Jamie Lee Curtis Quotes

1. I've been in show business all my life, but as an actress I have never been overly driven.


2. (on Tony Curtis) Because I didn't really have a relationship with him he couldn't let me down. I just happened to be one of the last people who hadn't been disappointed too many times. For years I didn't know who Tony Curtis was as much as other people told me who he was.

3. I've always put my family first and that's just the way it is.

4. When I did "Sesame Street" (1969), Elmo was not the worldwide phenomenon he is now. I understood Elmo was special, and I said that the only way I would do Sesame Street was with Elmo. Kevin Clash, the young man who did the voice for him, was a very sweet guy and I predicted Elmo's meteoric rise to fame way in advance. I am a trendsetter without knowing it. Two years later the Elmo craze began, but I was ahead of the curve.

5. If I'm honest I don't think the world would miss me if I never acted again.

6. (When asked if she regretted making any films) Easy. There's a piece of shit called "Virus" (1999/I) which I made because another movie that I was supposed to do fell through. It was a bad choice and the movie is a piece of shit. The runner up is a movie called "Grandview, U.S.A." (1984), which is this benign but still bad coming of age movie, which is just bad. I will never, ever see those films again. They are laughable, ludicrous movies and I'm bad in them. They're nasty.

7. Getting sober just exploded my life. Now I have a much clearer sense of myself and what I can and can't do. I am more successful than I have ever been. I feel very positive where I never did before, and I think that's all a direct result of getting sober.

8. As much as I have lived off my mother and her unbelievably famous body for all these years, I'm also my grandmother's granddaughter.

9. If you just watch a teenager, you see a lot of uncertainty.

10. I believe people are entitled to a private life. I'm not sure where it's written that because you're in the public eye you are required to expose your private business, with anybody. It is nobody's business, and it's interesting because obviously in today's marketplace people don't abide by that. There are no boundaries that people won't cross…We're in a bit of a "Wild West" thing with media, and, I think, it's just kind of like no holds barred - the Internet. You know, there are no criteria on the Internet…I've chosen a public life to express myself, not to tell what I do with my husband in bed, not to do, to talk about my parents and my family life. And I just think it's wrong, and obviously it's an insatiable appetite that people have for gossip and innuendo and things that are nobody's business. And there's a term that they use in this called "legitimate public concern." What is legitimate public concern? If an elected official has an illness, that's legitimate public concern because they're our president or elected official. We, we, we need to know that they're healthy because we want them to live a long life and protect, you know, the Constitution…but in the marketplace, in the world, I don't believe it's anybody's concern. And that's what I think.

11. I think happiness comes from self-acceptance. We all try different things, and we find some comfortable sense of who we are. We look at our parents and learn and grow and move on. We change.

12. (on Eddie Murphy) Despite all his success, Eddie acts like he's 22 years old. His life is cars and girls, girls and cars. More cars. More girls.

13. Kids are going to try drugs and alcohol; that's part of society.





14. I've been going through photos of my mother, looking back on her life and trying to put it into context. Very few people age gracefully enough to be photographed through their aging.

15. It was during a cosmetic procedure that I first had painkillers.




16. The more I like me, the less I want to pretend to be other people.

17. My deal was that they would use a full-length picture of me in my underwear and a full-length picture of me all done up, and they would write about how long it took and how much it cost, because that was the whole point. It was very liberating.

18. I can play rhythm guitar. I know how to hold a guitar and strum it.






19. My marriage? Up to now everything's okay. But it's a real marriage - imperfect and very difficult. It's all about people evolving somewhat simultaneously through their lives. I think we've emotionally evolved.

20. Well, I could do it for a day, but I wouldn't want to be a teenager again. I really wouldn't.

21. Actually, the books were never a planned career path.

22. My mother and stepfather were married 43 years, so I have watched a long marriage. I feel like I had a very good role model for that. And, you know, it's just a number.

23. Because I know I'm an addict, and I know I'm an alcoholic.

24. Now all of a sudden I'm so less interested in pretending to be a lot of other people, and much more interested in being me.



25. All the work built my fame and certainly made me more money, but the toll it took in my home was not good.

26. So, am I friendly with my daughter and her friends? Yes. Am I their friend? No. Does she shut the door? Yes, and I very much support the shut door.

27. And I was ashamed of myself for feeling like I had to do that in order to look a certain way. I felt misshapen, just not natural anymore. And I think it was a big stimulator of my drug use.

28. Being an actor, you are recognized for being somebody else, whereas these books are distilled from me.




29. Hollywood is the backdrop of my family, and I know that the movie business is incredibly cruel as you get older.

30. The parameters are such that I don't get offered a lot of work. I'm sure most directors hear my list of don'ts and say forget it.





31. I have very short hair. It's the only cute haircut I think I've ever had.

32. With short hair you have to get a haircut every two or three weeks. And if you're coloring your hair, you have to color it that often. Every time I did it, I felt fraudulent.

33. I talk too much.





34. Exchange the words "have to" with "get to." Exchange the word "can't" with "unwilling".

35. I love performing and pretending - it's very easy for me.

36. There is nothing you will regret more in your life - nothing - than not being present for your children.


37. I thought, while they're up and firm, why not shoot them once or twice.


38. My mom said I was a handful. Now I'm helpful.

39. I think my capacity to change has given me tremendous happiness, because who I am today I am completely content to be.

40. I thought, while they're up and firm (her breasts), why not shoot them once or twice.


41. I think I felt that I was very well known for my figure and needed to keep that up for my work. And I regret all of it. I felt fraudulent and very shameful.

42. I'm Laurie Strode's guardian angel.

43. I try to go to the gym three times a week. And I have to watch what I eat. I'm a normal person.

44. (on plastic surgery) Believe me, none of it works.




45. I used to dream of being normal. For me, if Kirk Douglas walked into the house, that was normal.

46. In some circles, my Caesar salad is more famous than my body.

47. I was doing a children's book on self-esteem, and I really felt like I wanted to shed the shame I'd been feeling - and maybe make it easier for women my age who had probably felt bad about themselves.






48. My life is so filled that for me to accept acting work now means that I have to basically let somebody else do the job that I want to do, which is raise my children. It's not that I'm retired, it's just that I no longer accept acting work.

49. I work with The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. I sit proudly as one of only two recovering addicts on their board.

50. (about Madonna) "Holiday" came on the radio the other day and I remember where I was the first time I heard it: in West L.A. on my way to aerobics class. (In Style magazine, Sept/2006).

51. I've been happily married to Chris for almost 20 years.

52. (on her father, Tony Curtis) I don't expect to hear from him on my birthday or Christmas. I see him when I see him. He's like a ghost.




53. I'm a layperson. I barely got out of high school. I have no business telling people what to do or my big philosophy on life. I'm certainly not going to write any sort of memoir.


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