Quotes By Jessica Lange

Because Shakespeare's language is so expansive, we're under this misconception that it's difficult. But I discovered that it's easy because it's so brilliantly written. The words are perfect, and the language is intelligent and very emotional.

I love being a mother. I loved being a daughter, a sister, a wife. I love being a woman with men. I love having given birth.

The natural state of motherhood is unselfishness. When you become a mother, you are no longer the center of your own universe. You relinquish that position to your children.

This idea of selfishness as a virtue, as opposed to generosity: That, to me, is unnatural.

If I had to start over, I'd pursue photography - probably to the exclusion of acting.

I am tortured when I am away from my family, from my children. I am horribly guilt-ridden.

In families there is always the mythology. My father died when my kids were quite young still, and yet they still tell his stories. That is how a person lives on.

I regret those times when I've chosen the dark side. I've wasted enough time not being happy.

To work with a director that has emotional commitment and passion toward the characters, and the piece, and the experiences, it only enriches your work.

I've been thinking a lot about next year, which will be the first time in 25 years that I don't have a child at home.

Families survive, one way or another. You have a tie, a connection that exists long after death, through many lifetimes.

I've got nothing left to lose at this point. The work I've done is out there.

There are no explanations, there are no answers.

Allow the diversity to exist. There is nothing wrong with it. Hell, we put up with the religious right-we can put up with transgendered human beings.

Sometimes the odds are against you-the director doesn't know what the hell he's doing, or something falls apart in the production, or you're working with an actor who's just unbearable.

It comes down to something really simple: Can I visualize myself playing those scenes? If that happens, then I know that I will probably end up doing it.

We are not the originators of the story. I think it's actually the opposite when you're an actor. You're telling somebody else's story.

Acceptance and tolerance and forgiveness, those are life-altering lessons.

One of the things I love about acting is that it reveals a certain something about yourself, but it doesn't reveal your own personal story.

The worst is when I talk myself into something. Sometimes you take things because you want to work with a certain actor, or you want to work with a director, even if the script or the part's not that great.

Once I started on 'Frances' I discovered it was literally a bottomless well. It devastated me to maintain that for eighteen weeks, to be immersed in this state of rage for twelve to eighteen hours a day. It spilled all over, into other areas of my life.

To stay interested in acting, I have to keep trying stuff I've never done before.

For me, nothing has ever taken precedence over being a mother and having a family and a home.

At a certain age, death becomes familiar to you-or a loss becomes familiar-the tragedies that are more commonplace in life.

If I didn't have children I'd be a much better actress. I wouldn't be so distracted. I could pour 100 percent of my energies into it, to promote the investigation which acting is.

There was that feminist myth that we can do everything. I don't think you can.

Successful model? That's a myth. The year I modeled was the most painful year of my life. Editors would always talk to you in the third person as though you were merely a piece of merchandise.

I have been a waitress, and I was a damn fine waitress too, let me tell you.

I had never done Shakespeare before, but I don't think you can be an actor and not do it. There were moments when I thought, I'm just not going to be able to pull this off.

When I am home for like a two-year stretch, I get antsy, because I want to work.