'Step Brothers' was like a reward for going through my whole career and somehow surviving.
We're all very fond of a black box in our living room that works on diminishment of images, that spoons somebody up in a very limited way. It can be a reduction at its worst.
'Step Brothers' is probably the film the most people who approach me want to talk about.
You don't get to make Westerns every day.
I've had battles with writers who live in L.A. and were writing southern characters, because they felt like if they wrote 'Sugar' and 'Honey' at the end of every sentence, that would make it southern.
I don't know if I've ever read a movie that's as strange and unpredictable and hilarious and wonderful as the stuff we're doing on 'The Last Man on Earth.' It's jaw-dropping every week when I get a script, because it goes to such strange places.
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 am lucky enough not to have to take jobs unless I love the material.
I actually believed if I behaved myself and if I made straight A's and if I was good enough, I could save my dad's life. And every single time he had a heart attack, I knew what I had done that caused it.
You've never seen anything until you've seen David Mamet be an Edwardian lady. He always conveys what he means, but he's so... masculine.
I'm not a great horse person, but I love horses, and I love all of it. The sights and sounds and smells, the whole genre of Westerns - I love them.
I didn't work for a couple of years after the Oscar because everybody kept offering me bad versions of Lynda Dummar.
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.
There's a certain arrogance to an actor who will look at a script and feel like, because the words are simple, maybe they can paraphrase it and make it better.
If you want to grow up and do what I do for a living - be an actress - my advice to you is read as much as you can.
I'm not saying it's easy, and it's definitely harder for women. Because there is definitely a double standard about gorgeous older men, and it's different for older women.
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.
My family didn't have money to travel, so reading was how I knew about the world. It made me hungry to have more experiences than just what I could possibly experience in Arkansas.
I used to think I was going to die wise, and now, the one wisdom I have is I know very little.
Let me put it this way. There is more to acting than just acting like somebody. I like to act in such a way that other people get some notion of what it's like to be somebody.
As an actress, my best tools are my emotions and expressions.
Ultimately, there are only two emotions: love and fear. And pretty much anything else you want to name can be broken down into one of those.
I didn't work for a year and a half after 'Melvin and Howard' because all I was being offered was silly parts.
I'm real strong, and I'm also real feminine, and I don't find a struggle having those two things under one roof.
My heritage, many generations back, is Dutch and it was fun to go where nobody asked me how to pronounce my name.
I've found that most people who studied when they were little, even if they never took another tap class, it's percussive, so it stays in your body, the muscle memory of it.
I think the secret to what Jim Henson did, ultimately, is that he understood how to cut through to the... I know this sounds corny... but the child inside of you.
As an actor, you're always looking for, what do I get to do? It's not just what do I say, but what do I do, too.
I know that's why I became an actress. In my dream world, I could get mad and scream and yell, and if somebody died, they got up again. In real life, I didn't dare try it.
We don't want to be reminded that life ends at some point, so they don't put older people on the screen.
I've done little things, including Botox, but it didn't feel right for me.
At one point, I kind of looked in the mirror and said, 'You know, you're a mom. You're a wife. People count on you; you can't go off the deep end into this kind of crazy musical swirl.'
There's a grace about the South and a toughness about it, too.
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.
I wasn't making any money, but I didn't feel unsuccessful because of that. You can do that in New York but not in Hollywood. In Hollywood, it is how much money you make.
I'd already made the decision before I'd even read it-just because it was John Sayles. Then when I read it, the themes were actually themes that have been a big part of my life.
There's a style to doing period pieces, and you can't do a Western without understanding 'My Darling Clementine.'
Writing is essentially an internal process.
I have hundreds of songs.
I don't consider myself much of a singer. I'm a writer first.
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 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 want women, especially young women, to create a world where your success is not based on being young.
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 wrote my first song when I was 54 years old.
Essential oils are extremely important to me.
I don't know how I could plan my career.
My mother was a gorgeous person with no vanity, but she was a really good soul.
