Paula Malcomson Quotes

I clearly remember writing songs [when I was young] and the power that it gave me of feeling like somebody. My whole life changed when I wrote those songs, even before anyone ever heard them. It wasn't a commercial thing.

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

When I was 15, I was asked to do 'Cyrano de Bergerac' at school, and it fundamentally changed my life. It's obviously an extraordinarily diverse and potentially electrifying part. It's a big leading part, and I hadn't really played anything like that before; I was the one doing the comedy side bit.

Acting is the greatest answer to my loneliness that I have found.

I've known who I am as an artist for a long time; 'Idol' has shown me what I'm capable of. I know it's all possible for me now. I can go in any direction I want. I'm forever grateful to them.

I'm in a place in my life where I get offered parts that I didn't get offered before - fathers and uncles and grandfathers and so on. And it took me a long time to get to that place, but I'm glad because it opens up new territory.

I'm essentially the result of other people's imagination. And that's fine. Because of other people's imagination, I've played parts I would never have thought I could do. Still, I've never had a hankering or an ambition for any particular role.

I loved doing 'Pennies from Heaven.' Because you have to understand that I'd been doing comedy for 15 to 20 years, and suddenly along came the opportunity to do this beautiful film. It was so emotional to me. I loved it. I don't think it was a good career move, but I have no regrets about doing it.

Anytime I met an actor, I just attacked them and said, 'How did you do this?' Eventually, I began to realize that you went to school for it. I wasn't a bright kid, so it took me a long time to figure that out.

It took me a long time to find my voice as a singer, and I'm happy that I did.

The roles... the deep roles that I've gotten to play have turned my course. They've changed my life experience.

By the time I went to Yale, I'd been acting for a long time and I was really tired of it. I was restless - and a little bored - and I was really eager to investigate different parts of myself.

Doing acting opened up other creative outlets; it made me feel freer as an artist.

I felt for a long time that this is what I want to do so I'm happy at this point to just take my time and work on projects that I feel strongly about, and the rest of the time just live my life.

I always knew that the only thing I wanted to do was act, but it took me a long time to say it out loud to anyone, let alone myself. I am surprised by how dogged I have been in wanting to make a living as a respected actress.

For a long time I was looking for my perfect equilibrium, my mojo. And now I think I'm getting there: I've found my customer, my silhouette, my cut.

I couldn't pick just one defining breakthrough role. I like to think that they're all a part of me.

I wouldn't call myself an actress, but I at the same time, if there is an opportunity... I believe in taking chances and living your life.

I did this movie called 'Lymelife' when I was 18, and you know, it was the first time I was working as an adult, a legal adult, and that was a huge growing experience for me.

I was a very good girl for a long time, that's what really drew me to acting. The stage was the perfect place to be outrageous, to be sad, to be angry, to be all these different things.

Each role that I've played has had a piece of a dream role in it.

I realized early on that if I became an actor, I could play a writer and a sculptor and a painter and be all the things you just don't have time to be in your lifetime. I could get to learn about all of them.

I was playing a lot of bigger, sort-of-comedic characters in slightly heightened realities, and it had been so fun and fulfilling for a long time. But it got to a point where I just felt like I didn't have that in me anymore.

A long time ago, I stopped trying to look at projects as genre exercises.

When you are chiselling a sculpture, it won't happen in one day, it happens over a period of time. It's the same way that my personality has changed over the past 15 years. I am not the same person I used to be and my life experiences are what have made me.