Lucy Lawless Quotations

Treat everyone the same until you find out they're an idiot.

My plan is to shock people with what I can do, because I've got a few sides to me that I've never used on screen.

I was black and blue for about two years, but it's paid off tremendously. You know, if you get enough whacks, your reflexes pick up, and I've become quite good - if somebody throws keys or something, I can catch them.

I am waiting for a sign that will indicate to me what meaning I must give to my life, but right now my existence is satisfactory.

We live at the edge of the world, so we live on the edge. Kiwis will always sacrifice money and security for adventure and challenge.

For the first time in my life, I put my body and reputation on the line to stand up for my beliefs and do the right thing. I hope I've encouraged other people to do the same.

I get to do all these really nice, little culty things. It seems to be the world that keeps inviting me back.

We actually did quite a lot of comedy on 'Xena'. The whole show was very tongue-in-cheek.

I was sitting in the looping studio late one night, and I had this epiphany that they weren't paying me for my acting, for God's sake, but to own me. And from then on, it became clear and an awful lot easier to deal with.

I would have moved there. I totally fell in love with it.

Josh Becker came up with this really great storyline for a movie that we'd all love to do,

I think a movie would be great, and I'd love to do it. I've been wanting to do it for years. Nobody can agree who owns the rights, and it's a big fat pain in the ass.

We were shooting video, and they are using footage that I and my crew actually shot. It was really exciting, worrying about the camera angle you are getting, and you were truly being your character and fully concerned about shooting the footage. It was like shooting a movie within a movie.

Yeah. I'm saving the world from vampire bats, ... It's very serious business.

There is nothing I would love more than to film near my house in Los Angeles. But if you have to go away, Louisiana is a wonderful place to be. It's such an evocative place, visually and culturally.

The traffic was going 1 mile per hour sometimes,

I've been staying in a lovely little house in the French Quarter, and at first I planned to ride out the storm,

I've seen photos of locations where we've shot, and there's total, total devastation.

It's really fun and the people who make it are fun. They don't take themselves too seriously.

Then we heard it was going to be a Category 5 storm, and I rang the producer and said, 'Let's get out of here. This is crazy'.

Everybody's on edge just by her very presence.

I turned on the television and saw 'category 5,'

I'm thrilled that women are encouraged to follow their dreams and I am equally pleased that young men are getting a new view of women: an unapologetic woman.

I really was covering things. They really were going to use the footage that I and my sidekick were taking. Sometimes he was on the camera, sometimes I had the camera, but we were really rolling video. We were making a film within a film.

Up until I came here this week, and I met so many women and young girls who feel, to use their word - and I'm a bit embarrassed, but it's a good word - empowered, by watching. I realized this isn't a burden, this is an honor.

I've often wanted to play the victim, or somebody who makes terrible choices. I would love to play the alcoholic mother who horribly lets down her children. That's a great morally imperiled role.

When you decide to become an opera singer, it's a commitment that allows nothing else to interfere. Even your family - and I have a young daughter - has to take second place.

I just look at what's the most fun thing I can do next. I'm not looking to prove anything, or to break out or to break away. I feel so lucky, honestly, that I'm still working.

I think the people running climate change denial campaigns are sociopaths.

There will be hoards of vampire bats descending on Beverly Hills.... We'll see if they can find any real flesh to puncture. I don't know.

It's never very useful to see your character as a villain. You have to play them the way they see themselves.

Nudity and sex scenes are two completely different things. Nudity you can kind of get used to, but not when there is movement and relating involved. The sex scenes are very uncomfortable because that's something to be protected, so you have a visceral reaction to not exploit that.

I'm not someone who ever enjoys violence against women or children.

Xena and Gabrielle were a couple...in the end, it was if not explicitly said, it was implicit that...yeah, they totally were.

Who I think is actually doing great things for the appearance of women is that Kardashian girl. Kim Kardashian is giving an alternative. I don't know very much about her and I don't read articles, but just looking at the pictures you go, "Great! There's a girl with an ass, and that's fabulous. On behalf of all girls with asses, thank you."

I'm a bloody fun-seeker. Whatever the role is, I'll find a way to deliver the line that is confounding.

I am not intimidating. I am a woman's woman. I love hanging out with women. And people are really inspired by this show.

Very often, I'm part of the deception because the way I play things is that I want you to be able to look back and go, "Oh, my god, I didn't see that at the time, but now it all makes sense," and you want to watch it a second time with the benefit of hindsight.

Growing up, I looked up to real women. I didn't go in for hero worship and I still don't. Everybody has feet of clay.

So yes, the roles are getting more and more like me. But that's because Xena was so entirely unlike me. Most people aren't really aware of that.

At first, being a female role model really terrified me. But it hasn't turned out to be an awful burden. I get a lot of letters from women who tell me that, after watching Xena, they have bought the Harley-Davidson they always wanted or left an abusive relationship.

My voice likes rock music. My problem is, I can do a lot of things, but I have to find my own voice.

Now it wasn't just that Xena was bisexual and kinda liked her gal pal and they kind of fooled around sometimes, it was, 'Nope, they're married, man'.

One of my missions is to get people to go, "Oh, she's really nice and I really like her, but what were the words she just said?!" I want your instincts to be at odds with your mind.

Happiness is a choice. You grieve, you stomp your feet, you pick yourself up and choose to be happy.