Movie stars have careers - actors work, and then they don`t work, and then they work again.

I`m a character actress, plain and simple.

I don`t think of myself as a movie star and I can pretty easily convince other people that I`m not a movie star.

On "women`s pictures": "Most women`s pictures are as boring and as formulaic as men`s pictures. In place of a car chase or a battle scene, what you get is an extreme closeup of a woman breaking down. I cry too, maybe three times a week, but it`s not in closeup. It`s a wide shot. It`s in the context of a very large and very mean world."

It`s a scary thing going into the workforce with a $50,000 debt and you`ve been trained as a classical theatre actor. There`s always a depression in the theatre.

I`m a character actress, plain and simple...Who can worry about a career? Have a life. Movie stars have careers - actors work, and then they don`t work, and then they work again.

On playing `mothers`: "Those roles weren`t just mothers in a story about a male protagonist. First they were specific, three-dimensional people."

With most people when there`s a pain in their life there`s mental scar tissue that forms over the pain and helps you go on living. An actor`s scar tissue really never covers over things the same way, not if you`re going to be sensitive. With good technique, an actor can do that and walk through life without going insane.

There`s only two givens with choosing acting as a profession: one is you will always be unemployed, always, and it doesn`t matter how much money you make, you`re still always going to be unemployed; and that you have no power.

The fact that I`m sleeping with the director may have something to do with it.

Who can worry about a career? Have a life.

[On how she got the part in Fargo (1996)] "The fact that I`m sleeping with the director may have something to do with it."

I don`t think you can ever completely transform yourself on film, but if you do your job well, you can make people believe that you`re the character you`re trying to be.

The only power you have is the word no.

I never trusted good-looking boys.

I am an ordinary person.

I`m a character actress, plain and simple... Who can worry about a career? Have a life. Movie stars have careers - actors work, and then they don`t work, and then they work again.

It`s much easier to play supporting roles because that`s what I do in my life: I support my son.

I like hard rock, and classic rock, and even metal.

You have to get away from the theater or from the set and live life. If you work constantly from job to job, you`re living in a fantasy world and you have nothing else to offer than fantasy.

I haven`t wanted to play a mother for a long time because I am one.

Most women`s pictures are as boring and as formulaic as men`s pictures. In place of a car chase or a battle scene, what you get is an extreme closeup of a woman breaking down.

Certainly, a lot of the films I`ve worked on have ended up good movies, but they haven`t always been the best experiences.