Catherine Keener Quotes

TV and films are same for me. I took a decision to be an actor, and I am an actor. I never decided to be TV actor or film actor.

Acting is a great way to make a living, especially when I consider what my alternatives were and probably still are. I mean, you are only making movies. It is a lot less pressure than being a surgeon; although it seemed like the only other thing that I was qualified for was manual labour.

I thought actors were born in Hollywood. I didn't know how to go about it.

If people offer me decent roles in good films, of course I'll take it. But I just didn't like the actor lifestyle. You end up focusing all your energy on trying to get parts you don't even want.

Los Angeles is where you have to be if you want to be an actor. You have no choice. You go there or New York. I flipped a coin about it. It came up New York, so I flipped again. When you're starting out to be an actor, who wants to go where it's cold and miserable and be poor there?

It was considered that you were stepping down by doing television. I almost turned Cybill down because I so wanted to remain a theater actress.

Our career is a dream. I mean, we get to act, travel around the world, and meet cool people. What's not to love!

I do enjoy acting, but it is such a game. So for that reason, I don't think I'll ever leave London.

But the reason I became, why I wanted to be in the business was because there was Midnight Cowboy.

No one in my family is in entertainment. They thought acting was a fun hobby, and when I got a degree, I'd settle down.

I don't have any love for this business or the game or for acting. This is my day job.

I really think that everybody would like to be an actor. Why wouldn't they? It's great work if you can get it. The one thing that prevents most people from saying, 'I'm just gonna go to Hollywood!' is that it seems unrealistic.

Reality is, I'm an actor and an entertainer, and I really wouldn't know what to do with another profession.

I was 11 and watching soap operas with my mom, and I thought it would be cool to be an actor. I thought soap operas was going to be the dream at the time - it's obviously now not the dream, but I think soap operas are really cool. Maybe I'll go back to that.

I never wanted to be an actress, really. I sort of caught the bug fairly late. So many people are so intrigued with the glamour and celebrity of acting, and a lot of actors start acting when they are 9 or 10 years old - so young. I started when I was about 24.

I decided in my late teens that I wanted to be an actor, and my dad and I agreed that films were better. I work alongside my dad, you see. I've thought that films were better since I was a kid.

My father and I used to tussle about me becoming an actor. He's from strong, Presbyterian Scottish working-class stock, and he used to sit me down and say, 'You know, 99 percent of actors are out of work. You've been educated, so why do you want to spend your life pretending to be someone else when you could be your own man?'

My mother told me I should be a secretary, but I wanted to be an actress from when I was very young.

From an actor's point of view, you never really like to hope that anything will go beyond the pilot. I'd always say to my agent every time I filmed a pilot, 'Great! Well, I'll see you at pilot season.'

There was a time when it would be a great scandal if you announced you were going to be an actor.

My job isn't about pursuing fame and then becoming an actor. It's about becoming an actor, and if fame follows suit, that's fine.

But I think the children of actors share a certain pragmatic approach. One is denied some of that 'running away with the circus' element of being an actor.

I considered a lot of different jobs as a kid. I thought about becoming a priest or a lawyer. My father had a big linen-supply business and I considered working for him. What dawned on me was: 'If I'm an actor, I get to do the fun parts of every job!' Without having to go to four years of law school.

I would love to do a talk show. Naturally, I would love to do more films. I'd love to be able to see casting directors more willing to put in a character who happens to be deaf. I'm not talking about doing deaf storylines, but putting in deaf characters. I'd love to be able to do Broadway.

It was never a plan to be an actor.