Meryl Streep
31 quotes
Biography
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress. Widely regarded by peers and critics as the greatest actress of her generation, and by many as the greatest of all time, she is recognized as one of the most versatile performers in cinema, noted for her technical precision, nuanced emotional depth, command of dialects, and professional longevity.
"The formula of happiness and success is just, being actually yourself, in the most vivid possible way you can."
"Streep, who was born in New Jersey, is known to have historic family ties to Pennsylvania and Rhode Island."
"America doesn't reward people of my age, either in day-to-day life or for their performances."
"I didn't have any confidence in my beauty when I was young. I felt like a character actress, and I still do."
"The more you are in this business, the more humbled by it you become."
"Show business has been really, really good to me because I can work and take a lot of time off, and I'm extremely undisciplined person."
"All an actor has is their blind faith that they are who they say they are today, in any scene."
"My family really does come first. It always did and always will."
"There's no road map on how to raise a family: it's always an enormous negotiation."
"It's bizarre that the produce manager is more important to my children's health than the pediatrician."
"I couldn't care less about fashion. If I had taken any clothes home, they would have remained in my closet for the rest of their existence."
"Having been let out of the barn once, I know I wouldn't be happy if I were home all the time."
"I believe in imagination. I did Kramer vs. Kramer before I had children. But the mother I would be was already inside me."
"Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials."
"Expensive clothes are a waste of money."
"I have a very busy life, and not many people who have a career and four kids go out a lot to the movies."
"The reason I chose the movies that I did was based on where they were being filmed."
"I don't know why I don't watch a lot of movies I can barely keep up with the things my friends are in. There isn't enough time in life."
"The interesting thing about being a mother is that everyone wants pets, but no one but me cleans the kitty litter."
"Integrate what you believe in every single area of your life. Take your heart to work and ask the most and best of everybody else, too."
"I have a theory that movies operate on the level of dreams, where you dream yourself."
"I think the best role models for women are people who are fruitfully and confidently themselves, who bring light into the world."
"The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy, we can all sense a mysterious connection to each other."
"I think you find your own way. You have your own rules. You have your own understanding of yourself, and that's what you're going to count on. In the end, it's what feels right to you. Not what your mother told you. Not what some actress told you. Not what anybody else told you but the still, small voice."
"Grace, respect, reserve, and empathetic listening are qualities sorely missing from the public discourse now."