Mary Steenburgen

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.

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

I would say that the things that have really left a mark on me have more to do with my family and my children's lives rather than a film role.

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

Will Forte is such a nice, extraordinarily creative human being. Utterly fearless.

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

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.

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

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.

In my business, guys may age, but it's not even a question they're valued. But women my age are supposed to disappear.

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.