Quotes from Mary Steenburgen

It's usually, my people speak to your people and then they speak around each other and trade calls for weeks.

I was this person with this weird last name from New York that no one had ever heard of. But my screen test I guess, according to him, was the best. So I got the part, which was incredible.

There's a style to doing period pieces, and you can't do a Western without understanding 'My Darling Clementine.'

There's just such a premium on hurrying, and the camera is the be all and end all, and the actors had better hurry up and get it right and get it done.

A period piece is a great opportunity for an actress. I love acting because I love to pretend, and when you're doing a period piece, then even the time you're in is pretend, so there's that much more to play with.

Like most people, I have a dark side, but because of roles I played early on, people tend not to guess that.

Anytime I had a date, it was at the Sadie Hawkins Day dance.

My agents and managers deserve a special Emmy award for scheduling.

I loved Westerns for different reasons as an adult. It is not only our only native brand of storytelling - the only one that's not influenced by Europeans and not something that's done better by the French - but I also love the sensuality of the Western. The sights, sounds, and smell of a Western are very exciting.

You don't get to make Westerns every day.

I'm not a great horse person, but I love horses, and I love all of it. The sights and sounds and smells, the whole genre of Westerns - I love them.

The sights and sounds and smells, the whole genre of Westerns - I love them.

The time that Ted and I spend talking about our careers is almost infinitesimally small. We mostly talk about our kids and our grandkids. I think we talk about our careers if something funny happened at work. We're very childlike in many ways.

My heritage, many generations back, is Dutch and it was fun to go where nobody asked me how to pronounce my name.

Do I feel like I still need to prove myself? Absolutely. And I want to feel that way, and I like that.

I'm real strong, and I'm also real feminine, and I don't find a struggle having those two things under one roof.

Every child in America fantasizes about running wild in the White House for a few minutes.

New York had this wild beat that anybody could dance to. It was very nurturing to young people.

It was a few days later I came out to Hollywood for a screen test, and so did a lot of other people. So, I really didn't think I would get it. I was definitely the one that was least likely to get it, because everyone else was an already established star.

I had two wonderful teachers: Sanford Melsner and Fred Kareman.

We tell our kids to try for what they want. We cheer them on. But at some point, we stop doing this for ourselves. We shouldn't be so quick to close doors.

I would like to think that in America, as time goes on, you gain freedom, not lose freedom.

When you read books, you kind of create that whole world in your mind, and you go on a journey with the author of that book. I think that's really a good thing.

I used to think I was going to die wise, and now, the one wisdom I have is I know very little.