Billy Porter Quotes

I was quite bright, but I didn't do much with it, and I thought acting was dressing up and shouting for a living - which, of course, it isn't.

There never were any roles for my kind of acting. That's the story of my life.

Because I was promoted as a sort of a siren and played all those sexy broads, people made the mistake of thinking I was like that off the screen. They couldn't have been more wrong.

I just feel as though it's become a situation where people have manifested this caricature of who I am, and they act as if there's no real person inside of it.

What I say now is that the way the world underestimates me will be my greatest weapon. People pat me on the head, and I go to myself, oh, and aren't they going to be surprised.

People seem to have this idea that I've always been very ambitious. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Everyone knows a lot about me without actually knowing me at all.

Middle age snuffs out more talent than ever wars or sudden deaths do.

I didn't like not having work and not having people return my calls.

The most frustrating thing to me is when I tell people I work on 'Friday Night Lights,' they'll say, 'Oh, I hear that's a really good show.' They never watched it.

My hunger and desperation, being an actor, an out of work actor - my memory of that is as fresh as an open wound.

The image we have of a famous person often bears no relation to them.

I'm perceived to be this solitary character, but nothing could be further from the truth.

I think the world sort of looks to the kids who have potential. These are the kids who are going to do something with their lives, who are going to do something for the world. I don't think it's malicious, but the other kids get lost from that point on.

When television came along, I'd already done more than 10 years of radio work and I thought everyone would want me. I sat around waiting for the phone to ring - and it didn't.

As an actor, it's hard to get work. Sometimes you have to make do with the jobs that you get.

I think a lot of people who didn't know my work before 'The Sopranos' think I came from the Jersey Shore, like they picked us out of the mall and put us on television.

I was in a movie called 'Before & After' with Meryl Streep. I was edited out of the movie, but no one told me. I think I was 18 or 19 years old. I sat across from her and asked her every question about acting. I completely embarrassed myself.

I wasn't turning down film roles, let's put it that way. I was never really on that radar.

The biggest challenge to being an actor is, when you're not working, just being unemployed: the downtime and not having anything to do.

I think a lot of times, when people who get a chance to meet me and be around me, they understand that I'm not the person that the media make me out to be.

Every player has a chip on their shoulder about something.

I think people have a warped sense of who I am.

It's just crazy the way people portray me.

I'm a working actress in Hollywood. You unfortunately don't get the pick of the litter when it comes to auditions and jobs.