Quotes by Joan Chen

About Joan Chen:

Joan Chen is a Chinese-American actress, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. In China she performed in the 1979 film Little Flower and came to international attention for her performance in the 1987 Academy Award-winning film The Last Emperor. She is also known for her roles in Twin Peaks, Red Rose, White Rose, Saving Face and The Home Song Stories, and for directing the feature film Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Beauty is the result of having been through an experience all the way through to the end - therefore it has a poignancy. Beauty that is singular always comes from following an experience to the point where you can go no further.

Joan Chen

I know what actors fear, what they like; I know how to get things out of them and I listen to them better, since I've been there.

Joan Chen

The romantic love we feel toward the opposite sex is probably one extra help from God to bring you together, but that's it. All the rest of it, the true love, is the test.

Joan Chen

My fairy-tale life ended the moment I wanted to apply for a passport.

Joan Chen

Acting for me is not a bad habit like smoking that I must make an effort to quit. I love acting; I love directing.

Joan Chen

The lowest budget U.S. films are ten times times better than shooting in Tibet.

Joan Chen

I would never offer advice without the person asking for it. I, in general, don't believe in giving advice, actually, as a human being I don't.

Joan Chen

As an actress I find the most enjoyable part of acting is really just to please the director. I just want to please my director.

Joan Chen

There is no theoretical study of motherhood. You know, before I became a mother, I did play a mother, but I was like - I was more thinking of my own mother. I was doing my mother.

Joan Chen

I never went on an audition - when they were really looking at everybody.

Joan Chen

I will always have a career. I believe in working. I don't believe that taking care of your house and children is enough for a woman. You don't feel complete.

Joan Chen

Physical hunger and physical poverty is something I could only imagine. I've been poor when I was in China... As kids we never had to starve, but just didn't have enough meat, enough rice.

Joan Chen

If you know how to do a job very well, you keep doing it.

Joan Chen

How I was raised is what I am today.

Joan Chen

All Asian parents are into your children having a respectable, decent stable job. Acting was unimaginable to my parents.

Joan Chen

How do you explain certain physical qualities that somehow sell on screen? You're born with it... Certain people are just more watchable, and I was more watchable, but I don't think I understood acting or drama very well when I was a kid.

Joan Chen

I don't find intimate scenes more difficult than other scenes.

Joan Chen

The difference between me and American-born actors is that I came here with the expectation of not being treated fairly.

Joan Chen

There are a lot of stereotypes to be broken which I think a lot of us are doing. What I do is, as soon as people try to pin me down to one kind of part, I'll play a very different kind of role, so it explodes that stereotype.

Joan Chen

I don't want to tell people what I make. It's a lot more than I ever dreamed of as a kid. I never think about it.

Joan Chen

Author Bio

  • NameJoan Chen
  • Descriptionactress, film director, screenwriter, producer
  • BornApril 26, 1961
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionActor; Screenwriter; Film Director