Quotes from Mary Steenburgen

There's a certain arrogance to an actor who will look at a script and feel like, because the words are simple, maybe they can paraphrase it and make it better.

There's a certain freedom that comes when people don't expect you to be sexy.

I have never been able to sing in the shower, much less in front of anybody.

I think that we need to look hard at our beliefs and be responsible about how we speak out.

Our culture loves movies and TV, which is wonderful, but there's something a little bit passive sometimes about watching, because you're looking at other people's imagination at work.

I was a waitress for six years in New York. I actually got fascinated to see how fast and how good a waitress I could be. I was doing it, so I tried to do it as well as I could.

I couldn't imagine trying anything else besides acting. But I didn't know that to make it meant I'd be on a movie screen.

Let me put it this way. There is more to acting than just acting like somebody. I like to act in such a way that other people get some notion of what it's like to be somebody.

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.

Hey, it's a miracle to have a career in Hollywood. But it doesn't begin to sum me up.

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.

I actually believed if I behaved myself and if I made straight A's and if I was good enough, I could save my dad's life. And every single time he had a heart attack, I knew what I had done that caused it.

I'm a chameleon when it comes to languages.

When I was going through sad times, I'd watch 'Cheers' at the end of the day to make me feel better.

I love dark chocolate, 70 percent and up.

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.

I grew up believing in Santa Claus, and we still treat our house at Christmas with a huge reverence for that belief - even though our children are 19 through 23.

I know this is kind of corny, but we thought about renewing our vows again because I think my mom would really love it if we did that in Arkansas, where I came from.

My family didn't have money to travel, so reading was how I knew about the world. It made me hungry to have more experiences than just what I could possibly experience in Arkansas.

I have never had any success in planning my life, really.

There's something inside of me that just connects or doesn't connect with the project.

Life is about surviving loss.

'Step Brothers' was like a reward for going through my whole career and somehow surviving.

What a mother I am. I can't even make popcorn.