Holly Hunter Quotes

It is painful to relive things that have caused emotional crises or whatever and find ways to express that musically.

It's a surprisingly sacrificial job being an actor.

My songs are very personal, which means they are fantastically therapeutic to write, but performing them night after night is emotionally draining.

It's incredibly fun to play someone that you don't like. It exorcises your own demons in a way. It's cathartic. We all have things that we don't like about ourselves, little things. And I get to amplify those things and put them out there. It's fun and it has a cleansing effect.

With drama, you need to be laughing, in between takes, 'cause you're going to those recesses of your soul and those dangerous parts. Normally, if you're not an actor or some crazy artist, you don't feel the need to run around in those areas. You keep them separate because it's painful.

I think every film I make that puts characters in jeopardy is me purging my own fears, sadly only to re-engage with them shortly after the release of the picture. I'll never make enough films to purge them all.

Do you know why Albert Camus was so prolific? He wrote to keep from screaming.

Most actors will tell you, when they've got emotional stuff that's hard to carry around for hours and hard to try to do justice too, it just beats your butt.

I like playing the bad guys. It's a way of exercising and exorcising my own personal demons.

I got scars from every film I've done, every TV show.

I look at something like 'Short Term 12,' and that character has a lot of pain, and I wouldn't have known how to portray that if I hadn't experienced pain myself.

Those things that we probably are ashamed of as human beings, certain things that no one would ever talk about - as actors, when we transform into a character, we empathize with those moments.

People always ask me, 'Why do you only write about heartbreak?' I think I only write when I'm broken, so that's just what happens. It makes me feel better, but having some distance helps.

Living out a story eight times a week is difficult and draining emotionally but very fulfilling.

The worst is when I know I'm going to have to cry in a scene.

I can express the brooding part of myself on-screen. It's kind of fun to get to do the bratty things I really wouldn't do. And then I get to go back to my regular life.

I have definitely learned - and this is definitely a human nature thing - that people are willing to, in an interaction with a comedian, admit things and talk about things with candor that they would never admit to a group of friends or an individual.

I literally grew up in drama. I used to watch drama - the catharsis of the play - then see drama at home.

As an actor, you need to smile all the time, which is not easy.

Acting is kind of an escape. You get to live life as someone else, and when you're living this life as someone else, you don't really have time to think about your own life.

Saying things on paper that I would never, ever say, and saying things to myself, admitting things to myself, about myself and my personality, just putting it on paper, is how I deal with emotional pain.

To write is to give meaning to suffering.

I've always viewed writing as an outlet for being vulnerable and all that comes with that. You are able to let things all out.

Every once in a while, I'll have an acting role that allows me to look at something in my life and work it out.