Mary Steenburgen

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

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

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

“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 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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“There's no strategy involved in my career decisions. I do whatever roles make my heart beat faster.”

“My son, he has a film group, a bunch of film nerds that sit around and screen movies, and when they had Mary Steenburgen Night, the two movies they screened were 'Melvin And Howard' and 'Clifford.'”

“I learned not to care what other people think.”

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

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

“I learned so much about life and other human beings - then about myself.”

“'Last Man On Earth' is just one of the most original projects I've ever been involved with.”

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

“I was excited to turn 60.”

“Acting was far from my world. I rarely saw a play. I never met a real actress; they seemed unreal.”

“I love to paint. And I have another profession - an interior design business.”

“My dad had a series of heart attacks when I was a little girl, and our world was shaped by these huge, traumatic events.”

“I like being part of a team.”