Kathy Bates Quotes

"The Oscar changed everything. Better salary, working with better people, better projects, more exposure, less privacy."

My mother used to tell this corny story about how the doctor smacked me on the behind when I was born and I thought it was applause, and I have been looking for it ever since.

"When I was told Terry Bradshaw would be playing my husband, I was like `The star-quarterback Terry Bradshaw?`." (on playing Terry Bradshaw`s movie wife in Failure to Launch (2006)).

It was also wonderful to have the prospect of playing with Jack Nicholson. It was a terrific part, a terrific script, with Alexander Payne and Jack Nicholson. You can`t get any better than that!

Alexander Payne`s very specific. His scripts are always complete when you start working on them.

I was never an ingénue. I`ve always just been a character actor. When I was younger, it was a real problem, because I was never pretty enough. It was hard, not just for the lack of work, but because you have to face up to how people are looking at you.

I try to always stretch myself to fit the characters that have been presented.

I look for a role that hopefully I feel empathy with and that I can understand and love, but also that has that challenge for me to play-a different kind of role, a different type of character, a different time period.

Every time an Oscar is given out, an agent gets his wings.

I think that being in an environment is a much richer experience than just working on a soundstage.

Jack made it very comfortable for me on the set. We`d met socially before but never worked together. You know, he`s very professional, very disciplined and he`s always prepared and knows his lines.

(On losing the role of Frankie, which had been written for her by playwright Terrence McNally, to Michelle Pfeiffer in the movie version of "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune") "I thought it was wonderful to see a love story about people over forty, ordinary people who were trying to connect. We haven`t seen it before, and I don`t think we will see it with this movie Frankie and Johnny (1991)."