Daily Inspiration Quote by Sharon Gless

Gless is doing that sly actor’s two-step: accepting a compliment while quietly reframing her image. “Accused” is the tell. Mischief is supposedly a charge, but she flips it into a badge of agency - and then makes sure you understand it’s not just her personality, it’s her craft. She’s talking about authorial control in a profession that loves to sort actresses into “nice” or “difficult,” “glamorous” or “serious.” Mischief becomes a third category: the woman who won’t behave on cue.

The line also functions as a defense of range. She nods to “intense characters” to reassure anyone who thinks playfulness undercuts gravitas, then anchors it in a specific cultural artifact: Christine Cagney. In the early 1980s, Cagney and Lacey wasn’t just a cop show; it was a weekly negotiation over what competent women were allowed to look like on television. Cagney’s intensity read, to plenty of viewers and executives, as abrasive. By insisting mischief is “important,” Gless reframes that abrasiveness as texture - a spark of rule-breaking that keeps strength from turning into stiffness.

There’s a canny bit of audience management here, too. She’s “very flattered” you can “see it” in her roles, implying consistency without confessing to autobiography. The subtext: don’t confuse me with my characters, but do recognize the through-line I’m choosing. Mischief isn’t childishness; it’s strategy - a way to smuggle irreverence into roles that might otherwise be filed under “tough woman,” then forgotten.