Mary Steenburgen Quotes

I've always kind of ripped from real life to some degree or at least how I'm feeling in the moment. In fact, maybe that's really it. In anything I've ever written, all the characters sound like me, which I don't think is a bad thing.

I always write my music based on what is going on in my life at the time.

I just sit down and the page just comes out and I look at it and the elements that appear on that page have a lot to do with what's going on in my life.

Sometimes I'm asked if I do research for my stories. The answer is yes and no. No, in the sense that I seldom plow through books at the library to gather material. Yes, in the sense that the first fifteen years of my life turned out to be one big research project.

None of my own experiences ever finds its way into my work. However, the stages of my life - motherhood, middle age, etc. - often influence my subject matter.

Music is a big part of my life. I listen to different genres, and I choose the music that will inspire the next part of my story.

I've always kind of ripped from real life to some degree or at least how I'm feeling in the moment.

I think real life reflects your movies. In your life, you pick stuff that influences what movie roles you wanna pick. I think if you've got an interesting life, you wanna do interesting movies about interesting things.

The songs are not necessarily autobiographical. A lot of songs are a combination of influences. It might be some part of my life, or something I've felt, or something somebody's told me. It all comes together.

I always like to write where I'm at in real life into whatever I'm working on.

Sometimes I write about my own life. And sometimes I write about situations I see my friends going through. Sometimes I write about a scene I saw in a movie. I take inspiration from all different places.

I think probably I've been influenced by Chekhov and Walt Disney, if you see what I mean.

My music has been inspired by true events in my life.

I swear, you are the only person I know who makes decisions based on what will provide the best material for a diary.

Well, there's two things that happen when people experience something, whether it's a song, a television show, a film, a book or any piece of art. It connects them to a certain part of their life and whatever was going on at that time in their life.

I originally went to school to be a filmmaker. And so it's a big part of how I think and how I write. And it inspires me a lot.

Let's face it: a lot of my material comes from the stuff that happens to me on the road.

Every time I think I know what's right and wrong, I end up being wrong. All I want to do is explore. I want to see what people would do. I say, 'What would this person do in this situation?' and I write it down. I'm not writing manifestos of my political views.

I would never make a purely autobiographical movie, because it would be incredibly boring. But I always bring something. It's usually some emotional truth I've experienced, like in 'Get Him to the Greek,' the relationship between Jonah Hill and Elisabeth Moss, I had certainly had that kind of relationship with a girlfriend.

My music is inspired by my life: the people in my life, the people I have relationships with, the people I love, the people that make me feel something.

People think that I have some idea about how I choose my films. I make sure that I am doing the kind of films that I want to watch. You hear so many stories, and one of them will stand out and connect to you somewhere.

I have a huge note on my phone where things just start popping up. It doesn't make that much sense to me at the time, but once a song is finished, I can read into it and figure out who the characters are in my life.

The songs I write and the way I see the world have been affected a certain amount since I became a father.

Mani Ratnam is my biggest inspiration.

I take inspiration from my own experiences and from other people's experiences.