I love Saturday nights with my best friend and a big bowl of pasta, wanting a good scare, something that will say, ‘Listen, your life is not as bad as this. Your life can be...

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.

The limelight is a tricky place, because you can’t believe what’s going on around you. You stop observing. You stop perceiving. You stop extending yourself, and you become isolated.

My only real advice to Oscar nominees is, ‘If you haven’t actually seen a competitor’s film, don’t fib and say you have and blow smoke up their wahooziewhatsits.’ Always best to be frank and tell...

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

I just can’t feel lukewarm about a character. I either despise her, admire her, or don’t understand her and want to understand her.

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

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

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.

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.

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...

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

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’ve played a lot of mothers in my movies.

I’m from the school of, ‘if you want more, you have to require more from yourself.’

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.

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.

We’re all sick of holy wars and bloodshed because religion is supposed to give us life and a better life and is supposed to bring out our best self. When it results in mass destruction...

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

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

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

In the quiet moments, the discoveries are made.

Faith is important to me.