Sissy Spacek Quotations

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

The name Sissy came because my brothers called me that.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

I feel so blessed to get to do what I love to do and work with so many wonderfully talented people, ... The best part is I get to go home to my most precious family.

He is just fantastic. As Ruth Fowler, I had to hate him while we were filming. And when I saw the film, I had such empathy for him.

I knew when I found those glasses, I found (the character).

I've not had a mean life.

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

A great screenplay is the most powerful bait in Hollywood.

I don't take characters home with me.

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.

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.

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.

I may be ignorant but I ain't stupid!

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

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

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.

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.

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