Vera Farmiga

“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.”

“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.”

“There's no wrong way to experience a film.”

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

“Whether we call it religion or faith, we all battle for a balanced integrated soul.”

“Faith is important to me.”

“I think that films about faith made for faith-based communities have a certain tactic.”

“It's a very different thing, religion and faith. Religion is man-made, it's man-regulated. And faith, you can define God as you wish. But I think they're two different things.”

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

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

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

“You earn very little money on independent films and I'm the provider for my home, so I do have to think of taking one for the accountant time and again and that means studio pictures.”

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

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

“I've played a lot of mothers in my movies.”

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

“Music is what our feelings sound like.”

“The Ukrainian community is tight-knit by nature.”

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

“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.”

“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 have tender, romantic associations with upstate New York.”