Melissa Leo Quotes

When you're on stage, unless you surrender to the moment, you're not telling the truth. I look for people that tell me the truth.

I'm all about showing people that I'm a little messed up, I have a lot of the same problems you have. By exposing myself and putting myself out there, people can relate to me and my act won't grow stale. I mean, nobody wants to hear a comedian say, 'Life is great.'

As wild and raunchy as Richard Pryor was, people related to his honesty because they found something in their life that they understood.

As I found again and again as a writer, when you're completely honest about something, people respond to that.

Even if you can't relate to what I'm singing, I hope you can believe in it and see it as something that it is real.

Acting is all about truth and honesty, and the sensitivity that's capable of transporting you.

I think comedy stems from being honest, often painfully so. I hope I can achieve that perspective in my own life and also have fun.

Being so honest in my writing is cathartic.

This is my truth, tell me yours.

This is what I believe about performing: There is no reason to be on stage - there is no reason to be there - if you're not going to put all your baggage somewhere else and just be honest. Whatever you're doing - screw it up, do great - just be there, and be honest. That's the most important thing.

If you tell the truth about how you're feeling, it becomes funny.

I love that I can tell the truth and have people laugh at it.

I'm not performing anymore. I reveal myself to the audience. I reveal myself. That's the show now.

I go where people are hurting. I stand on the stage, and I make people laugh for an hour and a half.

I suppose my job is to describe spaces that are honest to me. And the goal, I suppose, is that the listener can hear themselves in some way in that song and also, in some way, hear me. And so if the listener is able to identify with my honesty then I'm being the most helpful I can possibly be.

It's just so humanizing to see someone be real.

I've listened to 'Frank' so many times. She was so honest and herself. I think one of the hardest things for an artist to do is tell the truth, but that's what Amy Winehouse did, and it's what I want to do - if you want to write songs that connect with people, I think they really need to believe what you're talking about.

I strive for honesty because I think that's where the funniest stuff comes from.

I've found that the more honest and true you are and can talk about a character and people's experiences, it's less ostracizing. It actually has the opposite effect than one would think. It makes the characters and the story more inclusive.

What I like about stand-up is, it's truthful. I'm not up there trying to get laid or look cool. I'm up there because I really love it, and it makes people happier.

I remember Julianne Moore talking about acting and she said, "I'm just looking for truth. When people watch, they're not looking to see me. They're looking to see themselves." That's one of my new favorite sayings

What shames us, what we most fear to tell, does not set us apart from others; it binds us together if only we can take the risk to speak it.

At a certain age you start becoming brave enough to reveal yourself and it's the revealing of who you are that enables you to dig deeper into different characters. You'll get to a point where you can say: 'I can relate to that', 'I know that', 'I don't have to make that up' and that resonates with people in the audience who can tell that you've been there.

You shared one of the most intimate things that ever happened to you - falling in love with someone who wasn't brave enough to love you back. Your relieving yourself of your 'secret' is as much about wanting to honestly connect as it is about exhibition. We are all made better by your decision to share publicly.

I want to be loved despite my faults. It isn't exactly true that I'm a provocateur. A real provocateur is someone who says things he doesn't think, just to shock. I try to say what I think.