Laura Linney: Ask "why" until there is no more "why."

It is always good to explore the stuff you don't agree with, to try and understand a different lifestyle or foreign worldview. I like to be challenged in that way, and always end up learning something I didn't know.

Laura Linney

different stuff trying

I believe that no matter what you do in life, if you learn the basics through theater, it will help you in everything else - problem solving, communication, discipline, all of that stuff.

Laura Linney

discipline communication believe

Comedy is a way to make sense of chaos. It's a way of dealing with things that are overwhelming, that threaten you; it's a way to survive and get closer to the truth.

Laura Linney

chaos comedy way

I know that actors and actresses have a great reputation for being very, very selfish, and in some cases, that's very true. But in the theater I find it doesn't help you to be selfish. You sort of have to be selfless in the theater, and the more selfless you are - that doesn't mean don't take care of yourself - but the more you sort of surrender to the work, I find, the better the work is. That's just my experience.

Laura Linney

selfless selfish mean

Traits like humility, courage, and empathy are easily overlooked - but it's immensely important to find them in your closest relationships.

Laura Linney

empathy humility courage

People's view of cancer will change when they have their own relationship with cancer, which everyone will, at some point.

Laura Linney

cancer views people

I'm very hard on my bags because I tend to carry a lot of stuff with me.

Laura Linney

bags hard stuff

I still know I have an awful lot to learn, and I hope I'm put in whatever situation it is that's gonna help me learn it, or that I'll get to watch really good people do what they do.

Laura Linney

help-me helping people

Doing the right thing has power.

Laura Linney

right-thing doing-the-right-thing

Where I did feel a difference is learning to just work in a different way so that your resources are not completely depleted so that you don't have anything to give to your child when you go home, and fortunately I've been working long enough that I know how to make that shift so that I don't compromise my work or compromise my relationships; not compromising parenting is really the biggest difference.

Laura Linney

differences home children

Most scripts are written to be green lit. They're not written to be acted. And a lot of writers with the greatest intention in the world don't write for actors. They don't understand the architecture of what an actor needs to get from point A to point B.

Laura Linney

actors writing needs

People have to look to the right places for guidance. Looking at a certain type of entertainment shouldn't be where you go for guidance. To zone out, have a laugh, sure - but it's not a great example on how to navigate on a journey. There are other places to look.

Laura Linney

journey laughing people

I am very aware that playwrights, particularly good ones, have a intention for everything they write. Language and punctuation is used specifically, and most of the time actors can find wonderful clues about character in the rhythm and cadence of the language used.

Laura Linney

cadence writing character

I enjoy learning about different periods and people, and then taking what's universal about the human condition and seeing where it matches up. No matter where you are, certain things unite everybody.

Laura Linney

different matter people

The entertainment industry is terrified of silence.

Laura Linney

terrified entertainment silence

Collaboration. ... For me, it has informed every move I've ever made. And it saved me in many ways and still does. When things get hard, you can cling to the work.

Laura Linney

collaboration moving

My parents were divorced and I would spend weekends with my father.

Laura Linney

weekend parent father

When your life is being threatened there's an instinctive urge to fight. You fight for the time you have, for your relationships.

Laura Linney

threatened fighting life-is

Cancer is so much bigger than a TV show.

Laura Linney

tv-shows cancer tvs

There's a real passing down in the theater, almost ad nauseam. You have to listen to older people talk about their experience, but it makes you very aware of what has come before you or what is coming after you - that you're a part of a link in a chain. It's not all about you.

Laura Linney

real people