Human beings are selfish...

Scene work. After you have truly let go of the character to live fully in their shoes and circumstances, only then are you forced to forget all of the work you have just done. If you are thinking about your next line, then you have already taken yourself out of the moment. In life, we never think about our next line - all we do is live and go after things we want. We all do things for specific reasons. We as human beings never do anything without a meaning behind it.  Even Mother Theresa had a selfish purpose to do what she did - she wanted to get to heaven.  I am not saying she is selfish, I am saying she had a want and a need.  We all have wants and needs.  Those wants and needs are always positive to us.  Even if (as my character) I want to kill myself; then from the characters point of view, I say "I want to get rid of the pain".   That's positive, instead of, "I want to kill myself and put everyone through heart ache".  These are our objectives.  You will not know how much work is enough until you have been studying for years upon years.   Only then can we develop an understanding of our craft to know how much homework we really need.  It is never just about the lines.