Bonnie Hunt
There's nothing funnier than religion. Try explaining it to a kid. I had it all wrong when I was a kid.Collection: Religion
If you're authentic, people smile because they sense there's a piece of themselves there.Collection: Smile
There were seven kids in our family. My mom had seven kids in 10 years. So you had to learn how to talk and think fast if you wanted to be heard.Collection: Mom
I was very down as a teenager, very upset because I had gotten hurt in a car accident. But my dad was a source of strength. He used to say, 'It's the character with strength that God gives the most challenges to.' I've thought about that so many times in my life when things didn't go right.Collection: Dad
Improvisation, if you play it at the top of your intelligence, leads to a kind of truth that people find really accessible.Collection: Intelligence
When the Pixar people call, you jump at the opportunity.
I'm from an Irish Catholic family.
Not only do people stop me on the street to say, 'We're walking, we're walking', but I have actually been in restaurants where the hostess was saying it to customers.
When you're an actress, you are a part of the storytelling process. You have to do the same thing when you direct.
I'm a blue-collar Chicago girl raised on wonderful movies my mom took us to, ones that had a lot of heart.
My dad was a man of great wisdom in his short time here.
My only power is my ability to do something with passion and do it well. It's also something someone cannot take way from me, so it's very valuable.
I don't have the fear I won't be able to think of something else to write. It's what I do.
I don't have the fear of my looks changing.
If an executive producer has written a certain line, and an actress says it, and it's not very funny, you don't dare go to them and say, 'I don't like this,' because it will make your life miserable.
When you're the mom in a big family comedy, you have to get your personality when you can.
Over the years, if you look at the films of people like Billy Wilder, Preston Sturges, Frank Capra, their supporting characters, even if it's a doorman with two lines, always seem three-dimensional. To me, that's a sign of good storytelling.
I think you have to see the high highs and the low lows to get to the core of what makes us tick as people.
I loved when my folks would watch 'The Dean Martin Show.'
Because I've been so blessed with a background in nursing and spent so much time with patients at a really intimate, vulnerable time in their lives, the one lesson I've learned is that you never turn down a challenge where you can keep your creative integrity and your heart and soul and your sense of self.
To have children on the set, you realize that if a 10-year-old can do it, who are you kidding? It humbles you.
I love talking to people and finding out their opinion.
If you can maintain your standards and your integrity and you fail, it's OK. It's when you sell out and you fail that you feel pretty sick inside.
Barry Levinson saw me on a tape and put me in 'Rain Man' as the waitress who dropped the toothpicks. The scene was talked about a lot. Then, all of a sudden, I started to get more auditions.
I think what happens is that some writers, who are so great in television or whatever, once they become successful, they get out of the loop of real life. It's real hard to draw on something to write.
I really appreciate the everyday stuff as far as material.
I lived in an apartment near Wrigley Field.
If I've learned one thing in life, it's: Stand for something or you'll fall for anything.
I thought of school as a captive audience. It gave me a chance to work on my material.
What kind of woman irons her husband's sheets? Even the clothes I wear, I just throw 'em in the dryer with some golf balls.
I grew up in a working-class neighborhood, so there was always a sense of struggle, but we had hope.
My home is in Chicago, but I have an apartment in Los Angeles.
Would I like to be the lead girl? Who wouldn't?
I still have my bad days when I think I'm not getting everything I deserve. But those pass quickly once my Mother gets on the phone and says, 'listen, we used to eat rocks and walk 80 miles a day to school.
Hollywood is what you make it; you have to choose company with care because you become what they are.
I think families are so great, because when you go home, no matter what you've accomplished in your life, you still are the person you were in sixth grade to them. You know, it never really changes.
When you fail by your own standards, it's a form of success.
I won't wear fur - never, ever. I'm an animal lover. I wouldn't even wear faux fur. I prefer to go the cheap route and not shave my legs.
But I'm thrilled to be employed, and to work with all my friends and people that I admire. You're just lucky to work - that's the bottom line.
I don't think this is the end of Oprah, it's only the beginning. I have a feeling that she'll probably have her own station, and continue to do what she does.
Oprah was not somebody who was telling us what to do, she wasn't really teaching us like so many people we see today. With Oprah, she was learning and we were learning with her. And I think that's really was the seed that was planted for all of us to just hang in there with her.
I've been so fortunate in my career and my own life just to have all these opportunities, and the talk show has always been one of my favorite formats.
The first time I was on 'Johnny Carson,' I remember being so scared, but the minute he started talking to me, I felt a little more comfortable because I just knew he was going to take care of me. Hopefully, I have learned something from watching him for so many years that I can offer that to a guest.
I don't know if I realized that I was funny, but I realized how healing and important humor was in my childhood.
Everybody knows when you're a struggling family; you don't really know it when you're a kid. But you do know the difference between stress and moments of relief where there's, like, this happiness.
I was a good kid.
I live in this apartment building, and everybody who lives there thinks of me as a housewife. People drop their babies off with me. Or I get notes: 'I'm going to be gone for three days. The keys are under the mat; take care of the cats.' Because they all think I'm home all the time.
I'm right on the edge of getting another movie. It's between me and a famous person. The studio said they're thinking about going with somebody with a name. I said, 'That's great! Because I have one!'
I don't understand the rewarding of behavior that is less than classy. I don't get it.
I don't write punch lines.