I've done little things, including Botox, but it didn't feel right for me.
— Mary Steenburgen
I've never been able to write a movie script. I respect that skill so much, but it's not been the way my brain works.
We tell our kids to try for what they want. We cheer them on. But at some point, we stop doing this for ourselves. We shouldn't be so quick to close doors.
Like most people, I have a dark side, but because of roles I played early on, people tend not to guess that.
'Step Brothers' was like a reward for going through my whole career and somehow surviving.
The time that Ted and I spend talking about our careers is almost infinitesimally small. We mostly talk about our kids and our grandkids. I think we talk about our careers if something funny happened at work. We're very childlike in many ways.
When you read books, you kind of create that whole world in your mind, and you go on a journey with the author of that book. I think that's really a good thing.
When I was going through sad times, I'd watch 'Cheers' at the end of the day to make me feel better.
There's no strategy involved in my career decisions. I do whatever roles make my heart beat faster.
A period piece is a great opportunity for an actress. I love acting because I love to pretend, and when you're doing a period piece, then even the time you're in is pretend, so there's that much more to play with.
You don't get to make Westerns every day.
It's very easy to approach a character like that - a so-called strong woman who overcomes the odds - and give a one-note performance, playing that strength alone. Strength is only one thing a person has.
When you spend three months of your life doing a movie, it's important to enjoy yourself.
I'm kind of a laugh junkie. It's what I appreciate in life, because life is rich and sometimes it's hard, and I really, really love to laugh and gravitate towards people who make me laugh.
I wish sometimes people wouldn't underestimate me. But it's a fleeting wish. It's not where I live.
I want women, especially young women, to create a world where your success is not based on being young.
I had two wonderful teachers: Sanford Melsner and Fred Kareman.
As an actress, my best tools are my emotions and expressions.
'Last Man On Earth' is just one of the most original projects I've ever been involved with.
I had a sense of mortality since I was a little girl, which has to do with my father, who nearly died eight times in my childhood. He had eight heart attacks.
The part in 'Philadelphia' where I represent the law firm that's firing Tom Hanks, that was a hard part for me because I lost one of my best friends to AIDS, and it was hard for me to play a part that wasn't sympathetic to someone with AIDS.
My son, he has a film group, a bunch of film nerds that sit around and screen movies, and when they had Mary Steenburgen Night, the two movies they screened were 'Melvin And Howard' and 'Clifford.'
I wrote my first song when I was 54 years old.
Our culture loves movies and TV, which is wonderful, but there's something a little bit passive sometimes about watching, because you're looking at other people's imagination at work.
My dad had a series of heart attacks when I was a little girl, and our world was shaped by these huge, traumatic events.
I didn't work for a couple of years after the Oscar because everybody kept offering me bad versions of Lynda Dummar.
There's a style to doing period pieces, and you can't do a Western without understanding 'My Darling Clementine.'
Ultimately, there are only two emotions: love and fear. And pretty much anything else you want to name can be broken down into one of those.
There's a grace about the South and a toughness about it, too.
You've never seen anything until you've seen David Mamet be an Edwardian lady. He always conveys what he means, but he's so... masculine.
If there's an addiction in the Clinton family, it's to problem solving.
I love to play horrible, evil, mean people.
If you want to grow up and do what I do for a living - be an actress - my advice to you is read as much as you can.
Acting was far from my world. I rarely saw a play. I never met a real actress; they seemed unreal.
I love writing music.
I love dark chocolate, 70 percent and up.
I used to think I was going to die wise, and now, the one wisdom I have is I know very little.
'Last Man On Earth,' I have to say, is a love for me. I mean, a true passion. To people who haven't watched it or who've watched a little and thought, 'Ah, I don't know where this is going,' or whatever, I urge them to check it out again.
I'm not a great horse person, but I love horses, and I love all of it. The sights and sounds and smells, the whole genre of Westerns - I love them.
The accordion came from just having a desire to play music. Somehow, I have slowly taught myself.
Reading is how I became an actor because I didn't grow up in a house where there was an awareness of film or theater. I also grew up in a house full of teachers, so reading was big in our world.
My family didn't have money to travel, so reading was how I knew about the world. It made me hungry to have more experiences than just what I could possibly experience in Arkansas.
I couldn't imagine trying anything else besides acting. But I didn't know that to make it meant I'd be on a movie screen.
I loved Westerns for different reasons as an adult. It is not only our only native brand of storytelling - the only one that's not influenced by Europeans and not something that's done better by the French - but I also love the sensuality of the Western. The sights, sounds, and smell of a Western are very exciting.
I'm real strong, and I'm also real feminine, and I don't find a struggle having those two things under one roof.
Writing is essentially an internal process.
I grew up believing in Santa Claus, and we still treat our house at Christmas with a huge reverence for that belief - even though our children are 19 through 23.
I actually believed if I behaved myself and if I made straight A's and if I was good enough, I could save my dad's life. And every single time he had a heart attack, I knew what I had done that caused it.
In my business, guys may age, but it's not even a question they're valued. But women my age are supposed to disappear.
That's my name. I know it's difficult, and it's not pretty, but it's my name.
