A biography for Mary Steenburgenhasn’t been written yet.
“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.”
“'Last Man On Earth,' I have to say, is a love for me. I mean, a true passion. To people who haven't watched it or who've watched a little and thought, 'Ah, I don't know where this is going,' or whatever, I urge them to check it out again.”
“Writing is essentially an internal process.”
“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 got my SAG card on my first movie, 'Goin' South,' with Jack Nicholson in 1978.”
“If you're not growing, you're dying, and I'm not ready for that.”
“I helped found Artists for New South Africa, but it used to be called Artists for Free South Africa. Alfre Woodard and a bunch of us started this.”
“Christopher Lloyd was actually the first person - or certainly one of the first few - who ever spoke to me on film.”
“I want women, especially young women, to create a world where your success is not based on being young.”
“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.”
“Essential oils are extremely important to me.”
“Do I feel like I still need to prove myself? Absolutely. And I want to feel that way, and I like that.”
“Reading is how I became an actor because I didn't grow up in a house where there was an awareness of film or theater. I also grew up in a house full of teachers, so reading was big in our world.”
“My heritage, many generations back, is Dutch and it was fun to go where nobody asked me how to pronounce my name.”
“I was a waitress for six years in New York. I actually got fascinated to see how fast and how good a waitress I could be. I was doing it, so I tried to do it as well as I could.”
“I know this is kind of corny, but we thought about renewing our vows again because I think my mom would really love it if we did that in Arkansas, where I came from.”
“There's a grace about the South and a toughness about it, too.”
“I didn't work for a year and a half after 'Melvin and Howard' because all I was being offered was silly parts.”
“There's just a total boatload of crazy that goes with singing live for the first time when you're 60 years old.”