Sheryl Lee

There's something about death. It's like trying to understand our own mortality and immortality. That's why society is so into things like vampires, because they don't die. Well, why don't they die?

It doesn't matter whether it's television or films or the theater. I just have to believe in what I'm doing. If I don't believe in it, I won't do it.

People don't set out being bad. They have deep pain inside.

Because Laura Palmer was dead... there was always this strange sense that people were seeing a ghost when they would see me.

Everybody has secrets.

I had no idea it was going to be like this. People come up to me all the time, but it's never, 'Oh, you're Sheryl Lee.' It's, 'Oh my gosh, you're Laura Palmer.'

It's important for me, when looking at a role, to decide whether or not to take the journey of that character. Will I grow as an actress? And will I grow as a person?

I was living in Seattle. I was 21 years old, just going to do theater. And I got a call that David Lynch was in town and wanted to meet with me.

I'm starting to understand why certain people in the entertainment business reach a point where they say, 'I'm not going to do any more interviews.' I definitely understand that.

You'll read a script, and it'll grab me, or it won't.

Society has a fascination with death.

I don't think death is a negative thing at all. I think it can be very positive.

People are doing so many incredible, inspiring, interesting things all over this country, and I think that's where the hope is - seeing how innovative and creative people can be.

I don't go to regular music festivals because I tend to run in the opposite direction wherever there's big crowds.

For some weird reason, people have a fascination with Laura Palmer.

When I was a kid, we played outside until we couldn't see and had to go in. I rode my bicycle and played tag football, kick the can, and hide-and-go-seek.

I still get terrified if I have to talk in front of a group of people. By having a character to play, it makes it safer.

I was the kind of kid, I'd sit in the back row of the class with my head practically under the desk. I was incredibly afraid of people and very shy.

I felt guilty about what happened on 'Twin Peaks.' All of a sudden, to have that kind of payoff for doing so little seemed very strange.

I did a few independent films, but there is no money in them.

I went into dancing but damaged my knees so decided to become an actress instead.

My doctor suggested doing some blood tests and immediately discovered that my white blood cell count was low. So then I went through many more tests including bone marrow biopsies until they figured out that I had neutropenia.

I have to be very aware of how I manage my health. I still have relapses if I push myself too hard and my immune system can't handle it.

I had a little house, and I sold that and moved into a condo, then sold the condo... I kept downsizing and downsizing.

People always assume that, if you're an actor who's been on anything from which you're recognisable, that you're making all this money, and it's just not true.

Most actors I'm in touch with are struggling financially.

I want to watch my son grow up. I want to spend time with my family. There's a lot of the world that I want to see and experience.

I love being directed, and I feel so grateful to be able to get to work with some of the directors I've worked with.

I love directors who aren't going back to the stereotypes, who are helping write and create roles for women that are not in the typical Hollywood box. I'm very, very interested in films that are going outside of stereotypical roles for women.

Media is a powerful thing, and you see it with so many actors, where one role that brings them a lot of attention is sort of how they get defined.

I'm grateful for anything that brings me back to Colorado.

I was just this kid from Colorado studying theater, and suddenly I was on a hit TV show.

In some ways, my naivete saved me.

I just found out last week - my sister told me - that my father had some Beatles records. So I must have heard them quite a bit, but it never registered, really. Now I listen to them with new ears.

You always hear actresses talk about how unromantic it is to act a love scene or a sex scene - which it is. You're doing it with all these lights on and cameras flying around and people on the set.

My biggest fear in life is fear.

It's still difficult for me to watch my work.

It's awkward: Here you are with most of your clothes off in bed with this person who you've really just met. You're strangers to each other's bodies and you're coming together for the first time in front of all these people.

If something scares me, then I have to do it.

I would love to play a nun. I used to want to be one when I was a kid.

I remembered their songs but I had never owned a Beatles album.

I just turned 30 so I got really introspective as you do, questioning my life. And when I stopped and sort of looked back at the past decade, I realized I had done more work than I thought I had done.

I've always had a fascination with vampires. It's not that I'm exactly fascinated with the dark side. It's the human struggle with it. How we deal with those two aspects of who we are. We all have those elements.

I highly recommend tantric sex workshops.

I grew up in Colorado - went back there, tried to heal myself and grow and learn, then got a call that David Lynch wanted me to fly back to Seattle so he could meet me for Twin Peaks.

Every actress has a line she'll draw, where she'll say, 'This I will do and this I won't.' For me, everything has to be important to the story and the director has to be able to tell me why.

But I'm attracted to roles where I get to really go in and explore a character.

Apparently I'm the most naked that anyone's been on TNT. My poor mother. I'm ready to run away.

And in the middle of one of those scenes, I suddenly felt my heart just open: it was overwhelming, to the point where I got teary-eyed. Never would I have thought anything like that could happen in a love scene.

I have a thing about angels. I believe in them. I feel like I have a guardian angel. I think everybody has one.