Catherine Keener Quotes (41 Quotes)

If you look at the parts... they are really great parts, and the writing is always great, and the people that I've been able to work with are amazing.

For a long time Dermot worked more, and I would always go on location with him... Dermot did all the work-I think he commuted maybe 10 times between flying to Omaha from Toronto. It takes effort when you're both working, but we try not to work at the same time.

My work environment has always been very safe and very warm, so I have the freedom to speak directly to my friend,s and vice-versa.

I read the script about five times, out loud, and I still had no idea what it meant.

Your head shouldn't swell about it. You can't take it personally.

These days there are a lot of people who just want to be famous. I think that comes from a naive place, because those people generally don't know what it's like.

I don't think I'm very ambitious at all. But I seem to play people who have that quality.

I'm unqualified for anything else. I'm barely qualified for this.

I think people are always looking for a good comedy.

I just never fantasized about Mr. Rogers, but I like his whole vibe.

It does help that Dermot is an actor. I hate having to care about that stuff. But I know it's legitimate and he appreciates what the ramifications are.

I don't see him as a total nerd, ... I think he's a regular guy who got freaked out about sex early on, because people do. And I think he's just kind of a normal guy who collects action figures.

The people who make those movies tend to be studios, because they need a lot of money to do it, and those people don't hire me.

If you give a character room to breathe, they come alive.

I've worked with a lot of great directors.

You know, Salma Hayek is a great cook, and she's a friend... She's an amazing cook. If she opened up a restaurant, I would so get in on the coattails.

Sometimes it just doesn't translate to people. You just move on, and you feel bad because people worked so hard on it and everyone loved it... Everybody was treated so well and was going for something and trying to do the best work possible.

I encounter really tough men and women who are just so harsh, you can't bend them. You do come across these kinds of people in every profession-just unyielding.

When you make-believe, you're somebody else. As an adult, I think people have a fascination with acting, as well. A lot of people I know would love to act, and it's all in a very kind of innocent way. It's so much fun to do different things. To experience new things all the time.

I'm pretty organized. I'm pretty controlling. I don't have big plans or designs. But I don't rely on a Palm Pilot or help or other technology-no I'm barely good with emailing and a fax machine. I organize things in my head I have a pretty good memory, so that helps me out a lot.

I'm not a public figure at all. I don't really go out a lot to places where there are people like those who sit at the bottom of your driveway.

The celebrity-making machine-photographers, paparazzi, press and stuff like that-can be ruthless.

They had a really strong love for each other. They were best friends as kids, and she protected him.

The more people involved in making a movie, the worse it is, generally.

Insecurity is just something that's there all the time. I've never been crippled by it.

I was an English and history major, and I was in a class that culminated in a play at the end of the semester for Father's Weekend-we had a thing at our college called Father's Weekend where we all paid tribute to our fathers.

The movies I'm in not a lot of people see, but it's alright.

I thought you weren't going to go there.

The movies I usually do are maybe three or four weeks because they don't have a lot of money.

In these situations that I've been involved in, people are going toward a common goal, which is to do good work. The crew will go out of their way to make you feel comfortable and give you an encouraging pat on the back. Everybody just works toward that objective, and it's really helpful in a performance. It's dire for me.

If you work in casting, it's sort of not cool to want to act. A lot of people think that casting directors are frustrated actors, but it wasn't true with any of the casting people I knew.

It's important for me to connect with the script and to know after meeting the director if it's a person I'm going to feel unguarded around.

It does indicate something. It indicates that that person of a large profile feels strongly about it ... and is then endorsing it virtually by being in it. I don't know if that means that everyone will like it or that it's better necessarily, but it means that that person you like, who's a big star, is willing to put all of this lifestyle that they're accustomed to aside for something they want to do, which is always good to me. I always would rather see something people want to do, as opposed to something that they should.

I know many great actors who have small heads.

When I was in college, at Wheaton-I inadvertently got cast in a play, and I had a really great time doing it. I didn't know I had any knack for it, but I really enjoyed myself. It was a complete surprise.

Most times when people pitch you as being perfect for a part... they don't look at you as an actor who can transform. A lot of people are so literal.

I... had guys on the set who didn't like me... they weren't interested in the cold character.

I haven't had a lot of time to reflect on what's just happened, but I do know that it was really good and I'm very happy with all the jobs. It wasn't intentional that I kind of wanted to mix it up a little bit. But I did know - I was aware of this - a couple years back of starting to be perceived as this tough, urban, blah blah blah. One person writes that and then another person will and then it becomes true. I didn't feel that way. I felt like everybody was different.

I'm paranoid, anyway.

It occurred to me that it would be interesting to be a man for a short amount of time, just to see if there actually is a difference in the way that we think and feel, like people are always talking about. I don't really know that there's a difference, because I've only been a woman.

I have a hard time visualizing anything, which is why I'm not a director, and which is why I try to work with ones I know have a strong idea in mind.