Jennifer Jason Leigh

“I think I live in this mythical world where doing the parts I do is not going to hurt me, and telling people my age is not going to hurt me. And it actually does. It's a bit sick-making but, you know, I can't change who I am.”

“I've never really been a careerist; I've never been able to step back and look at anything in that way. I though this is just what happens. I did take my work very seriously. I loved immersing myself in a character. I loved getting the opportunity to do that. I didn't realize how extraordinary it was, how lucky I was, because I was young.”

“Not to compare an actor to a painter, but you can go through different phases and still be the same artist, y'know?”

“I hate parties. I don't like big crowded things.”

“On film, I'm very mysterious, but in life I'm very dull.”

“I love Polaroids and I have a Polaroid camera collection from the '50s.”

“I love being in therapy. It's just constantly fulfilling for me.”

“It's very exciting to work with people who inspire you.”

“I don't want to play the same person twice, that's not why I wanted to act.”

“I love acting, but I am a mom, and the roles just weren't coming because of a mixture of things: because I'm not ambitious, and because I'm older, and I had a baby. I really felt like I had said a graceful and completely happy goodbye to acting in a significant way. And I had sort of made my peace with that.”

“I feel like I had a great career in a way. Maybe not the most successful monetarily or in other ways, but creatively, I feel incredibly fortunate.”

“I could never play the ingenue, the girl next door or the very successful young doctor. That would be a bore.”

“I'm not great at judging a career. Or planning one.”

“I really go against drama in my life. Life is too short.”

“I sort of spend every moment that I'm not working doing things with my son. You do the best you can, and you make the most of the time you have.”

“I like to investigate all different kinds of people, I guess, and find out what makes them who they are, and try to be honest in the portrayal, and truthful, and find out how to understand that person, how to communicate that person's experience.”

“I don't really watch my moves all that often; I mean, really, I don't.”

“There's a lot of magic involved in movies that as a child I really appreciated. So I love bringing my son to set. It reminds me of what I loved doing as a child, and also, as an actor, you have a lot of down time.”

“I think I am talented - but I also think I'm very lucky.”

“I'm a typical middle child. I'm the mediator. The one that makes everything OK, puts their own needs aside to make sure everybody's happy. It's hard to change your nature, even with years and years of therapy.”