Vera Farmiga

"I found I was really comfortable taking on a different personality. It saved me from myself, in a way."

"I think the worst thing that can happen to a good actor is fame. The limelight is a tricky place, because you cant believe whats going on around you. You stop observing. You stop perceiving. You stop extending yourself, and you become isolated. Our duty as actors is to remain compassionate and curious. Fame complicates all that."

"Its just an incredible gift, giving birth. I never felt so empowered, so powerful, so womanly as I did after I gave birth. I felt more feminine than I ever had in my life."

"As an actor, youre sort of the court-appointed lawyer for the character. And thats what used to draw me to scripts – something in a woman that I wanted to defend, something that I recognized or wanted to understand, something that turned my head."

"Ive gravitated towards independent cinema because you have to work harder in studio scripts to flesh out characters, particularly female ones. They are not as sharply edged, they tend to be quite watery. They are not renderings of women as I know them."

"I have a two-year-old who just turned three, and my four-year-old just turned five. I have the same irrational feelings taking them to pre-school. Its this charged combination of stress and joy and anxiety and excitement. When theyre away, youve got a sudden loss of purpose and this ever-present fear about the kids welfare. The departure of our children from our nest is not an easy thing."

"I just wanted to study how to portray clairvoyance, and I finally took an ocular approach. She has these beautiful blue eyes and her gaze is gently penetrating. All the obvious stuff about her you can find online but I wanted more of the nitty-gritty, like how did it affect her sex life? If youre domestic ballbuster by day and a ghostbuster by night, how does that affect your home life? I opted not to go down to their museum of the occult that they maintain in the basement, Patrick and I both. We stayed upstairs."

"Faith is important to me. I wanted to make sure the tone was reverent. Im just someone who marvels at God. I grew up Catholic, but Im very comfortable in all religions."

"My husband watched it live online and I was awakened with coffee and the good news. Hes my biggest fan and he was really rooting for this to happen."

"No! The other thing, that God brought us together for a reason."

"There are some times when I think acting can be a noble profession."