Sissy Spacek quotes:

I lived an idyllic 'Huckleberry Finn' life in a tiny town. Climbing trees. Tagging after brothers. Happy. Barefoot on my pony. It was 'To Kill a Mockingbird'-esque.

My parents were devoted. Civic minded. We had family counsels. Three of us children against two of them. We lived a 'Leave It to Beaver' time.

My cousin, Rip Torn, persuaded me not to change my name. You shouldn't change what you are in the search for success.

Our perception of celebrities in Hollywood is not the reality. The reality of our lives is so much like everyone else's life. We have family members we love, everyone gets up in the morning, they have three meals a day and they go about their business.

Banana Splits for Breakfast. I think I ate about five.

Jingle taps on the majorette boots were an important part of a little girl growing up in the South.

The name Sissy came because my brothers called me that.

Most things in my life I had before leaving home. Values, support, great family. I was shaped at an early age. A musician playing guitar, I wanted to be a folk singer.

I had a dozen years to act before starting a family, then found that motherhood dwarfed everything else. Once or twice a year, I take a project that appeals to me for its redeeming social value.

I had a dozen years to act before starting a family then found that motherhood dwarfed everything else. Once or twice a year, I take a project that appeals to me for its redeeming social value.

I've always been a people-watcher, and as an actor, later, I just mined all those little details.

I've not had a mean life.

There's a real danger in trying to stay king of the mountain. You stop taking risks, you stop being as creative, because you're trying to maintain a position. Apart from anything else that really takes the fun out of it.

Fame sweeps you away. I had to go home every six months to remember who I am.

Texas is just so rich with characters. Women who live alone in a little house on a thousand acres with nothing but cattle and a pickup truck. And an airplane.

I didn't worry about leaving the fast lane - I was just so consumed with my baby that it seemed like the right thing to do. I never felt like I left New York, though. If you've lived in a place and loved it, you never feel like you left it.

When I started out in independent films in the early '70s, we did everything for the love of art. It wasn't about money and stardom. That was what we were reacting against. You'd die before you'd be bought.

But you finally think, there is what there is, and you have to work within those confines and just keep chipping away at your own work.

A great screenplay is the most powerful bait in Hollywood.

I was always proud about being from Texas and, you know, maybe that was part of fearlessness. I love the fact that Texas is so big, but you don't feel small because of that.

You don't forget the movies, but you forget the details of them.

I had no fear 'cause it seemed everyone in the audience always applauded whatever I did. Course, maybe it was because I always seemed to know everyone in the audience.

I don't take characters home with me.

I listened to that voice inside me-... Everyone has an inner voice; you just have to listen to it and trust it in order to be led by it. I did that, and it gave me the ability to live a life that's true to who I am and what I really wanted.

I may be ignorant but I ain't stupid!

I wanted to put all my family stories down for my girls, and I remember everything so vividly. I just wanted to put everything down while I still can remember it all.

If I hadn't left Texas, I might not have met the director Terrence Malick, and I wouldn't have met my husband and I wouldn't have had the children that I've had. Life is interesting like that.

I'm a fool for a good role in a creative piece where there are really such talented writers and wonderful actors.

It's a whole other way of working when you work in films: You know exactly the arc of your character.

When I'm pushing myself, testing myself, that's when I'm happiest. That's when the rewards are greatest.

You know, I don't know what the future will bring, but I'm ready for whatever comes!

You know, your career is just your career; your life is your life!

You relate to a character and you find that character within yourself. It's all parts of me. I don't leave characters behind. I just let them go.

You shouldn't change what you are in the search for success.