Meryl Streep Quotes
"I had it (smoking), it stinks".
Entertainment Tonight.
In 1978: "I'm looking forward to bigger parts in the future, but I'm not doing soft-core scripts where the character emerges in half-light, half-dressed."
You can't get spoiled if you do your own ironing.
(On whether
Madonna should play Eva Peron in the film version of
Evita instead of her): "I can sing better than she can. If Madonna gets it, I'll rip her throat out!"
I don't want to spit in the eye of good fortune, but it was weird. I felt like I'd butted in line in front of
Lucille Ball,
Audrey Hepburn,
Katharine Hepburn. Hello? How did this happen? I was only the sixth woman to receive it, but they found 26 men to give it to. I thought that was embarrassing. [on her Lifetime Achievement Award from the AFI]
I thought it was really fun, you've got to understand, but I didn't think it was a serious way to conduct your life. You know, I had a sense of mission. I was a true child of the '60s. [on her view of acting back in college]
I love doing comedy, but people just don't give me enough of a chance. It's one of the reasons I enjoy
The Manchurian Candidate so much. It's because I actually get a chance to be funny.
Let's face it, we were all once 3-year-olds who stood in the middle of the living room and everybody thought we were so adorable. Only some of us grow up and get paid for it.
"There are some days when even I think I'm overrated, but not today." (When accepting Emmy for _"Angels in America" (2003) (mini)_).
Someone once said that sometimes studio heads don't want to cast films with the image of their first wife in the role. It's just rather unpleasant for them. So they like the idea of the new one.
I loved being someone so certain. Because certainty is just so attractive in people. To me, it's a completely bogus position - for me. Because, you know, I'm listening to every side. But it's so nice not to have to listen to all the different sides. To be so clear and on your track and sure. It's a fabulous thing. Unfortunately, it leads to fanaticism. [on her role in
The Manchurian Candidate]
I think I was wired for family. You know how they say people are wired for religion, or wired for this or that? I always knew I would like to, if I could find the right person, have a family. I can't imagine living single.
I get nervous calling myself an artist. I feel I'm more like an interpreter or a violinist, you know.
"Oh boy, no matter how much you try to imagine what this is like, it's just so incredibly thrilling right down your toes." [On winning the 1983 Best Actress Oscar for
Sophie's Choice].
But ... in my own experience of male and female directors, people have a much, much harder time taking a direct command from a woman. It's somehow very difficult for people.
Sometimes under-preparation is very good, because it instills fear and fear is galvanizing. It makes you break out of yourself. If you're prepared, then you think you're ready, and if you think you're ready, then you're not ready.
I mean, come on; when you have people writing these things, that you're the greatest thing that ever ate scenery, you're dead. You're fucking dead. How can you even presume to begin a new character? It's a killer.
It's a lesson I learned in drama school: the teacher asks, how do you be the queen? And everybody says, 'Oh it's about posture and authority.' And they said, no, it's about how the air in the room shifts when you walk in. And that's everyone else's work.
I really, really depend on the other actors for the confirmation of who I think I am," she says. "And so it's important to me to work with good people that are not worried about how they look. You know. Real actors. They're your blood.
Part of Emmy acceptance speech for _"Angels in America" (2003) (mini)_: "Glenn [Close] is my friend so I know she'll forgive me, Helen Mirren is an acting god, and no one has put a better performance on film than Judy Davis in "The Judy Garland Story". The only one in the group is Emma Thompson, who will hold a grudge for the rest of her life. But who cares?"
[accepting the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical 2007] "I think I've worked with everyone in the room! I have!"
It's hard to negotiate the present landscape with a brain and a female body. (On her struggles as an actress earlier in her career)
My God, I was settling in for a long winter's nap. I've been nominated, like 789 times, but it hasn't been since the Mesozoic Era that I've actually won. (on winning a Golden Globe for _Adaptation._ (2002))
It would be nice to have a woman President. I think half the Senate should be women, half of Parliament, half the ruling mullahs. But that will never happen, darling!
[on Dustin Hoffman] He's energized and the greatest combination of the generous and the selfish that ever lived. He wants to be the greatest actor who ever was.
I try to lead as ordinary a life as I can. You can't get spoiled if you do your own ironing.
