Lauren Graham Quotes & Sayings

My mother had lived in London since I was little, so she never got to see my school plays and stuff. — Lauren Graham

You know how before a party you clean up your house so that everyone thinks you live that way all the time? That's meeting someone at an awards show. — Lauren Graham

I'd pay more just to hear proper English and have everyone keep their clothes on — Lauren Graham

something so regal and linear about her. — Lauren Graham

That's the thing that always stuck out to me - the idea that quantity becomes quality. I always took it to mean if you do anything enough, if you keep putting effort in, eventually something will happen, with or without you. You don't have to have faith when you start out, you just have to dedicate yourself to practice as if you have it. — Lauren Graham

It's just a superstition, but looking at the river, the boats, the sign leaving Brooklyn that says "Watchtower" in big red letters, is a ritual that reminds me I am small, I am one of thousands--no--one of millions of people who looked at this river before me, from a boat or a car or the window of the D train, who came to New York with a dream, who achieved it or didn't, but nonetheless made the same effort I'm making now. It keeps things in perspective, and strangely, it gives me hope. — Lauren Graham

Just keep filling up the pages. — Lauren Graham

The parts for women, you're either like the quietly suffering wife or the wild girl. — Lauren Graham

When the creator of the show is gone, the actors end up being the people who have been there the longest. — Lauren Graham

The lens feels like another person in the room, a person who never speaks or smiles, who only stares without blinking, never looking away. — Lauren Graham

Don't tell stories of a job you almost got. Learn from a loss and don't dwell on it. Move on.' — Lauren Graham

Moving. Someone said this to me a long time ago, it's bhuddist saying, I think: 'There is no wasted effort'. — Lauren Graham

What was it I said? Oh yeah. "WHO PUT THAT THERE? — Lauren Graham

Anyone can smile on their best day. I like to meet a man who can smile on his WORST. — Lauren Graham

I'm nice, and I show up on time. — Lauren Graham

In blindly trying a different path, I accidentally found one that worked better. — Lauren Graham

So between critiques, the camera flew around on its arm like some sort of drunk helicopter, getting reaction shots from each contestant, and then from the judges. They asked us to hold our reactions as best we could until they got to us. Ever smile for a photograph for someone who doesn't know how to work their camera? Twenty times longer than that. My mouth started to tremble from trying to hold a smile. During one of these awkward frozen moments, one of the contestants grinned at me and mouthed the words "I love you," and I tried as best I could to communicate my thanks while also maintaining my frozen face. — Lauren Graham

FASTER - don't talk down to the audience, take us for a spin, don't spell everything out for us, we're as smart as you - assume we can keep up; FUNNIER - entertain us, help us see how ridiculous and beautiful life can be, give us a reason to feel better about our flaws; LOUDER - deliver the story in the appropriate size, DON'T be indulgent or keep it to yourself, be generous - you're there to reach US." Barney takes a few gulps of air and beats his fist just once on his chest. "There you go, my dear. It might SOUND simple, but if I know you, you'll spend your life dedicated to getting it right. And that's it, my dear. THAT'S the whole banana. — Lauren Graham

Today is the day you have to start believing in yourself. No one can do it for you anymore. — Lauren Graham

Of all the lists I've made of goals, and all the visions I've had, it never before occurred to me that I could be this specific, that I could aspire to a goal actually measurable in inches. I wonder if this is how successful people do it. I wonder if the difference between success and failure could more accurately be described in the waist sizes for jeans. — Lauren Graham

want to feel something that is actually something. A feeling that is identifiable and real. A — Lauren Graham

I didn't grow up identifying with beauty. I grew up thinking I could be smart and funny - those are the things I got feedback on. — Lauren Graham

Writing a memoir isn't particularly interesting to me. I'm not like Ellen [DeGeneres], where I can write, 'Water bottles
they're crazy!' and it's funny. — Lauren Graham

