Vera Farmiga Quotes

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

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

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 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.

The nature of evil, the nature of it, it exists. It exists and I think within us we have the tools. If we have the will, we can combat it. I think the power is within us and it lies in our own conceptualization of God and positivity and compassion and love.

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

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

I have tender, romantic associations with upstate New York.

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 so much worse.’

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

The Ukrainian community is tight-knit by nature.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Faith is important to me.

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.

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.

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

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 and hatred and anxiety, it’s the antithesis I think of what religion was designed to do.

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

I’m just someone who marvels at God.

Music is what our feelings sound like.

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’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.

As an actor, you’re sort of the court-appointed lawyer for the character.

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

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 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.

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

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

You dont necessarily have to be religious to pray.

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

There are women who make things better, there are women who change things, there are women who make things happen, who make a difference. I want to be one of those women.

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.

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 think I always try to be accommodating and open and available and proving for my director. I love to give as many takes as they want. I love to give them as many choices as they want.

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

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 don’t necessarily need Hollywood.

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.

I think the worst thing that can happen to a good actor is fame.

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

Doubt is the middle position between knowledge and ignorance. It encompasses cynicism but also genuine questioning.

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

There’s no wrong way to experience a film.

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

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

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

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

You dont have to be gay to be attracted to your friend.

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

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

I love to be surprised.

I think God gave us senses of humor, and we should use them.

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

In the quiet moments, the discoveries are made.

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

I chase after inspiring stories.