Vera Farmiga Quotes

I've always believed that if you are precise in your thoughts, it's not the lines you say that are important - it's what exists between the lines. What I'm compelled by most is that transparency of thought, what is left unspoken.

I think that films about faith made for faith-based communities have a certain tactic.

When I look at female characters, I want to recognize myself in them: my trials, my tribulations as a mother, as a lover, as a daughter.

I bring myself innately to it, yeah. I bring those details as much as I - what I don't obsess over is, there are certain ways I might've pushed it even a little more. For example, [to Warren] your accent. I know Warner Bros. at one point came in. I don't know, until you came to set, I know I wore that long tartan skirt and the ruffled blouse for that.

Chekhov, when it's done well and you're ready for it, can actually be quite funny.

I just want to make sure that the thing that I see in it initially, that I think it can be, is not just going to be a horror film and reduced to a jump here and a scream there. But that you can take something away from it.

Patrick sort of had a very pragmatic, practical, Ed-like approach and went down to see.

I just hate one-dimensional portrayals of religion; it's too cheap and easy to do, and ignores the nuances that go into having a belief system.

I spent a lot of time reading blogs by mothers who had children with varying degrees of neural dysfunction, from schizophrenia to all sorts of different issues. And honestly, I don't think it's different for anybody. There's no right way to make sure your child will be emotionally and mentally healthier. It's just frustrating.

I was very studious and square in college.

My husband is my best friend; he knows my sensibilities.

We take a lot for granted as second wave feminists, what our mothers and aunts did for us.

It's a delicate thing for me, with how involved I am in social media and being a part of people's lives in a way that they want me to.

We are all seekers in some way. There are those of us who think they have all the answers and there are those of us who may never get an answer.

I think maybe I was a shepherdess in a past life.

I'm someone who can sit in a Buddhist temple, and I can sit with Pentecostals or with Orthodox Jews, and I still feel like I am in tune with all of them.

I hate being manipulated by song. Don't tell me what I should be feeling. I don't want cellos or violins to be telling me that I should be bawling right now.

I have tender, romantic associations with upstate New York.

I've never graced the cover of a fashion magazine.

But I think for me, why I was drawn to the piece is, at the core of the story, it's a love story to me - between Ed and Lorraine, between these two families who are asking for help and us who are in the business of giving help.

I'm a full-time mom. I've never felt as prepared, as before maternity.

Offers come all the time, but I'm pretty particular. I really have to be wowed by a character I encounter in a script, or a storyline. I really do need to feel inspiration, otherwise I'm just happy planting perennials and making goat cheese.

Your soul either feels lifted by something that you read, or it feels squashed by it.

It's true: I don't remember what life was like before parenthood.

To me representing clairvoyance, how was I going to achieve that, how I was going to capture that? For me, it all became about her gaze and the way she takes you in. It's a rhythmic thing and a stillness thing to consider but these are little details, little nuances. We were invited to the sanctity of her home and there were roosters running around and she's screaming, "Jackie, be quiet!" Even though she's in the middle of the thing. And these are the details that we wanted to incorporate into our story.

Ruminants are a perfectly normal thing to possess when you live in upstate New York. It's just moving scenery. It's kind of like the equivalent of Great Danes. It's the way you keep your grass mowed. It's the way you keep your weed-whacking to a minimum.

Yeah, I think it's like any God-given gift. You writers have the gift of perception. If you don't use it, you're going to lose it. And it's the same thing with you [Lorraine], it's God-given.

I have a lot of frustration with religion, organized religion, because it's man-made, because it's man-regulated. And it has nothing to do with my relationship with God.

Sometimes music helps. If I feel that it's bogus, I'll literally just call myself out on camera and say that it's dishonest. You do whatever it takes.

I don't necessarily need Hollywood.

When you encounter sophistication in the creation of a female character, you thank the writers and you claim it.

You earn very little money on independent films and I'm the provider for my home, so I do have to think of taking one for the accountant time and again and that means studio pictures.

I chase after inspiring stories.

The Ukrainian community is tight-knit by nature.

I can't do Los Angeles. I've always been the anti-Barbie. I don't want to be in a place where almost every woman walks around with puffy lips, little noses and breasts large enough to nourish a small country.

I have the best husband a wife could possibly have. He's the best father my children could have.

Whether we call it religion or faith, we all battle for a balanced integrated soul.

Honesty is not synonymous with truth.

I always thought Uncle Vanya could be a stoned masterpiece.

It's terrifying to be the lead. There's a moment of excitement, and then pure terror.

I'm pretty squeaky clean. No big tragedies in my childhood or adolescence or adulthood. I've had a very easygoing, simple life.

Faith is important to me.

The writers could always do an about-face and change everything

Whenever I wore it there were some questions whether the outfit was just too over the top. I'm like, "Do you know who you're dealing with here, and her eccentricities, her style, her flair?" These little things were sometimes those - I love it. I love having a real-life model. But I also do flush it out with my own personal experiences and my own essence, and hopefully they mesh together.

