"I think I gotta go with that old stand-by, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Love Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Love the — you know, it’s the two guys. It’s what me and my brother specialize in, the two guys. Well, in the Three Stooges‘ case it’s three. But the relationship between two guys like that, I don’t think it’s been done any better than with Butch and Sundance; particularly with Robert Redford and Paul Newman. The way they worked in so many different things, from comedy to romance to action and the way it’s so beautifully shot and, you know, a great story. And they didn’t pull the punches at the end. If you made that movie today, I’m sure that you’d do the test screenings and somebody would raise their hands and say, “We want them to get away at the end!” But they didn’t get away at the end. Today you’d have to re-shoot the ending where the guys go off on some secret beach somewhere and live happily forever — ’cause that’s the way audiences kind of demand it. But with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, of course, they met their demise at the end of the movie, and they had it coming ’cause that’s who they were. I just think it was a beautiful movie."

"People might question this but Rudderless, which was directed by my husband [William H. Macy]. But I say Rudderless because of two things. One is because of the way the movie was structured, and the way Bill directed it. The audience got to experience in a small way, I think, what parents get to experience when their child does something horrific. That you’re going along with one experience of your child, which is, “He or she is like this, and this is the kind of person they are, and I love them dearly.” And then they do some horrific, incomprehensible action and it pulls the rug out from under you. And Bill did that and the movie Rudderless does that; it pulls a rug out from under you. Your breath gets knocked out of you, you go, “[Gasp].” And suddenly you are reevaluating Billy Crudup’s relationship with his son from a completely different perspective and, again, I just think that’s masterful storytelling. The other reason is Billy Crudup’s performance. And, acting with Billy Crudup, I mean, what, did I do two scenes with him, maybe three? It really changed the target for me. I went, “Oh that’s what good acting is.” Really, and it really informed my work on American Crime. So for me it was a clinic on great acting. So for those two reasons."

"A beautifully done movie that now, unfortunately, tragically, as a parent you watch and has a very troubling ending. But I have to say as a kid when I saw it and I was unburdened with having my own children, it was absolutely transporting and, again, an incredibly subtle piece of work. Richard Dreyfuss and Teri Garr’s relationship falling apart, and Melinda Dillon’s journey… It’s full of wonderful, subtle acting in a movie that a lot of people thought was about spectacle, and it’s so not. And you can see the enormous influence that that movie had on all the big sci-fi movies after it. Nobody has quite duplicated the amazing sound design on it. People have tried — I mean that movie Twister, there were moments in it I looked around and was going “They’re totally doing Close Encounters.” People can try it, and try to mix that reality with the more spectacular stuff, but people have a very hard time achieving it. It’s really a very simple story. He believes something that his wife doesn’t believe. But it’s done so kitchen-sink and perfect and so influenced by the films of the ’70s with the overlapping dialogue and a very vérité sort of style to it. Also, when Spielberg wants to put on a show, he really can."