Melissa Leo Quotes

United States, Actress
September 14, 1960

Melissa Chessington Leo is an American actress. After appearing on several television shows and films in the 1980s, a regular on the television shows All My Children and The Young Riders, in 1985 she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for her performance on All My Children. Her breakthrough role came in 1993 as Det. Sgt. Kay Howard on the television series Homicide: Life on the Street for the show's first five seasons (1993–97).

The climate informs the character.

Melissa Leo
- Character
- Climate
Acting is the business of truth, so that we can see ourselves reflected back and learn.

Melissa Leo

I am a smoker, I'm ashamed to say. I had given it up for many years, then picked it up again. It's a horrible habit. I struggle with myself all the time. And I love to smoke.

Melissa Leo
As an actor, you live a little bit of a cloistered life. It's a lonely life. You oddly, strangely find yourself all alone, quite often, with a lot of time to think.

Melissa Leo
- Thinking
- Yourself
- Lonely
The key to acting has much more to do with listening than with talking.

Melissa Leo
- Listening
- Acting
- Talking
I think this notion of acting and glamour is getting in everybody's way.

Melissa Leo
- Thinking
- Acting
- Glamour
I think the funny thing about acting for me - and I hold it in a very holy, spiritual way - not to be overly fundamentalist about it, but it's that important to me - is that it is an ancient healing art.

Melissa Leo
- Important
- Spirit
- Acting
I have some close friends I keep in touch with. I knit. I watch a little too much TV. I ski, if the weather's right for that. If I can find a group of buddies, I go rock climbing.

Melissa Leo
- Friends
- Littles
- Groups

I'm a little bit of a glutton for punishment, especially when it comes to work. I don't mind a bit of suffering. I think it's in suffering that we realize our best selves.

Melissa Leo
The power of television - it's so present in our lives, we don't even know how powerful it is.

Melissa Leo
- Know
- Powerful
- Television
That's probably the biggest secret of acting: If the actor believes it themselves, they can make you believe it.

Melissa Leo
- Believe
- Acting
- Secret