My personality is just innately even-keeled. I'm not such a huge daredevil. Which is not to say I'm not a passionate woman. I don't know, maybe it's my physiological makeup, but I don't like the feeling of anything in my system, other than a glass of wine now and then.

Editing yourself is like an irksome coin toss. You've got to strip yourself of super ego and operate from the id. Maybe I've got my Freud mixed up. It's just hard to trade a beauty shot for the performance with truth and a brightly lit zit.

I grew up in a Christian home. The strictness comes with religion in general. Whether you grew up Jewish or Orthodox Jewish or Muslim, there are certain rules and regulations. But my parents instilled in me the importance of defining God for yourself.

I'm just someone who marvels at God.

Normally, I rely heavily on my director to massage me out of my actor comfort zones.

Editing is not a part of the filmmaking process I've ever been privy to as an actress.

Someone once told me that religion is like a knife: You can stab someone with it, or you can slice bread with it.

I'm part wood nymph. I require mountains and warm, dense patches of moss to thrive.

I think all religions can agree on certain definitions of God and concepts of God, like God being the god of love, the great 'I am' energy.

I can't get my knickers in a twist about my age and ageing in an industry that caters to the ids of 14-year-olds.

My father instilled in me - of utmost importance and innate in me is the yearning to determine for myself - to define God, to define holiness for myself.

I've never felt the breath of God - you can take that statement literally or metaphorically - more than when I was yearning for a personal, intimate connection to something bigger than me.

The biggest research of all when I do a character is self-examination. You look at yourself and you ask, 'How am I similar to this person and how am I different?'

There's just a deeper level of sophistication in the writing of female characters on TV.

The fears and anxieties and obsessions wrapped up in being a parent.

Esquire needs to be more like a mommy blog

I grew up in a Ukrainian Catholic-turned-Christian household, and that is my family's faith.

No role is more challenging, rewarding and inspiring than my real-life role as a mom and a wife.

I rely on my directors, a lot. I love being directed.

I've played a lot of mothers in my movies.

I didn't grow up watching film but as a Ukrainian-American, music and stories and dance are crucial.

Esquire's all about mommy issues now. Breastfeeding, vaccinations, playdate etiquette.

Music is what our feelings sound like.

Honestly, I think a good film is spiritual, regardless of whether its subject is faith.

I feel my fuller-bodied characters are all in the independent films I do, and in the studio productions, I have to work harder to dimensionalize the characters. And that's certainly part of the job description of an actor - that's what you're supposed to do - but you have to work harder at it in the characters that I've encountered in studio films.

Whether you're making a million dollar film or a $100 million film there is never enough money, there's never enough time.

There really are three types of 'religious' movies: the ones that make fun of it, the ones that vilify it and the ones that literally preach to the converted.

I come from a massive family, and the youngest is twentysomething years younger than I am, so I grew up with children.

I just wanted to make sure that yes, that those horror - they worked as a genre. To me, I just wanted to be touched by the film in the way that I saw plausible. Which is the story about compassion - giving and receiving it in those desperate times of need.

I do love directing. I'm only comfortable working in the independent film arena for a very small budget where I have creative control and I can put my stamp on it.

In the quiet moments, the discoveries are made.

I listened more than I asked. There's a lot of information online, so many Youtube videos, countless interviews with all those obvious questions that were all answered for me. I just wanted to absorb her essence. I wanted to see the details, she has such mad style. I just wanted to see - the way she communicates with her hands, these gestures, her smile, how she moves through space.

I, for one, am tired of seeing movies about men damaging each other.

You don't necessarily have to be religious to pray.

In these times, in this harsh, rude, warring world that we live in, where most of the bloodshed is 'My god is greater than your god,' and we're fighting in the name of our god, we have to find a way to peaceably coexist, spiritually.

Sometimes I attract roles that are necessary either for personal growth or enlightenment.

I'm incredibly spiritual. There are like tens of thousands of denominations; I don't fit in any one of those denominations comfortably. But I have a very personal relationship with God.

I look for struggle in the roles I choose - struggle and perseverance.

I'm saying that the depth of exploration of the male psyche and the female psyche is uneven. I see further, deeper renderings of what it means to be a man.

I'm hooked on Polanski's films, his psychological thrillers. I love 'Rosemary's Baby,' I love 'Repulsion.'

I was a Ukrainian folk dancer in my teens, and I toured the country in 1991, shortly before the break-up of the Soviet Union.

I am drawn to intimate, often uncomfortable portraits of a woman persevering and awakening.

I've done TV, but never where you're given this much time to live with a character, to study the tone and hone it and repair stuff, to go back and watch old episodes and go, "Oh no, that's a misstep. That's a victory. I should do more of that, less of that."

I cherish each director that I have. I want to be maneuvered out of my comfort zones. I don't have the time to prepare.