

I was anxious before I decided to go back to acting about what I wanted to do with my life. Once I realized I was sort of interested in acting, I've been pretty lucky and had all these great parts. And I feel pretty much like, 'What will happen will happen.'

I don't think, because I'm going to school for something else, that I will stop being an actress.

I honestly didn't know that I wanted to act until I was probably 12.

At first, I didn't really have a passion for acting.

I always knew that I wanted to be an actor. I made my debut on stage when I was 12, and I was sure that this is what made me happy. However, nobody takes a 12-year-old's career choice seriously. Everybody laughed it off. I also ran away from it, but acting eventually found me.

I've always had a passion for acting, without really realising that that's what I should be doing.

I think I was about 16 when I first figured I wanted to be an actor. I wanted to be a fighter pilot before that, but then I thought I don't want to kill people so that ruled that out.

I ended up having to leave home to make the music I wanted to make, and to find myself. As cliche as that sounds; I like to think I'm getting closer.

'A Different World,' for me, was in a lot of ways responsible for me going to college. I wanted to go to a black college, and I wanted to get out of Los Angeles. It's just a natural part of all of our journeys, that idea of leaving home.

As a child, I always wanted to be an actor. But as I grew older, the acting dream kind of faded away, and I took to studying a lot. A few years later, a relative of mine who really wanted me to try my hand at acting sent my photographs to a few production houses, and like they say, the rest is history.

Initially, I resisted going into acting. You want to have your own identity, and I thought about doing other things, but that didn't last very long.

I'm not really sure what defines 'success in the real world' to be honest! It's so objective once you graduate, some people work, some people start families, some go looking for themselves up mountains in Peru.

It is completely a God thing that I am here today because for the first 17 years of my life, I never thought I would ever do music professionally. I'd always liked what my dad did, but I never thought that I wanted to do it, just to be different.

In my late teens and early 20s, I worked hard on my roles, but, to be honest, I didn't feel any special commitment to acting.

Post my graduation, I really thought that acting was something I wanted to do. I simply took a chance and started auditioning, and I loved it.

I didn't really get into acting until halfway through college. Once I graduated I pursued it professionally, but it wasn't like I was always an actress.