A biography for Mary Steenburgenhasn’t been written yet.
“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.”
“Like most people, I have a dark side, but because of roles I played early on, people tend not to guess that.”
“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.”
“I write music as a staff writer for Universal Music Group, and I have since 2007. I've never talked about it publicly because I wanted to earn the right to be in the same room as the great writers I write with and not shoot my mouth off because I'm an actor. It's really important to me, and I really care about it.”
“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 wish sometimes people wouldn't underestimate me. But it's a fleeting wish. It's not where I live.”
“I have never been able to sing in the shower, much less in front of anybody.”
“My mother was a gorgeous person with no vanity, but she was a really good soul.”
“Hey, it's a miracle to have a career in Hollywood. But it doesn't begin to sum me up.”
“I love dark chocolate, 70 percent and up.”
“'Step Brothers' was like a reward for going through my whole career and somehow surviving.”
“I didn't work for a couple of years after the Oscar because everybody kept offering me bad versions of Lynda Dummar.”
“For me, acting has often been solitary. You're all together, and then boom, you're gone.”
“I love to play horrible, evil, mean people.”
“Life is about surviving loss.”
“In my business, guys may age, but it's not even a question they're valued. But women my age are supposed to disappear.”
“Wii on Nintendo is amazing.”
“I'm a late bloomer.”
“It's very easy to approach a character like that - a so-called strong woman who overcomes the odds - and give a one-note performance, playing that strength alone. Strength is only one thing a person has.”
“I don't consider myself much of a singer. I'm a writer first.”