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ON HER CAREER
"I think it's great. It makes me feel like wow because I think I am a simple person in so many ways. I love my
work, I love what I do so all this icing on the cake is very good." - on being nominated for and winning awards
"I want to make real good choices, to stretch myself, to be a really good human. I want to live life as art."
"I don't want to be one of these actors who can't act anymore because they don't live."
"If you really let yourself live and have a lot of experiences, then those things don't leave you; they're part of
you. Every character I play is a part of me. I never really feel like I'm making anything up."
"I'm enjoying playing characters who aren't particularly nice in nature or who are really troubled. I do think in
every character I've played there are aspects in my soul that I can relate to, and I try not to be afraid of those things."
"I used to feel like such a fraud, but now I feel that I'm worthy of this. It comes with age and experience." - on
getting recognition for her work.
ON HER FILMS
"I think I take a film because I'm in the process of discovering something about myself."
"When I see the trailers for the film, I'm like, Oh my God! There's so many tits.
Whose are they? 'Cause only one of us has them. You see them sliding down the bar to
the music, just to get everyone excited. Believe it or not, there's a real story to this
movie...though you do see a lot of hot girls dancing as well." - on Coyote Ugly
"When I was pregnant I gained 70 pounds, and I made 'The Cooler' when Jack [Bello's son] was only a year old, so my
body was quite different than it usually is. And for woman to come up to me and say things like 'Thank you for putting
a real ass on the screen' meant so much to me. As much as we don't like to admit it sometimes, I think we have a
responsibility in Hollywood to young woman. They see us as role models, and I'm happy that my butt was a role model
for some." (2004)
ON LIFE
"I think one question can kind of encompass everything, which is what is my destiny? I've thought that since I
was a young kid. And every day more, now I'm really realizing that the unfolding of a journey is an answer in
itself. There's no end point that you get to and go, that's the one thing I'm supposed to be doing." - on the
essential question she's trying to answer
ON LOVE
"The whole idea of monogamy is nonsensical to me. I suppose I understand the idea of a lifelong helpmate and friend.
But when you have to stay sexually monogamous to this one person, I think it's usually a big fat lie." (2006)
ON MOTHERHOOD AND FAMILY
"After I had my son, the moment he came out of my body, I felt more love than I ever could have imagined,
and more fear than I ever could have imagined. Because I can't even go to the space to think of if something
happened to Jack, what I would do." - on becoming a mother
"I don't think you understand what levels or what fears until you have a child of your own. I mean, I've never
loved someone so much and I've never been so afraid in my life. And the truth is I would kill someone, whoever
tried to hurt him. I would. I have no doubt about it." - on the lengths a mother would go to to protect her child
ON EVERYTHING ELSE
"I'm the same exact person I was when I worked at Tartine, but a lot less bitchy, probably. Did you know I got
pegged the worst waitress in the city? Some magazine wrote that in a review of the restaurant." (1997)
"The thing is I don't separate a character's sexuality from what she eats for breakfast. I'm not interested
in living that cliché and living in that puritanical nature of things. I don't think that sexuality is
something separate. It is like it has become a shadow part of ourselves, which I think is very unfortunate -
I myself try to get that shadow out into the light."
"Traveling always gives me a new perspective on life, myself and the world. Taking trips allows me to not
only find answers outside of myself but inside as well."
"Where I came from, nobody was an actor. So I took a class, and I loved it. The next year I moved to New York
City with 300 bucks in my pocket and a trash bag filled with clothes."
OTHERS TALK ABOUT MARIA
Amy Brenneman - "Maria Bello, a dear friend of mine who is a wonderful actress, just spent six months in China doing
"Mummy 3," and she was just talking to me about missing her boys."
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