Melissa Leo Quotes

The climate informs the character.

Melissa Leo

• Character
• Climate

Acting is the business of truth, so that we can see ourselves reflected back and learn.

Melissa Leo

• Acting
• Ourselves
• Reflected

I have some close friends I keep in touch with. I knit. I watch a little too much TV. I ski, if the weather's right for that. If I can find a group of buddies, I go rock climbing.

Melissa Leo

• Friends
• Littles
• Groups

I think the funny thing about acting for me - and I hold it in a very holy, spiritual way - not to be overly fundamentalist about it, but it's that important to me - is that it is an ancient healing art.

Melissa Leo

• Important
• Spirit
• Acting

I think this notion of acting and glamour is getting in everybody's way.

Melissa Leo

• Thinking
• Acting
• Glamour

I am a smoker, I'm ashamed to say. I had given it up for many years, then picked it up again. It's a horrible habit. I struggle with myself all the time. And I love to smoke.

Melissa Leo

• Struggle
• Ashamed
• Horrible

As an actor, you live a little bit of a cloistered life. It's a lonely life. You oddly, strangely find yourself all alone, quite often, with a lot of time to think.

Melissa Leo

• Thinking
• Yourself
• Lonely

That's probably the biggest secret of acting: If the actor believes it themselves, they can make you believe it.

Melissa Leo

• Believe
• Acting
• Secret

The key to acting has much more to do with listening than with talking.

Melissa Leo

• Listening
• Acting
• Talking

The power of television - it's so present in our lives, we don't even know how powerful it is.

Melissa Leo

• Know
• Powerful
• Television

I'm a little bit of a glutton for punishment, especially when it comes to work. I don't mind a bit of suffering. I think it's in suffering that we realize our best selves.

Melissa Leo

• Thinking
• Suffering
• Realizing