Quotes from Mary Steenburgen

I'd already made the decision before I'd even read it-just because it was John Sayles. Then when I read it, the themes were actually themes that have been a big part of my life.

If you're not growing, you're dying, and I'm not ready for that.

My mother was a gorgeous person with no vanity, but she was a really good soul.

There's a grace about the South and a toughness about it, too.

I'm kind of a laugh junkie. It's what I appreciate in life, because life is rich and sometimes it's hard, and I really, really love to laugh and gravitate towards people who make me laugh.

I've had a great time doing it - being able to say yes to a couple of amazing shows.

I decided if you're lucky enough to be alive, you should use each birthday to celebrate what your life is about.

We're all very fond of a black box in our living room that works on diminishment of images, that spoons somebody up in a very limited way. It can be a reduction at its worst.

I don't worry when I go away for a while. I think there is a place for me. It may not be at the top of the heap. But that doesn't bother me, either. I think I will always be able to get work - which is the only thing I have ever really been interested in.

I take the fact that films cost a lot of money very seriously, but once in a while to have somebody say, This is a big scene, take your time with it, is important. That's John Sayles.

I love to play horrible, evil, mean people.

I have hundreds of songs.

The part in 'Philadelphia' where I represent the law firm that's firing Tom Hanks, that was a hard part for me because I lost one of my best friends to AIDS, and it was hard for me to play a part that wasn't sympathetic to someone with AIDS.

As an actress, my best tools are my emotions and expressions.

There's just a total boatload of crazy that goes with singing live for the first time when you're 60 years old.

We don't want to be reminded that life ends at some point, so they don't put older people on the screen.

I started in improv and went into different kinds of things.

I did sing in a choir for a while, but if anybody was sick, I always whispered my songs to make sure nobody could pick out my voice.

I didn't work for a year and a half after 'Melvin and Howard' because all I was being offered was silly parts.

Writing is essentially an internal process.

I've never been able to write a movie script. I respect that skill so much, but it's not been the way my brain works.

We tend to love things that are left of center anyway.

I wanted it to be a wonderful combination of being able to dance a little bit, not being especially good, but also playing a character who says the line, "I love to dance".

I think the secret to what Jim Henson did, ultimately, is that he understood how to cut through to the... I know this sounds corny... but the child inside of you.