Be truthful, say what you mean and mean what you say, don't ignore the given circumstances. — Lauren Graham

These days I have to be extra nice in stores. It never fails that whenever I look as bad as I can possibly look or I am sort of cranky because the store is out of something, that is precisely the time when someone one will recognize me and say: 'I really like your show.' — Lauren Graham

The Chosen Butts became an instant club of sorts. We tried our best to be professional and not act overly excited, but it was clear we were bonded because of our excellent butts I mean acting ability. — Lauren Graham

Some people think my father was a spy, because of working for that government agency in Vietnam, but he can't find his car keys, much less keep a national secret. — Lauren Graham

The thing you must really do in television is bring yourself to everything you do - you can't try to be anybody else. — Lauren Graham

I think what my hope is is that the only downside of having a steady job on television is, I think for all actors, there's a piece, there's some adrenaline, and part of the love of the job is not knowing what's coming next, and the variety. — Lauren Graham

In my experience, there's no secret to accomplishing almost any goal worth pursuing. — Lauren Graham

I guess what I'm saying is, let's keep lifting each other up. It's not lost on me that two of the biggest opportunities I've had to break into the next level were given to me by successful women in positions of power. If I'm ever in that position and you ask me, "Who?" I'll do my best to say, "You" too. But in order to get there, you may have to break down the walls of whatever it is that's holding you back first. Ignore the doubt - it's not your friend - and just keep going, keep going, keep going. — Lauren Graham

I've spent a lot of time wondering, What's going to happen? What's going to happen? I try not to allow myself to do that much anymore. I think ive gotten more comfortable with the unknown. — Lauren Graham

Dry-cleaning is like this secret society you're not allowed into. No matter what, you're at their mercy. You can have a Ph.D. in anything, but you still can't dry-clean your own clothes. They'll never tell you how. No one's ever even seen what the machine looks like. Think about it. There's a reason they keep the actual dry-cleaning apparatus hidden behind all those racks of hanging clothes. They don't want you to crack their code. They won't let anybody in. Not anybody. Even rich people. You know any rich people with dry-cleaning machines in their house? Exactly. Even they still have to pick it up and drop it off like everyone else. — Lauren Graham

You want the story to end when it's supposed to and not be squeezed for somebody's financial gain. — Lauren Graham

The thing I don't like on television is when somebody does something that makes absolutely no sense just for the shock of it. — Lauren Graham

As actors we always say that once the person in a scene gets what they want, the scene is over. It's resolved. But life is never resolved - you're always in the process. — Lauren Graham

It's good to be bored in the car, I always tell him. Spend some time with just yourself and your thoughts and nothing to do. How else will you learn who you are? — Lauren Graham

his college girlfriend, Everett. — Lauren Graham

I must not seek approval from absolutely everyone, or anyone really. — Lauren Graham

Poorly chosen objects are distractions, obstacles we put in the way when we're afraid of telling the truth. — Lauren Graham

It was just a coat, I know, but I held onto it for so long. I'm not even sure why I kept it. It was with me every day. It kept me warm and dry, and billowed behind me as I rode my bike across the lot in the wee hours of the night. I can't help feeling a little sad it's gone. [But], the coat has served its purpose. The sun is blazing, and I don't need it to keep me warm anymore. Rather than mourn the loss of my jacket, I will be thankful for the time we had together. I thank it for all it did for me, and then I let it go. — Lauren Graham

Perspective is the most important thing to have in life. — Lauren Graham

life doesn't often spell things out for you or give you what you want exactly when you want it, otherwise it wouldn't be called life, it would be called vending machine. It's hard to say exactly when it will happen, and it's true that whatever you're after may not drop down the moment you spend all your quarters, but someday soon a train is coming. In fact, it may already be on the way. You just don't know it yet. — Lauren Graham

Because here's the thing: I was fine on my own, and so are you. But it can be hard when you feel ready for Happy Couplehood and you seem to have missed the train. — Lauren Graham

