Allison Janney

“I love the wilder, more outlandish characters that are hard to make believable. Those are the ones I want to play.”

“I know there are a lot of tall, beautiful actresses like Uma Thurman and Nicole Kidman who are my height, but they're still half the size of me!”

“The loss of my brother was a huge moment, a life-changer for me.”

“I've never been with a group of people for that long. I mean, even my family I don't think I know as intimately as the people I worked with on 'West Wing.'”

“The fact that 'Mom' is not joke, joke, joke - and is investing in these characters and their lives, things that really happen to people - I think it's resonating, and that's why people are tuning into it and not just dismissing it as a multi-cam sitcom.”

“At times, maybe I'm too competitive for my own good.”

“I've always been a figure skater and ballet dancer. I love physical comedy, and any chance that I get to do that... that is so me.”

“Before I even wanted to be an actor, I wanted to be a figure skater.”

“The first job where I actually made money was on 'Guiding Light,' the soap opera. And I played a maid. My name was Ginger, and I had a Brooklyn accent - a really bad one, if I remember correctly.”

“I'm a big girl, but I have a delicate constitution emotionally. If I've been humiliated in some audition, I just cry all the way home and think, 'Oh my God, I suck.'”

“I have the power of my height. Growing up, it was a total drawback. There was nothing good about it at all.”

“I was a late bloomer in a lot of areas in life.”

“I never think of a project as just being comedy or just being drama - even with 'Masters of Sex.' I like being sort of messy, like life is.”

“I know what it feels like to love and care about things, but I've never had that instinct to have kids.”

“The way you talk to yourself sometimes is terrible! I hear myself, and I go, 'I can't believe you're talking to my friend Allison like that!' It's really terrible, the things we say to ourselves.”

“Great drama is all about conflict, and what's a better conflict than Republican-Democrat?”

“I can tell when men are threatened by my height.”

“I feel better when I'm working. I tend to not know who I am when I'm not working. That worries me a little bit... I've been fortunate to be so busy, but I haven't developed any other skills.”

“I felt like my career started late, and I think it was because of my height - and maybe some of my confidence issues.”

“In my career, I am so so happy and grateful for everything I've gotten to do. And yet, I wish I had started off earlier so I could, I don't know... I certainly have not not gotten work because of my age, but I'm just gonna pray and hope that the roles will still keep coming as I get older.”