Quotes from Marcia Gay Harden

People have such false perceptions of how stardom really works.

Anybody who is really walking with the Lord is embracing the foibles and the beauties and the differences of humanity, regardless of race, color, creed, economic stature and sexual proclivity, whatever. You embrace the beauty of humanity and not be exacting and belittling about the differences.

It's very hypocritical to constantly say, 'We want to keep our kids close,' then send them home with so much homework that family time becomes nonexistent.

They tell us in magazines and in ads, 'Oh, you should look like this, you should wear this, you should look like this movie star, or you're nothing.' And so we're all totally unsatisfied.

You want to know how I'm feeling? Just look at me, and I'll tell you how I'm feeling. Nothing is hidden. I'm all out there. I cry like a baby, I get upset, I stamp my feet. I'm not stoic.

The important thing is that when you correct your children, they see what they've done wrong and why you're upset.

The people who stood out in the Sandy Hook incident, the heroes, were the normal, ordinary people who went to save those children.

Reading is a joy for my kids, and to swing in a hammock on a lazy summer day reading a good book just goes with summer.

I'm just a pack mule. I've played leads and I've played character roles. Any actress in Hollywood will tell you as your age climbs, the leads thin.

Sometimes in film and television, I don't have the opportunity to play roles that really stretch and challenge me.

Whether you win or not, the night the Oscars are over, the curtain goes down and you go back to the grind. Period.

It's hard to balance work and family.

I love physical comedy. I adore comedy of any kind.

You can manipulate the viewer in film. With theater, what you see is what you get.

I have a theory that there's almost this primal viewpoint on women in the business, that once you're beyond childbearing age, you are perceived as nonthreatening, nonsexual, noncastable. Sure, I already knew it before I got into it. I just didn't know I'd end up making my living from low-budget, independent films.

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