Quotes from Marcia Gay Harden

I think irrationality is one of the scariest things in the world.

If you think someone committed a crime, you should turn them in to whomever you perceive authority to be.

I'm not a big fan of mediocre.

There are certainly a billion, ker-trillion girls out there more attractive than I am.

I've had an amazing career and amazing blessings. But I'm an everyday person, and I have lived an everyday life, and I drive an everyday car.

Shakespeare set a lot of his dramas in a historical perspective or war perspective, or he would study what was going on at that time.

We can be incredibly disconnected in this day and age with computers and cell phones.

A New York casting director, who shall remain nameless, once said to me, 'Marcia, you have what I call the flaring-nostril look, and until you get something done about it, you will never, ever work.'

Back in the days of Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Davis, beauty wasn't the be-all and end-all it is today.

It's important that kids learn, but I really don't like all the testing, testing, testing.

Working on 'King Of Texas' was a life experience for me.

The only thing that seemed to me I could do in such a way that no one else could was acting. I thought, I can be a doctor, but there's going to be someone else who is just as good or better. I can be a lawyer, which I still sometimes think I would love to be, but I think there's someone who can do it just as good or better.

In theater, you have a rehearsal period and you know just who to be.

Everyone thinks offers are always pouring in. Offers have never poured in. Never. I was auditioning a lot, but I didn't get the jobs.

I don't think any extremism is rational.

My schools were quite diverse - those who serve their country come from every race and religion - and so the military schools I attended were a wonderful melting pot.

I loved playing Anne Bancroft, because she was so wonderfully arch.

In 2005, I had the great honor of playing Shailene Woodley's mother in 'Felicity: An American Girl Adventure.' I was immediately impressed by her work ethic, both on and off set.

You're over there in the corner either thinking about the dead dog or whatever, you're bringing up your personal life and you need the space, and then somebody throws you a joke. Especially if it's an emotional scene, you don't want the joke.

In the theater, it's about taking time in a musical segment, a pause in a musical way and then moving on.

Sometimes I ride my bike to see the kids after a matinee and then ride back to do the show. That's the hard part, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

In any film, there are 10 male roles for 1 female role, especially in the action films. They're heavy with the guys.

All those days of waiting on tables until I could get a role on Broadway, all that time going to school taking lessons, and all those years of being a nobody following a dream-and now here it is.

I love it when ugliness is beautiful. I love character flaws.