Vera Farmiga

I have tender, romantic associations with upstate New York.

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 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.

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

The Ukrainian community is tight-knit by nature.

Music is what our feelings sound like.

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

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've played a lot of mothers in my movies.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Faith is important to me.

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

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