Top 120 Lauren Graham Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Be truthful, say what you mean and mean what you say, don’t ignore the given circumstances.”

— Lauren Graham

2. “Don’t be perfect, just be DONE!”

— Lauren Graham

3. “Today is the day you have to start believing in yourself. No one can do it for you anymore.”

— Lauren Graham

4. “I must work harder to achieve my goal of not seeking approval from those whose approval I’m not even sure is important to me.”

— Lauren Graham

5. “Growing up an only child with a single parent is probably why I’m an actor.”

— Lauren Graham

6. “Your job doesn’t define you – your bravery and kindness and gratitude do. Even without any “big” accomplishments yet to your name, you are enough. Whether you have top billing, or you’re still dancing in the back row, you are enough, just as you are.”

— Lauren Graham

7. “Anyone can smile on their best day. I like to meet a man who can smile on his WORST.”

— Lauren Graham

8. “There’s nothing more important than a good story.”

— Lauren Graham

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9. “Texting is not flirting, if you don’t care about me enough to say the words than that’s not love, I don’t like it!”

— Lauren Graham

10. “Perspective is the most important thing to have in life.”

— Lauren Graham

11. “Love yourself, and what you’re doing, even if you’re not yet at the place you hope to land. Let joy be the thing that drives you, and I bet you’ll get there faster. Give yourself permission to make mistakes. Those mistakes are as valuable as the triumphs.”

— Lauren Graham

12. “We all have to start somewhere.’ So start somewhere, anywhere, and give me an idea of what it is you’d like to do. Tell me EVERYTHING. What is your DREAM?”

— Lauren Graham

13. “My mother had lived in London since I was little, so she never got to see my school plays and stuff.”

— Lauren Graham

14. “I do however like to tell people, especially regarding writing and deadlines: “Don’t be perfect, just be done.”

— Lauren Graham

15. “Perform every job as if you’re being well paid... Respect yourself and your work as if you’re being paid to be the Boss.”

— Lauren Graham

16. “Belly buttons are cool!”

— Lauren Graham

17. “You may be sensitive inside, but what I see on the outside is a soldier.”

— Lauren Graham

18. “You know how before a party you clean up your house so that everyone thinks you live that way all the time? That’s meeting someone at an awards show.”

— Lauren Graham

19. “But whatever path you choose, whatever career you decide to go after, the important thing is that you keep finding joy in what you’re doing, especially when the joy isn’t finding you.”

— Lauren Graham

20. “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten more liberal, and my father is increasingly conservative. It’s so shocking to me because I always thought we had the same politics. The day I realized we voted for different presidents, I practically fell out of my chair.”

— Lauren Graham

21. “That summer I also discovered the first alcoholic drink I actually liked the taste of, a drink that was very hip and happening at the time, and is still a sign of intellect and sophistication. I’m talking, of course, about the Fuzzy Navel.”

— Lauren Graham

22. “But life doesn’t often spell things out for you or give you what you want exactly when you want it, otherwise it wouldn’t be called life, it would be called vending machine.”

— Lauren Graham

23. “It’s hard to say exactly when it will happen, and it’s true that whatever you’re after may not drop down the moment you spend all your quarters, but someday soon a train is coming. In fact, it may already be on the way. You just don’t know it yet.”

— Lauren Graham

24. “So don’t let your plans have the last laugh, but laugh last when your plan laughs, and when your plan has the last laugh, laugh back laughing!”

— Lauren Graham

25. “I was just thinking about how Christmas is right around the corner, but no matter how you choose to celebrate the holidays, books in general make great gifts!”

— Lauren Graham

26. “It’s good to be bored in the car, I always tell him. Spend some time with just yourself and your thoughts and nothing to do. How else will you learn who you are?”

— Lauren Graham

27. “Personally, all I ever want to be wearing are jeans.”

— Lauren Graham

28. “Maybe I should sit. Plenty of people use sitting as a way to pass the time.”

— Lauren Graham

29. “An older friend will tell you you have plenty of time yet, and a younger friend will make you forget time altogether because when you’re with them you’ll feel, even for a moment, that you’re the exact same age.”

— Lauren Graham

30. “I’ve spent a lot of time wondering, What’s going to happen? What’s going to happen? I try not to allow myself to do that much anymore. I think ive gotten more comfortable with the unknown.”

