Lisa Kudrow quotes: Phoebe’s finest gems.
“You have to surrender to the fact that you are of too many in a highly competitive field where it is difficult to stand out. Over time, through your work, you will demonstrate who you are and what you bring to the field. Just stay with it and keep working.”
“I just listened to that inner voice. By the way, it’s always a good move to listen to that inner voice… if it doesn’t lead to a crime.”
“It’s not supposed to be easy, but it doesn’t have to be torture. You’re supposed to have moments of uncertainty about which path to take because the 20s are full of crossroads.”
“If something doesn’t work, go another way. You can’t take it personally.”
“You know, there might be more ups and downs and you have to weather those storms.”
“I know it’s hard to believe, but when one door closes, another door always opens. It really does. Yeah, I know, I had heard that very clever saying before. I didn’t believe it, but I never forgot it.”
“You just have to be confident and you might be wrong, but sell it anyway.”
“I carried those high standards that were nurtured in me… all along the way. I knew what was good and that’s what I did and will always try to achieve good work.”
“This isn’t just an unhappy planet. Sometimes very good things can happen.”
“I’ve learned you can make a mistake and the whole world doesn’t end. I had to learn to allow myself to make a mistake without becoming defensive and unforgiving.”
“In most pursuits, one’s self is one of the biggest hurdles to get over. You can’t pursue something and be committed to it if you’re apologizing for it at every party.”
“One thing I really want to explore is writing. I just want to start writing, whether or not any of it is useable or marketable.”
“I’m the youngest in my family and everyone is very funny, and I was always trying to keep up with them. I just loved making people laugh.”
“From elementary school on up through junior high school, I loved to perform. But I put it all away during high school and college. I thought, ‘That’s not actually something you do with your life.’ But then I was compelled to try it after college. I just got overcome.”
“I started off doing research with my father, because my goal was still to go to graduate school and I wanted to be published. Six months after graduation I dumped that plan and decided to become an actress. Then I was cast on the show Friends and now I’m here. How did I go from biology major to actress? That is the one question I’m asked most frequently. Okay, when I was a kid, I did want to be an actress, but when I took biology in high school, I was hooked. The biological theories I learned, to me were the height of creativity. So I pursued my passion for biology and wherever that would lead me.”
“I entertained the idea of being an actress, then moved to justify the idea with, ‘You know, you’re 22, you have no mortgage, no husband and kids – no responsibilities. You have to do this acting thing now. Right now. I’m so sorry, but you have to. By November of 1985, I declared that I would pursue acting. My parents and family were thrilled for me and that was the first and most important, wonderful show of support I got.”
“I knew an actor’s career goes up and down and back up again. Your standing in this business can’t be your whole identity; otherwise, you’re doomed.”
“Any kind of artist needs a little more life experience before that’s all you’re doing. You need a point of reference for the world you’re living in. When a very young person becomes too powerful, they become a valuable commodity that everyone’s afraid to say no to.”
“I’ll accept being Phoebe to people for a while longer, given how much fun it was. That’s totally fair. I may play the fool at times but I’m a little more than just a pretty blonde girl with an ass that won’t quit. It’s not irritating. It was my job to make people believe that I was that person. It’s unconscionable to me to want to remove myself from Friends. It gave me every single opportunity. I appreciate it every single day, I promise.”
“I feel like I’ve always had opportunities, and I don’t feel like the show has ever kept me from doing anything.”
“[On staying in touch with Friends characters] We spent 10 years together, almost every day. We all went through something significant together, and that’s a strong bond. As you get older, you realize, ‘Oh, you don’t have that with just about everybody.'”
“Towards the end of Friends we each received $1 million per episode. It gave me financial stability. I don’t have to do something because I need the money.”
“I get so embarrassed about the money stuff. Because it’s an outrageous amount of money – it’s more than most people will ever make, and it’s hard to come off as anything but greedy. And if you ever feel like you’re entitled to it, you know? It doesn’t work to keep excusing yourself.”
“I’ve been careful to keep my life separate because it’s important to me to have privacy and for my life not to be a marketing device for a movie or a TV show. I’m worth more than that.”
“Over the years I’ve become much more guarded. I don’t believe anything evaporates once it’s out there. It gets captured by the cloud. Emails have to be question, answer, no opinion.”
“You think you’re controlling the story. But when you put it out there, any individual can perceive it the way they want and they’ve got the same forum you do. Personal relationships, family, marriage – that stuff is meant to have very private parts, and it’s worth protecting.”
“I’m pretty middle-of-the-road. There are some issues I’m more conservative on.”
“Being a mom made me fear for the first time in my life. The stakes felt huge. I thought I was going to wake up and know exactly what to do, and I was very disappointed when I didn’t.”
“I like when there are complicated relationships, that there’s a little bit of self-serving parts of it as well as a devotion to a person, and that there’s a mixture of both in there. It’s just I think that’s a little more true to life. It’s not always purely one way or the other.”
“I found the right man, got married, and just had to keep not reinventing myself, just deciding that it doesn’t matter what you are if you are a good person.”
“You’re grateful to your parents for raising you better.”
“I try to be happy for everything that happens, the good and the bad. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be right here.”
“This is who I am. Not everybody has to like it.”
“I was extraordinarily lucky.”
“I truly wish you all the best in whatever it is that you want.”
Related: Courteney Cox quotes.
