Martha Plimpton Quotes

I'm turning 22, so I want to start getting into work that reflects where I'm at in life now.

I don't really know how to build a career or what to do. But I have the instinct to keep doing different things so people can see different things.

I live with someone, actor Peter Krause, who didn't find an interest in being an actor until the very end of college. So my message is: There's so much freedom left. There's no ticking clock. It's just not true.

Obviously, throughout my career, I've always felt like certain things come to me at the right time. When I look at the work that I've done, it's always very indicative of where I was in my life at the moment.

It's taken me a long time to realize that my own life is far more interesting than any part I'll ever play.

Life changed at 40 for me, as predicted by my acting teacher when I was leaving college. I became more hirable and more interesting... I'm not sure why.

There comes a time in each life like a point of fulcrum. At that time you must accept yourself. It is not anymore what you will become. It is what you are and always will be.

I've always done more than I ever thought I would. Becoming a professor - I never would have imagined that. Writing books - I never would have imagined that. Getting a Ph.D. - I'm not sure I would even have imagined that. I've lived my life a step at a time. Things sort of happened.

I think essentially the meaning of life is probably the journey and not really any one thing or an outcome or a result.

I think for me the job always has to be the right thing at the right time.

I don't know if I'd say I feel green, but I'm getting to know myself as an actor now in a way that I never did as a kid.

The only reason my work seems to be eclectic up to a certain period is because I was a failure as an actor.

I went through a lot of occupations. I was questioning my contribution to the world.

People don't really know themselves until they're 30. Like most people nowadays, I went to university, got a degree and wandered for a bit. I trained to be a chartered accountant, which I didn't much enjoy, and it was only slowly that the idea of becoming a creative writer gelled.

I have been working for over 30 years and am always wondering about where I am and where I am going. It does not stop and become a fixed event of achievement.

I think 'No' is a very powerful word in our business that is very hard to use early on in your career. But I also think I was pretty arrogant when I was younger... I used that word maybe too much, but it did help me with finding roles that I did like.

For the first five years of music and first five years of acting, I don't remember it because I was running to where I was going. Finally I was like, 'Man, I missed everything.' So I just stopped, and I started looking around.

I didn't get on TV until I was 30, which is really fortunate because you are who you are at that point.

Sometimes, taking a job is like going to a shrink or something, where you get to know yourself better.

In school, you get a limited view of the world. Start working. Find your passion. Take your time doing that. Once you've found what you're passionate about, then lock down. Even if you want to start a business, it's helpful to work, see how other businesses are run.

I spent the first 25 years of my life not knowing what I wanted to do.

I'm 80 years old, and I don't know what I'm going to be when I grow up.

You can't focus on other people's careers. Everybody is different.

I haven't been worried about my image so much as I have been trying to find projects to push myself further than before.

Directors didn't know what to do with me in college. I didn't really sound like a belter. I didn't look like a soprano. But in New York, I was in the right place at the right time, where my unusualness fit the bill.