Laurie Metcalf quotes:

I was an office secretary for a long time. A good secretary.

My profession is about as far away from growing up in southern Illinois as you can get.

I've been directed by other actors, and being an actor doesn't make you a good director.

Every part I get, I just think I'm so lucky. They're so hard to get, you know.

One of the hardest things about directing is just to be patient and remind yourself that you've been in Week 1 of a rehearsal process yourself, and you know what it feels like.

I was horribly shy all through grade school and high school. But somehow I got up the nerve to audition for one play in high school - 'Auntie Mame.' I got a small part as the fiancee who comes on in the end. I got laughs. I wasn't shy at all doing the part. I can do anything on stage and write it off as a character.

I work just as hard and have just as much fun whether in a 50-seat house or in a 1000-seat house. It's a luxury to be in a tiny space every once in a while and a rush to be on a giant stage every once in a while.

I don't like working in front of a camera.

Onstage I'm the one in control - I'm not at the mercy of how an editor chooses to put the scene together later. I can do things onstage that I would never do in real life. It's very freeing.

Theater opened up a whole new world for me. It was a freedom I'd never known before.

Really, I'll go anywhere at any time to continue working in theater - it's a passion that I'm thankful I still have. It keeps me creative and on my toes and meeting great people. I can't imagine a better way of working than on a play.

I almost never give interviews. It's not because I want to play hard to get. It's just that I never seem to have anything interesting to say.

I like to play a wide range of characters. The more they're unlike me, the better I like it.

I was too practical to major in theater. Acting - what was I going to do with acting? There was no future in it.

I'm happy whenever I'm in a rehearsal room. I've always gotten all my energy and creativity in there.

I'm hideously shy as myself but on stage I can run around naked and bite the heads off fish.

I've loved every minute of every hour I've spent doing theatre.

When I go to see something I'm in, or my friends are in, it's like a home movie. When I just go to the movies and don't know anyone in it, then it's a real movie.

When one thing ends, you put it away and start from scratch on the next thing.