Virginia Madsen quotes:

I have good genes. My father is Danish and my mother is Irish and Native American. They both have good skin.

I was not a comic book reader, but my son is. My son wasn't really interested in reading books, which was hard for me because I love to read. It just didn't come naturally to my boy. So we kind of found comic books because they were fascinating to him. They were great stories.

I love Keri Russell. I watched every episode of Felicity, and Waitress is my favorite film. I like her voice a lot - it didn't surprise me that she would be doing voiceover work.

When I was growing up, the really, really cool super heroes were all male - so I wanted to be them.

I really didn't like Batgirl. I was like, "No, if I'm not gonna be Batman, I'm not gonna play." Maybe they could write an evil female super villain who takes over Batman, and nobody knows.

Men, we don't need you in shining armor. We just need you a little bit brave, just a little bit brave.

I want every movie to be like a big family and a great adventure.

I'm a fan. I would have been a fan of Candyman even if I hadn't been in that movie. I'm a huge fan of Star Trek, which is why I was in Star Trek: Voyager - because I begged them to be a part of that lore.

Our audience is all the girls who made Britney a huge star. Those are the girls who bought the book. I didn't read the book at first. I read the script just to see what I would think of the script and I really liked it.

I spend a lot of time at my son's school and I really wanted to do a movie that the kids could see. The good thing about being my age and not having to be the ingenue anymore is that I get to be a mom. I get to have kids in my movies.

I was always an actress, even as a little kid, and fantasy, horror, sci-fi stories are really all about playing make believe. I just never grew out of that.

I hope Britney doesn't get bummed out that Lindsey is a better singer. It is not Lindsey saying it, it's me. Lindsey would never say that. She's an actress first. It's just a bonus that she can dance and sing.

Dune was really my first Hollywood job. It was such a small part, but I opened the movie. I was about 19 years old and I had to make this speech, and I didn't understand most of the words because they were, you know, words from Dune.

To me it meant, just looking at it from a Maya point of view, it meant that Paul Miles is always moving laterally in his life. And she just wants him to take a couple of steps forward, you know?

Do something good for yourself today. You matter.

I always tell actors, "Don't think of it as unemployment when you don't have a job. You have to think of it as being in preparation for your next job." You have to be always preparing for success.

I am a proud mother - that's another reason I love doing any kind of animation. When my son was growing up, if he was watching something animated and I was in it, that was way cooler to him than seeing me in a movie.

I like how wine continues to evolve, like if I opened a bottle of wine today it would taste different than if I'd opened it on any other day, because a bottle of wine is actually alive. And it's constantly evolving and gaining complexity.

It's a roll of the dice when you're a first time director so I prefer to work with people that know more than I do, but that happens less and less as you get older.

I've made more movies than anybody now.

Men, we don't need you to be a knight in shining armor. We just need you to be a little bit brave, just a little bit. And some of them are, and that's what he does.

If my son would only listen to my advice, he would lead a perfect life. I'll still be saying that to him when I'm 75. I like to imagine that I have the control, but he's a teenager, so that never really happens.

A radio play actually ended up being the first acting job I ever had. A lot of times when I'm on camera, I'm playing characters that are more like myself, and I don't get to do a lot of real character work. But when you're doing animation, you are the very epitome of colorful characters. I think I'm just really into make believe.

Everything that I play as an actress is a different aspect of me.

I have to read comic books all first, because now when you get into graphic novels, they are definitely in deep graphic.

I love when I get to play these characters that are bigger than life. There are roles in animation that I never get to do in real life - and it appeals to my ego as an actor to play the Queen of Everything. I admit it.

I tend to look for a great script.

In animation, there's silly things I get to do with my voice. I get to have a wider range, so my voice gets to dance more than it does on camera.

It would be good if you opened your heart to the fullness of time and spirit.

It's almost like I get to be more theatrical when I work in voiceover.

I've spent the last few years just really actively pursuing comedy and that's something I always wanted to know how to do.

Marg Helgenberger and I were waitresses in the same restaurant in Evanston, Illinois. I'm happy to say that that restaurant has since been torn down.We both had an audition for ABC soaps - different soaps, but we auditioned at the same time, and she got the part and went off to New York. Three years later, I went to L.A. So she was kind of an inspiration to me. And it makes sense that we will both be in Wonder Woman together, because we ARE Wonder Women.

Once your acting job is over, you just hope they have a good editor and they put together a good film.

Sadly, I really want to be Batman ... and I just never will be.

The actor side of me loves to get dressed up and I feel like Cinderella when I'm in diamonds.

They were made up names in Dune that I didn't know how to pronounce, but I knew how I should sound because I was a sci-fi fan myself. I hadn't read the book, but I knew that I was the princess of the universe. I went in and sort of made her up, and David Lynch thought it matched and cast me.

Voiceover work reminds me of old-time radio. When I was little I used to sneak and stay up at night and listen to Mystery Radio Theater - I loved all those old radio plays.

When you're the ingénue no one is really interested in you for that.

You cannot believe how hard it is to try and raise money for a film. I did it for six years and it was such a failure.

You can't not be into basketball and grow up in Chicago or live in L.A., because people are so fanatical about the teams. You know what's going on with the games even if you don't watch.

You know, we're not on stage, we're not doing a play, so we don't have a relationship with the audience but going through that process and also just hearing how much people love the film, you feel like you do have a relationship with the audience.