You may be sensitive inside, but what I see on the outside is a soldier. — Lauren Graham

Every bit of advice below was actually given to me by a fancy person, or someone who knows a fancy person and the methods they use to stay fancy. — Lauren Graham

From the front I look to put together, but every other angle would reveal how false the front of me is, how much effort has gone into presenting a one-sided image of perfection. — Lauren Graham

I know how lucky I am to have had such wonderful first and second acts in my career. I'm still not sure what my third act will turn out to be (Sexy Baking Competition Hostess? Flamboyant Peruvian Bingo Caller?), but if you happen to run into Betty White, tell her thank you.

I'd like to be her one day. — Lauren Graham

Today, everything about New York leaves me feeling like I'm competing for space, and just barely hanging on. — Lauren Graham

While I very much wanted to be in a relationship, I didn't want to be in the wrong one. — Lauren Graham

Once again, I've been thwarted by the massive difference between my vision of the successful me and the me I'm currently stuck with. — Lauren Graham

Most of the streets in Manhattan go in just one direction. Some of the larger crosstown streets and some of the major north - south avenues have two-way traffic, but in general, the odd-numbered streets go west, toward the Hudson River, and the "evens go east," as Jane, the native New Yorker, taught me. — Lauren Graham

All TV shows are basically part of the same storyline. — Lauren Graham

It feels like I'm an actor in an Italian movie from the '60s, saying the placeholder lines into the camera, waiting for the real ones that come later. — Lauren Graham

For a very long time I worked and worked and worked, and then I looked up one day and all my friends were married with children. These married-with-children people were still my friends, but they'd become part of a community I wasn't in, a club I didn't belong to. Socially, their lives had completely changed, and they were busy. Their attention had turned to carpools and birthday parties and school tuition, and I was playing catch-up:"Wait, so we don't have game night anymore? You guys, who's free for dinner Saturday? Oh, absolutely no one? — Lauren Graham

If absolutely everything important is only happening on such as small screen, isn't that just a shame? — Lauren Graham

Because who wants to Fast Forward anyway? You might miss some of the good parts. — Lauren Graham

Nobody ever seems to want my advice about serious stuff. People will be like: 'Who made that sweater?' Or 'How did you get your hair so straight?' They don't to come to me for the relationship advice or deep stuff. In fact, my little sister actually hides from me. — Lauren Graham

I've made out more this season on a family-friendly show than ever in my actual life. — Lauren Graham

Actors should ACT. Not sell perfume, or write cookbooks. — Lauren Graham

As I've gotten older, I've gotten more liberal, and my father is increasingly conservative. It's so shocking to me because I always thought we had the same politics. The day I realized we voted for different presidents, I practically fell out of my chair. — Lauren Graham

To me, Lorelai was equal parts Gal About Town and The Mom, plus a magical mix of smarts and humor that made her totally unique. — Lauren Graham

Even so, there's a checked-out, drugged sort of look we get when on our phones that's different from the look we get when reading a book, or even just staring into space. I get that look too, and when I catch my own reflection, it gives me a chill. It's like Gollum's face just before he drops his Precious in the water. — Lauren Graham

This world seems to have different rules from the other world I've been living in all of my life. I wonder if I'll ever learn them. — Lauren Graham

I definitely wanted to be an actor. I didn't want to be on TV, I didn't want to be famous, I didn't want to be anyone in particular; I just wanted to do it. I see young people now who look at magazines, or American Idol and their goal is to have that lifestyle - to have good handbags, or go out with cute guys from shows, or whatever. But I definitely wanted to be an actor. — Lauren Graham

I just don't know that a TV show demands a movie ending. — Lauren Graham

I take the no-doughnut pledge, and then I break it. — Lauren Graham

I still find that, in general, having a plan is, well, a good plan. But when my carefully laid plan laughed at me, rather than clutch at it too tightly I just made a new one, even if it was one that didn't immediately make sense. In blindly trying a different path, I accidentally found one that worked better. So don't let your plan have the last laugh, but laugh last when your plan laughs, and when your plan has the last laugh, laugh back, laughing! — Lauren Graham

