Quotes from Kathy Bates

My inner strength comes from my friends. I have a very close group of friends and family, and we all help each other through our dark times.

I've always tried to be honest, and it would be too difficult for me to develop some kind of persona. I don't have enough time or energy for that.

When I met President Obama, all I could say was 'wow' - twice. What an idiot.

We all love to hear a good story. We save our stories in books. We save our books in libraries. Libraries are the storyhouses full of all those stories and secrets.

I love everything. I love being the empathetic characters. I love being the villains. I think it's like when we're kids, we like to play all kinds of crazy characters and dress up.

I'm very lucky to be able to do what I love to do, and I hope I can keep doing it for a while.

My deeply secret favorite movie is 'Meet Joe Black.'

I used to play guitar years ago. It brought me a lot of pleasure when I was a teenager growing up and was having tough times.

I got my SAG card quite unexpectedly. I was here in Los Angeles doing a play called 'Vanities' - it was 1976, I believe - and I got invited by Dustin Hoffman, whom I'd met in New York, to come audition for a movie he was directing.

The roles I was lucky enough to get were real stretches for me: usually a character who was older, or a little weird, or whatever. And it was hard, not just for the lack of work but because you have to face up to how people are looking at you.

Jack made it very comfortable for me on the set. We'd met socially before but never worked together. You know, he's very professional, very disciplined and he's always prepared and knows his lines.

People will come up, and they'll talk about 'Misery.' But a lot of people will talk about 'Waterboy.'

'Misery' left a lasting mark on me. When I die, it will be 'Kathy 'Misery' Bates Is Dead.'

I look for a role that hopefully I feel empathy with and that I can understand and love, but also that has that challenge for me to play - a different kind of role, a different type of character, a different time period.

Alexander Payne's very specific. His scripts are always complete when you start working on them.

Drama comes more naturally to me. It's the comedy you really have to delve into.

And people are always saying: 'Well, you go to Hollywood and you get yourself a film career or a TV series, and then you can do anything you want. Because then you've got the clout.' That had always sounded like a lot of hooey to me, but now I think it's true, unfortunately.

I want to see women onscreen the way I see them in society.

I try to always stretch myself to fit the characters that have been presented.

There are a lot of powerful women in Hollywood who have been movie stars for a long time who are getting into their forties and fifties. I still want to see them work.

O.K., we had women's lib in the '60s, the women fought for their roles, they're out there in the work force. Now let's talk about how they're dealing with things as human beings.

I'm not a stunning woman.

A heart can only discover what it really wants with experience.