I think the secret to what Jim Henson did, ultimately, is that he understood how to cut through to the... I know this sounds corny... but the child inside of you.
— Mary Steenburgen
I've chosen all my films very carefully. I know that I've had better parts in some films than in others. But the films I do are the ones I want to see when I read the screenplays. I guess you can basically say that I've just done things I loved when I read them.
Every child in America fantasizes about running wild in the White House for a few minutes.
For me, acting has often been solitary. You're all together, and then boom, you're gone.
1977 is the year I made my first movie. Shortly after, I was offered quite nice roles in television. The general consensus among everyone was that I'd be out of my mind to do that.
I know that's why I became an actress. In my dream world, I could get mad and scream and yell, and if somebody died, they got up again. In real life, I didn't dare try it.
I wanted a relationship like the one my mother and father had. It wasn't perfect; they had to work on it. But there was an unbelievable mutual respect.
I don't consider myself much of a singer. I'm a writer first.
There's just a total boatload of crazy that goes with singing live for the first time when you're 60 years old.
Whenever we start a new TV series, there's also a lot of question marks, and part of that is finding who you are.
Will Forte is such a nice, extraordinarily creative human being. Utterly fearless.
At one point, I kind of looked in the mirror and said, 'You know, you're a mom. You're a wife. People count on you; you can't go off the deep end into this kind of crazy musical swirl.'
I decided if you're lucky enough to be alive, you should use each birthday to celebrate what your life is about.
As an actor, you're always looking for, what do I get to do? It's not just what do I say, but what do I do, too.
I love to paint. And I have another profession - an interior design business.
'Step Brothers' is probably the film the most people who approach me want to talk about.
I've had battles with writers who live in L.A. and were writing southern characters, because they felt like if they wrote 'Sugar' and 'Honey' at the end of every sentence, that would make it southern.
My heritage, many generations back, is Dutch and it was fun to go where nobody asked me how to pronounce my name.
I didn't work for a year and a half after 'Melvin and Howard' because all I was being offered was silly parts.
We're all very fond of a black box in our living room that works on diminishment of images, that spoons somebody up in a very limited way. It can be a reduction at its worst.
I like being part of a team.
New York had this wild beat that anybody could dance to. It was very nurturing to young people.
What a mother I am. I can't even make popcorn.
I learned not to care what other people think.
I have hundreds of songs.
I've had a great time doing it - being able to say yes to a couple of amazing shows.
I'm not saying it's easy, and it's definitely harder for women. Because there is definitely a double standard about gorgeous older men, and it's different for older women.
'Justified' had such dead-on beautiful scripts that you didn't want to mess with it.
Essential oils are extremely important to me.
I was excited to turn 60.
We don't want to be reminded that life ends at some point, so they don't put older people on the screen.
Wii on Nintendo is amazing.
I remember when I was growing up and watching southern people depicted on television, I thought, 'Well, based on what I'm seeing, I guess I'm supposed to be stupid and racist.' It's still, sadly, the easy route for a writer to go.
If you're not growing, you're dying, and I'm not ready for that.
I don't worry when I go away for a while. I think there is a place for me. It may not be at the top of the heap. But that doesn't bother me, either. I think I will always be able to get work - which is the only thing I have ever really been interested in.
I wasn't making any money, but I didn't feel unsuccessful because of that. You can do that in New York but not in Hollywood. In Hollywood, it is how much money you make.
I would like to think that in America, as time goes on, you gain freedom, not lose freedom.
I don't know if I've ever read a movie that's as strange and unpredictable and hilarious and wonderful as the stuff we're doing on 'The Last Man on Earth.' It's jaw-dropping every week when I get a script, because it goes to such strange places.
Anytime I had a date, it was at the Sadie Hawkins Day dance.
I learned so much about life and other human beings - then about myself.
Life is about surviving loss.
I'm a late bloomer.
My agents and managers deserve a special Emmy award for scheduling.
I don't want to go to just watch big huge summer movies that everybody predicts is going to be the big huge summer movie and that are all the sort of blow-them-up movies or whatever you want to call them. I think there are a lot of other people out there, too, that want an alternative.
Hey, it's a miracle to have a career in Hollywood. But it doesn't begin to sum me up.
My mother was a gorgeous person with no vanity, but she was a really good soul.
I did 'Philadelphia' and 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape?' at the same time. It's kind of wonderful to do it that way, because you get very hyper-focused.
There's a certain freedom that comes when people don't expect you to be sexy.
I panic at parties. I don't like talking absolutely nothing and pretending, so I'm quite odd socially.
There are no worse cliches than southern cliches. They make my skin crawl.
