Lauren Graham quotes:

Perspective is the most important thing to have in life.

Nobody ever seems to want my advice about serious stuff. People will be like: 'Who made that sweater?' Or 'How did you get your hair so straight?' They don't to come to me for the relationship advice or deep stuff. In fact, my little sister actually hides from me.

Texting is not flirting, if you don't care about me enough to say the words than that's not love, I don't like it!

I didn't grow up identifying with beauty. I grew up thinking I could be smart and funny - those are the things I got feedback on.

Growing up an only child with a single parent is probably why I'm an actor.

Like my dad, I have a Christmas party most years. I like to celebrate and see as many people as possible.

Belly buttons are cool!

I think what my hope is is that the only downside of having a steady job on television is, I think for all actors, there's a piece, there's some adrenaline, and part of the love of the job is not knowing what's coming next, and the variety.

I just don't know that a TV show demands a movie ending.

These days I have to be extra nice in stores. It never fails that whenever I look as bad as I can possibly look or I am sort of cranky because the store is out of something, that is precisely the time when someone one will recognize me and say: 'I really like your show.'

I must work harder to achieve my goal of not seeking approval from those whose approval I'm not even sure is important to me.

Some people think my father was a spy, because of working for that government agency in Vietnam, but he can't find his car keys, much less keep a national secret.

All my references are 50 years old-when somebody shot J.R., you know? Oh my god, I'm 100!

I've made out more this season on a family-friendly show than ever in my actual life.

I love TV. I think I'd do a half-hour single-camera comedy.

I take the no-doughnut pledge, and then I break it.

You want the story to end when it's supposed to and not be squeezed for somebody's financial gain.

My mother had lived in London since I was little, so she never got to see my school plays and stuff.

While I very much wanted to be in a relationship, I didn't want to be in the wrong one.

As actors we always say that once the person in a scene gets what they want, the scene is over. It's resolved. But life is never resolved - you're always in the process.

Actors should ACT. Not sell perfume, or write cookbooks.

All TV shows are basically part of the same storyline.

Be truthful, say what you mean and mean what you say, don't ignore the given circumstances.

I would like to be part of a family, however that looks. Family is really important to me.

If I had a normal job and had been moving up, I'd be management level now.

Anyone can smile on their best day. I like to meet a man who can smile on his WORST.

As I've gotten older, I've gotten more liberal, and my father is increasingly conservative. It's so shocking to me because I always thought we had the same politics. The day I realized we voted for different presidents, I practically fell out of my chair.

I definitely wanted to be an actor. I didn't want to be on TV, I didn't want to be famous, I didn't want to be anyone in particular; I just wanted to do it. I see young people now who look at magazines, or American Idol and their goal is to have that lifestyle - to have good handbags, or go out with cute guys from shows, or whatever. But I definitely wanted to be an actor.

I feel real ownership in this show. I feel very invested in it. I care very much about it. I don't feel any more like a hired hand, you know? It's a strange feeling - I feel personally responsible for how the story goes. What happens. What the weaknesses are. And so in a way, some of the changes gave me an opportunity to have a voice in a different way.

I'd pay more just to hear proper English and have everyone keep their clothes on

I'm nice, and I show up on time.

It's great to have an acting job in the age of Reality TV.

I've dated people who I thought were going to be a big deal in my life, and I've also spent long periods by myself.

I've spent a lot of time wondering, What's going to happen? What's going to happen? I try not to allow myself to do that much anymore. I think ive gotten more comfortable with the unknown.

Maybe I should sit. Plenty of people use sitting as a way to pass the time.

Moving. Someone said this to me a long time ago, it's bhuddist saying, I think: 'There is no wasted effort'.

None of my characters have really had jobs.

Once again, I've been thwarted by the massive difference between my vision of the successful me and the me I'm currently stuck with.

Over and over in the play my character says, "I'm thirty-two years old," as if that should explain everything that's wrong in her life. I don't know what it's like to be thirty-two, but I can imagine. I imagine she means she's stuck in an in-between time, she's at an age that isn't a milestone but more of a no-man's-land, an age where she's feeling like her hopes are fading.

That's the thing that always stuck out to me - the idea that quantity becomes quality. I always took it to mean if you do anything enough, if you keep putting effort in, eventually something will happen, with or without you. You don't have to have faith when you start out, you just have to dedicate yourself to practice as if you have it.

The best you can hope for is a great collaborator.

The parts for women, you're either like the quietly suffering wife or the wild girl.

The thing I don't like on television is when somebody does something that makes absolutely no sense just for the shock of it.

The thing you must really do in television is bring yourself to everything you do - you can't try to be anybody else.

There's nothing more important than a good story.

Today is the day you have to start believing in yourself. No one can do it for you anymore.

Well, it's more of a sane life to be part of an ensemble! I find that the work can be more specific too and I have to really make sure I know where I am in the story because I'm not in every scene.

We're all working hard, but so far away from what we actually want to be doing. We're all peering in at the window of a party we aren't invited to yet, a party we wouldn't know how to dress for, or what kind of conversation to make, even if we came as someone's guest.

When the creator of the show is gone, the actors end up being the people who have been there the longest.

Writing a memoir isn't particularly interesting to me. I'm not like Ellen [DeGeneres], where I can write, 'Water bottles--they're crazy!' and it's funny.

You may be sensitive inside, but what I see on the outside is a soldier.

Personally, all I ever want to be wearing are jeans.