Jennifer Jason Leigh quotes:

I love Polaroids and I have a Polaroid camera collection from the '50s.

I'd love to have children, and I think marriage is great, I really do.

People equate success with youth. And if you haven't had a certain amount of success by a certain time in your life, it's never going to happen. There's a fear about that. So people start lying about their age really young. I've never done that because I think it's so insignificant.

I'm a typical middle child. I'm the mediator. The one that makes everything OK, puts their own needs aside to make sure everybody's happy. It's hard to change your nature, even with years and years of therapy.

I hate parties. I don't like big crowded things.

I could never play the ingenue, the girl next door or the very successful young doctor. That would be a bore.

People can have so many ill-conceived ideas about me based on the parts that I play. I've had guys, when I've been single, come out of the woodwork to date me and I've found out very quickly that they were expecting some kind of whirlwind, some dramatic crazy person - and that's just not me.

It's very exciting to work with people who inspire you.

I like to investigate all different kinds of people, I guess, and find out what makes them who they are, and try to be honest in the portrayal, and truthful, and find out how to understand that person, how to communicate that person's experience.

I don't want to play the same person twice, that's not why I wanted to act.

I just dont plan things. I live a month at a time.

Acting for kids is like playing house, you know? But growing up in Hollywood, it just made it seem possible.

I'd much rather be in a movie that people have really strong feelings about than one that makes a hundred million dollars but you can't remember because it's just like all the others.

I like a movie that the audience actively has to participate in, and not just casually observe. Whatever my part in it, just as an audience member, I find that exciting.

I love being in therapy. It's just constantly fulfilling for me.

I just don't want to talk about my personal life. I feel like it's mine, I'm not trying to promote it. It's nice to have things that are your own, that you value enough that you don't have to use to sell a movie.

I don't need a reason to kill myself-I need a reason not to.

I hope my talent has something to do with it. I just think this business is so crazy. I obviously do the best I can, and the directors I admire see something in me. But this is a strange business, and there are people who are incredibly talented who never make it, who never get these opportunities. So that's why I say I'm lucky. I don't feel that I'm not talented - I think I am talented - but I also think I'm very lucky.

You know, you really do choose your existence in a way.

For me, something dangerous would be playing thebabe in a huge studio film. That would be terrifying because I'dstink... I want to explore human beings on as deep a level as I can.

Quentin's [Tarantino] thing is "I don't want anybody to get up until they have to. So, because he really wants things to come organically. And he may have specific things like "No, this ... I want you to be here so that when he punches you, it falls. I want that action to happen here." But you feel like it does, all the blocking does come from an organic response to the material.

I've always done roles that really appealed to me on a gut level and which I found inspiring.

Writing, producing and directing, I must say, is incredibly satisfying and gratifying.

I don't really watch my moves all that often; I mean, really, I don't.

I feel like I turned down a lot of things that I wish I hadn't. But you never know when you're younger. I don't have regrets about certain things I turned down. Those films would have required things of me that would have been challenging, and they ended up being really good movies. But I was never a careerist, I never thought in those terms. I'd be like, "Oh, I'm tired. I don't want to work."

I've had guys, when I've been single, come date me and I've found out they were expecting some kind of whirlwind, some dramatic crazy person-- and that's just not me. I'd much rather be in a movie that people have really strong feelings about than one that makes a hundred million dollars but you can't remember because it's just like all the others.

I worked with great, brilliant directors. I've been so lucky. It's terrible to compare anyone, because you can't. But I can just tell you that this experience was just a truly magnificent experience for everyone involved.

I used to hang out by the food table at parties because you don't have to talk to anybody. If you do then you can talk about the food.

When I find a role I want to play, I just go after it.

One of the reasons that I do a lot of different kinds of pictures is because I learn a lot when I'm doing them.

I loved acting as a kid because I was kind of shy, so it brought me out of myself.