— Lauren Graham

31. “Because here’s the thing: I was fine on my own, and so are you. But it can be hard when you feel ready for Happy Couplehood and you seem to have missed the train.”

— Lauren Graham

32. “The “success” parts of life look good to others, but the best parts are actually the simple, daily experiences.”

— Lauren Graham

33. “It’s interesting, isn’t it? That you can find yourself feeling so awkward in unfamiliar surroundings that you become more self-aware and more self-conscious? Maybe that lack of connection to an unfamiliar place can actually give you freedom to open up and see yourself.”

— Lauren Graham

34. “In the meantime, perform every job as if you’re being well paid, as someone who probably wasn’t paying me well once told me. Which is to say: why not treat yourself now as the success you dream if becoming? Respect yourself and your work as you would if you were being paid to be the boss, and I bet you’ll climb the ladder even faster.”

— Lauren Graham

35. “We’re all working hard, but so far away from what we actually want to be doing. We’re all peering in at the window of a party we aren’t invited to yet, a party we wouldn’t know how to dress for, or what kind of conversation to make, even if we came as someone’s guest.”

— Lauren Graham

36. “To me, Lorelai was equal parts Gal About Town and The Mom, plus a magical mix of smarts and humor that made her totally unique.”

— Lauren Graham

37. “Because here’s the thing: I was fine on my own, and so are you. But it can be hard when you feel ready for Happy Couplehood and you seem to have missed the train. As my friend Oliver Platt used to say to me about hopes and dreams I’d share with him: “It’s coming, just not on your time frame.”

— Lauren Graham

38. “Maybe it’s not acting for you. Maybe it’s baseball or coding or taking care of kids. But whatever path you choose, whatever career you decide to go after, the important thing is that you keep finding joy in what you’re doing, especially when the joy isn’t finding you. Treat every day like you’re starring in it. Don’t wait for permission or good reviews. If you can do that, you’ll be surprised by how far you might end up sailing.”

— Lauren Graham

39. “Once I stopped worrying so much about pleasing others, once I decided to let myself off the hook, I realized I could fly.”

— Lauren Graham

40. “BUT here’s a secret: The lows don’t last any longer than the highs do. Like clouds on an overcast day, sometimes we have to face the fact that what happens to us in life isn’t controllable, and if we wait a while, don’t take it personally, and decide to enjoy ourselves anyway, the sky will eventually clear up.”

— Lauren Graham

41. “There’s more comedy in failure than in success, and it’s a much more universal language.”

— Lauren Graham

42. “Also, we decided that people who can afford giant bags of cocaine should really be embarrassed at leaving anything less than a cool hundy in the tip jar.”

— Lauren Graham

43. “An important tool against self-doubt is just to ignore it. Forge ahead anyway. Just keep going, keep going, keep going.”

— Lauren Graham

44. “Nobody ever seems to want my advice about serious stuff. People will be like: ‘Who made that sweater?’ Or ‘How did you get your hair so straight?’ They don’t to come to me for the relationship advice or deep stuff. In fact, my little sister actually hides from me.”

— Lauren Graham

45. “Also, while there’s nothing wrong with doing things to make you feel better, I just wish the choices were limited to simpler things many of us have access to, like drinking more water or jogging or finding a more flattering shade of lipstick.”

— Lauren Graham

46. “It’s the way time moves differently when you’re caught up in the simple joy of being yourself. It’s what can happen when you make the decision to let go of criticism and worry and fear.”

— Lauren Graham

47. “In blindly trying a different path, I accidentally found one that worked better.”

— Lauren Graham

48. “Like my dad, I have a Christmas party most years. I like to celebrate and see as many people as possible.”

— Lauren Graham

49. “As actors we always say that once the person in a scene gets what they want, the scene is over. It’s resolved. But life is never resolved – you’re always in the process.”

— Lauren Graham

50. “Eventually I learned that, in the beginning at least, it was better for me to be finished than to try to be perfect. I had to get out of my own way. It wasn’t that the voice in my head-the one telling me my pages weren’t good enough- went away, exactly. I just didn’t let it stop me. An important tool against self-doubt is just to ignore it. Forge ahead anyway. Just keep going, keep going, keep going.”

— Lauren Graham