Vera Farmiga Quotes

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.

Partying has never been my thing. I've been around some wild people. I've been in the same room and watched them experiment, and that's been entertaining.

The more people know about you, the more face-time you get in the media, the harder your job becomes to create a character in whom people suspend disbelief.

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.

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

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

Am I ambitious? I used to be afraid of that word but now I think ambition is a good thing.

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.

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

Do I observe holy days and holidays? Yeah, the ritual is very important to me. It's part of being Ukrainian Catholic. So every holy day we're baking pierogis and not eating meat.

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?'

I don't have a caustic sense of humor. What I find funny, that humor comes from a much gentler place.

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

I always thought Uncle Vanya could be a stoned masterpiece.

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."

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 thinking about anything and everything. I'm making stuff up in my head, I'm using sense memory. Sometimes when it doesn't come and you've got no choice because you're getting paid to do it, you grasp at straws. It's always easy now with my kids. I just create some "what-ifs" in my head, something horrible that would devastate me as a mother.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

When you're breastfeeding a child, you don't have the same retention as you do when you're not.

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

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

Faith is important to me.

Do I pray? Yes. Prayer is very important to me.

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.

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

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.

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

There are some times when I think acting can be a noble profession. And when those rare roles come along, like Down to the Bone, you have the opportunity to be of service.

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.

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

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

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

I bet you could look at every single thing I've ever done and reduce it to that parenting schematic.

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