Entertainment
5 Empowering Quotes From Jane Lynch That Will Make You Think
Jane Lynch has long been one of Hollywood's most delightful, consistent character actors. Over the past few years, the recognition she gained through her roles in Christopher Guest's mockumentaries has ballooned, in no small part to her role as the acidic Sue Sylvester on Glee. She's hosted the Emmys, she's starred as Ms. Hannigan in the Broadway production of Annie, she's made us laugh pretty much wherever she's gone. She's a good egg, that Jane Lynch. July 14 happens to be Lynch's 54th birthday. So what better time to celebrate some of the wisdom she's laid out from advice on career to what she'd tell her 17-year-old self to the joy of being a vessel for laughter.
Here are some of my favorite things she's said.
On the power of finding your inner goof
Lynch told The Guardian in 2010 that, “Making people laugh is a really fabulous thing because it means you’re getting deep inside somebody, into their psyche, and their ability to look at themselves. You have to get through a lot of ego to get there. You have to get through a lot of self-protection that says, ‘I’m cool’, to get down to the stuff that says, ‘I’m just a goof.’”
On finding your path
She said this to Collider in 2011: “I know it sounds new age-y, but what I’ve truly come up with is that you really need to trust that you’re on your own path, as long as you stay true to it and you show up, which is 99 percent of it.”
On waiting for your career to start
She talked ambition to The Huffington Post in 2014: “No one’s just going to hand you a career. I waited for years for someone to hand me one and it never happened.”
On what's important
Lynch shared her priorities to The Huffington Post in 2012: “But now that I’ve matured, I’ve realized that — at the end of the day — what’s really important is the work, not what people think of me.”
Advice to her 17-year-old self
This was appropriately laid out in Seventeen: “I would tell myself, if I could go back to myself, to not suffer. To don’t sweat it. Don’t try to control things and just let your life happen. Show up, do your best everywhere you go, but there’s no reason to beat up on yourself. That’s what I would say.”
