Quotes from Frances McDormand

I want to be revered. I want to be an elder; I want to be an elderess.

I love flying by the seat of my pants, going at something instinctually.

I wasn't into sports, but I was really into Shakespeare.

I buy books, I have shelves of books. I love to read.

It could be partly my taste. It's just my belief that there are female characters that will benefit from not being vulnerable.

Long-format television is a better way to tell a female story.

I think that there's a clinical mental illness called depression, but I believe that post-industrial America has been narcotized by progress. There's a cultural malaise - mental illness or no - that everybody suffers from at some point in their life.

Here's what I have at my advantage: I've never been a personality. I've always been a character actor.

I've always known that I'll have a career for the rest of my life because they'll always make movies about men, and men need women in their lives. But, when it comes to telling a woman's story, they're complex, circular, and not genre-driven.

I'm not really that interested in going back to playing small supporting roles.

Something happened culturally: No one is supposed to age past 45 - sartorially, cosmetically, attitudinally.

I never trusted good-looking boys.

Certainly, a lot of the films I've worked on have ended up good movies, but they haven't always been the best experiences

Growing up a preacher's kid wasn't the easiest thing. Everybody's always watching you to see how you'll behave - or misbehave.

I can do a good John Wayne.

I swear a lot; I always have. So does my husband. Our son, surprisingly, does not swear much at all.

I can't do the frappuccino. It's too sweet. I need it straight.

I'm not a depressive, but I certainly have mood swings. It's an occupational hazard, I would say, and I'm glad I'm in the occupation I'm in.

My position has always been that the way people age and the signs that we show of aging is nature's way of tattooing. It's natural scarification, and the life you lead gives you the symbols and the emblems of your life, the road map you followed.

You can't make a rule about it. The minute you make a rule, it's like putting your wedding pictures in 'In Style' magazine - you're divorced.

Cinematic icons of the police detective are more male role models than female.

I went to my school careers counselors and said I wanted to be an actor, and they didn't know what to do. They showed me catalogues with pretty campuses and said, 'Oh, look, there's a theater building. Why don't you go there?'

It's like some weird excuse for high school kids to vomit. It's not good. It's stupid. I'm sure that's not what St. Patrick's Day is supposed to be about, but who knows.

I was very good until I left home to go to a little college in West Virginia, and then I started to break some rules.