Marcia Gay Harden

I'm fortunate to have a team of people who help me. I've got an assistant, an office manager, a nanny - she's not full-time, but she's there when I need her.

It's hard to balance work and family.

I've never really liked horror films.

You've got to understand what makes the character human.

Shakespeare set a lot of his dramas in a historical perspective or war perspective, or he would study what was going on at that time.

They tell us in magazines and in ads, 'Oh, you should look like this, you should wear this, you should look like this movie star, or you're nothing.' And so we're all totally unsatisfied.

Oh, I just love being a character actress. You have a lot of fun, and not only that, you save tons on cosmetic surgery because you never have to have liposuction.

I loved playing Anne Bancroft, because she was so wonderfully arch.

I just never wanted to be too much in the background. I always wanted to be a part of things.

I think to visualize failure as you're starting off is really a bad thing to do.

The only thing that seemed to me I could do in such a way that no one else could was acting. I thought, I can be a doctor, but there's going to be someone else who is just as good or better. I can be a lawyer, which I still sometimes think I would love to be, but I think there's someone who can do it just as good or better.

In my kids' school, the married family is an anomaly... which I do think is sad. I do believe in marriage.

I've been so lucky to work with some great, great writers: Tony Kushner and Yasmina Reza.

Working on 'King Of Texas' was a life experience for me.

If you think someone committed a crime, you should turn them in to whomever you perceive authority to be.

After I won the Oscar for 'Pollock,' some newspaper printed, 'She should get a million-dollar bump.' My sisters would write me, 'You're gonna get this million-dollar bump!'

In any film, there are 10 male roles for 1 female role, especially in the action films. They're heavy with the guys.

The trophy wife must be in her 20s to earn the title 'trophy wife.'

I've had an amazing career and amazing blessings. But I'm an everyday person, and I have lived an everyday life, and I drive an everyday car.

You want people - I want people to relate to me as a character. I want them to go, 'That could have been me,' or, 'I know someone like that.'