But life doesn't often spell things out for you or give you what you want exactly when you want it, otherwise it wouldn't be called life, it would be called vending machine. — Lauren Graham

Belly buttons are cool! — Lauren Graham

Today, I would pick the person who made me feel warm, rather than the one who left me cold. — Lauren Graham

Maybe the trick is for me to always be in some sort of disguise, to always be dressed to play someone else. Only then can I really appreciate myself. — Lauren Graham

I love TV. I think I'd do a half-hour single-camera comedy. — Lauren Graham

Like my dad, I have a Christmas party most years. I like to celebrate and see as many people as possible. — Lauren Graham

None of my characters have really had jobs. — Lauren Graham

Maybe my life story is to be a person with a normal job and a normal life. That's what most people have. I was wrong to believe I was any different. — Lauren Graham

We're all working hard, but so far away from what we actually want to be doing. We're all peering in at the window of a party we aren't invited to yet, a party we wouldn't know how to dress for, or what kind of conversation to make, even if we came as someone's guest. — Lauren Graham

I feel real ownership in this show. I feel very invested in it. I care very much about it. I don't feel any more like a hired hand, you know? It's a strange feeling - I feel personally responsible for how the story goes. What happens. What the weaknesses are. And so in a way, some of the changes gave me an opportunity to have a voice in a different way. — Lauren Graham

Growing up an only child with a single parent is probably why I'm an actor. — Lauren Graham

Personally, all I ever want to be wearing are jeans. — Lauren Graham

As my friend Oliver Platt used to say to me about hopes and dreams I'd share with him: 'It's coming, just not on your time frame. — Lauren Graham

I must work harder to achieve my goal of not seeking approval from those whose approval I'm not even sure is important to me. — Lauren Graham

Texting is not flirting, if you don't care about me enough to say the words than that's not love, I don't like it! — Lauren Graham

And dear, if you should someday become famous, don't write a cookbook. — Lauren Graham

Over and over in the play my character says, "I'm thirty-two years old," as if that should explain everything that's wrong in her life. I don't know what it's like to be thirty-two, but I can imagine. I imagine she means she's stuck in an in-between time, she's at an age that isn't a milestone but more of a no-man's-land, an age where she's feeling like her hopes are fading. — Lauren Graham

We all have to start somewhere.' So start somewhere, anywhere, and give me an idea of what it is you'd like to do. Tell me EVERYTHING. What is your DREAM? — Lauren Graham

Maybe I should sit. Plenty of people use sitting as a way to pass the time. — Lauren Graham

I've dated people who I thought were going to be a big deal in my life, and I've also spent long periods by myself. — Lauren Graham

All my references are 50 years old-when somebody shot J.R., you know? Oh my god, I'm 100! — Lauren Graham

One of the things I like about the show is it redefines the idea of what it is to be a mother, which at its most basic level is to take care of a child. It doesn't mean you have to look like the ladies in the Lysol commercials. — Lauren Graham

Well, it's more of a sane life to be part of an ensemble! I find that the work can be more specific too and I have to really make sure I know where I am in the story because I'm not in every scene. — Lauren Graham

Sometimes the idea of doing something is the most fun part, and after you go through with it, you feel deflated because you realize you're back to looking for the next thrill. — Lauren Graham

If I had a normal job and had been moving up, I'd be management level now. — Lauren Graham

I have to introduce the part of me that feels like a winner to the part of me convinced I'm a loser, and see if they can't agree to exist somewhere closer to the middle. — Lauren Graham

The best you can hope for is a great collaborator. — Lauren Graham

I would like to be part of a family, however that looks. Family is really important to me. — Lauren Graham

It's great to have an acting job in the age of Reality TV. — Lauren Graham