Jane Kaczmarek quotes:

There's something about this place, about Madison and Wisconsin and the Midwest, that's really comforting, ... Malcolm in the Middle.

You can make sure your kids make their beds and hang up their clothes and put their dishes in the dishwasher when you're the one calling the shots. So, parenting alone, for me anyway, I think is almost easier, being single.

I grew up playing in an alley on the south side of Milwaukee.

We did talk about cheese on our first date.

Divorce is brutal and horrible and... you have to actively work to get your life back on track.

One of the greatest joys of tennis is having a nice volley and not really keeping score, not really looking at the lines, but just catching up with each other.

Student teaching is the hardest job there is.

LYou can get yourself cut and stitched, or you can get a good girdle. The day before my first Emmy show, I went to Sears and bought a really good girdle. And I've worn that thing to every single awards show since!

I like to be with my children - not just quality time, but quantity time. I like to be there in the morning when they're waking up. I like to practice piano with them. I like to be there at supper. I need them as much as they need me. Working is not as important to me as being a mother is.

Awards shows are my greatest inducement to get back into shape.

For me, there's a big difference between having a baby in your 20s and having a baby in your 40s.

Croquet is tough. People play for months because the rules are so bizarre. Those crazy English.

Tennis lets you talk while you're playing.

I know I don't want to do another single-camera show. It's so time-consuming. I did a couple of episodes of 'Whitney' as her mom, but I have been laying low. I love being with my kids and being a mom.

I think it's a pretty good day if I can get through it without lifting a finger.

If I have makeup, I use a cleanser, but otherwise, I just use a hot cloth at the end of the day to keep moisture in my skin without stripping it off. I do splurge on La Mer, but other than that, I use just use Nivea from the drugstore!

I've got fabulous women friends that I kind of didn't have while I was married. I realized the great need for that when the marriage started to disintegrate.

I was never a glamour puss whose career was really based on a look or an attitude. I've been basically playing the same parts I am at 55 that I was at 35. I get cast as strong women, and that can be a mother or a judge or anything.

I was 36 when I got married. I was so focused on, 'You wanted a husband, and you wanted a house, and you wanted children.' I've had all those things now.

Gardening is peaceful, yet there is a great element of failure. It's the perfect metaphor for life -- a lot of pleasure, then it's over. There's great satisfaction in tending something, feeling it needs you, even if it's just a plant on your windowsill.

When I think of all the years in my 30s when I starved myself... but when I got the role of Lois, I stopped thinking about my looks and was just myself.

Well, I love having kids. But I have the advantage of having a lot of help, a real hands-on husband and small children whom I can easily manipulate.

It was an odd coincidence that my career took off the same decade as having babies. I often wished it had been different, that I had my big career bump in my thirties and my babies in my forties or vice versa.

It's wonderful when you can play a character that pulls all sorts of strings inside of you and fills you emotionally.