Patricia Heaton

I know the situations that we do every week are all ones that I encounter in my life or will encounter.

I felt totally released from the need to make it as an actress. I had experienced complete fulfillment in something that had nothing to do with me being in the spotlight.

I have to keep reminding myself: If you give your life to God, he doesn't promise you happiness and that everything will go well. But he does promise you peace. You can have peace and joy, even in bad circumstances.

Some people are cool with the fact that their bodies bear witness to this great thing they produced, their children, and I understand that. But on a personal level, it makes me feel better that my breasts are not down to my knees when I'm undressed in front of my husband.

I'm not good at accepting help.

When it comes to accepting emotional support or affection, I'm a little guarded and hardened to that.

I was not an easy kid.

You see people all the time who are on hit shows and then you never hear from them again.

I'm always dissing Ray and making fun of him, talking about his money.

And I started as a journalism major at Ohio State, ended up in theater and I love to read.

You kind of think people get sick of you after a while, but apparently not.

And I think I have a perspective about Hollywood that you don't see very often in the press.

We only work four days a week, we only work three weeks out of the month, and we get four months off for the summer. So there's plenty of time for me to spend with the kids.

I've always been an independent person, but that independence was in the setting of security.

God will open any doors he wants to open, and if He closes doors, that's fine, too.

I think there's a difference when you make fun of yourself and your own behavior, and when you dishonor or disrespect Christ. If you're making a mockery of Christ is one thing. But if you're just joking about human foibles and weaknesses, I think that's perfectly acceptable.

I've found that people feel very free to say insulting things, not about me personally, but about the things I believe. It's sad, because I really could care less where people are coming from, politically, religiously.

Anytime anybody is rude, it makes me double-check my own behavior to make sure I don't do that to other people.

What I found in the Protestant faith was that your salvation is secure, and that the rest is process.

I've always felt a spiritual connection with acting. And I felt whole when I was onstage.

I always know I'm going to lose my job. It's either going to be canceled next week or next year or nine years from now, but I always know my job is going to go.

There's enough hard stuff going on in people's lives, and you really need that joy that laughter can bring. I don't have to put that in a Christian compartment.

My husband is always telling me I need to do less, do less, do less. But I feel like if I'm not being productive, I have a hard time relaxing and enjoying myself.

Frankly, most of my friends hold very different political beliefs. It's just a funny thing in this country that supposedly you can't sit down and have dinner and enjoy another person's company if you don't have the same beliefs. It's ridiculous.

As a child, I would put on shows in my neighborhood with friends and perform Barbra Streisand songs for my classmates.

I have always believed that when you're feeling sorry for yourself, the best thing to do is help someone else.

Plastic surgery is like a big elephant sitting in the Hollywood living room.

I was raised Catholic and I'm Presbyterian now, but I've always been a Christian, regardless of denomination. I believe that Jesus is the way.

A woman experiencing an unplanned pregnancy also deserves to experience unplanned joy.

My favorite body part? My feet. They're not pretty, but they get me where I want to go.

I'm sort of a slob.

Men are very competent in their workplace - and this is going to sound sexist - women are better at running households and juggling lots of things, kids and scheduling and that kind of thing.

From the beginning of church history, music, writing, literature, and the greatest works of art all came from the church. To change the culture and make it a force for good, you have to be in it and be a part of it.

My mother-in-law was with me during all four of my births and when she was sitting next to me holding my hand during the cesareans, well, I craved that.

It's a little bit in the genes because my brother is a journalist and my father was a sports writer.

Again, I find it difficult to be taken care of and rarely acknowledge it, and every act he does registers, but I also just need to verbally acknowledge him and hug him.

And I find it very easy to memorize the scripts, which are so close to conversations my husband and I have.

Most of my friends from college became dental hygienists or went into retail, a lot went into sales. They all started getting married and having kids and buying homes and I was still living like a college student.

But I think boys ultimately are easier than girls.

Boys wear their hearts on their sleeves. Even when they're trying to pull one over on you they're so transparent. Like men.

Before we had the kids, my husband and I were traveling a lot and working and really enjoying our lives and each other. We both love the theater and books and travel and so we were really having a lot of fun.

I don't remember my mother ever playing with me. And she was a perfectly good mother. But she had to do the laundry and clean the house and do the grocery shopping.

We did an episode where she goes out to get a job and she gets fired because she's not good. They hire a babysitter to help out and she finds out she hates the fact that the kids have more fun with the sitter than her.

Home life is a foreign environment for most guys. So it's natural to show them being idiots at home.

I just have always felt that I think we know that it's an ensemble show, and it's very hard to pick a show to submit when you're nominated, because usually everyone has a very strong part in every episode.

This is the other thing: we make the cost of raising kids higher than it has to be just because we feel they need all this stuff, like gadgets, certain schools, and activities that are nice but aren't really necessary.

I've learned to look like I'm listening to long confusing plots of cartoons and comic books when I'm actually sound asleep or making grocery shopping lists in my head.

I just don't know a couple that's been married more than three years that doesn't annoy the heck out of each other every 15 minutes.

I think Raymond is very honest about human relationships.

It's hard enough to work and raise a family when your kids are all healthy and relatively normal, but when you add on some kind of disability or disease, it can just be such a burden.