Top 30 Joan Cusack Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Sometimes I sing and dance around the house in my underwear. Doesn’t make me Madonna. Never will.”

— Joan Cusack

2. “Don’t live vicariously through your kids or try to shape them into who you wanted to be, like the popular kid or an athlete. Children should be given the opportunity to be themselves.”

— Joan Cusack

3. “I take parenting incredibly seriously. I want to be there for my kids and help them navigate the world, and develop skills, emotional intelligence, to enjoy life, and I’m lucky to be able to do that and have two healthy, normal boys.”

— Joan Cusack

4. “Can they do both? That’s a huge balance, I think, with kids- trying to find the right- it’s everything, you know, it’s social life, it’s academics, it’s sports.”

— Joan Cusack

5. “I think there’s nothing better than laughing in life, so that’s nice, to be thought of as someone who can make someone laugh. It’s ’cause I think life is hard. You know, my dad was a really silly man. A great Irish silly man. And that’s fine.”

— Joan Cusack

6. “I was never the ‘babe,’ so I knew I’d never get those big roles. I’d always be the best friend or the quirky sidekick.”

— Joan Cusack

7. “Skating is big in Chicago. There’s a lot of hockey; a lot of the boys play hockey. And figure skating is big.”

— Joan Cusack

8. “I mean that I think I find the psychology of people more interesting than politics. I think the psychology of politics is more interesting than straight politics.”

— Joan Cusack

9. “I think acting has helped me come out of my shell because when I play a character, I can’t be self-conscious.”

— Joan Cusack

10. “I think just because life is hard, it does seem fun to have a break and laugh about things, so I think in the end, my instincts go there.”

— Joan Cusack

11. “Bulgaria is fascinating. Because it had been a Communist country until the mid-80s, so it had just recently transitioned. And there were still the police towers on the street corners, where they look down – they were still there, although no one was in them.”

— Joan Cusack

12. “You know, I loved math. My mom was a math teacher.”

— Joan Cusack

13. “It’s important to being a healthy person. So while you’re here on the earth, you might as well enjoy it. And it’s hard to enjoy things when you’re crazy.”

— Joan Cusack

14. “I love Chicago. It’s such a great town, and it’s got great culture and great history, and it’s not as extreme as LA or New York, and it’s just- it’s hard for me for work, because I don’t live and work in the same place and that’s tough. But I’m- I love it.”

— Joan Cusack

15. “Because I don’t think it’s very healthy to hold people to idealized views. I think that’s a certain stage in life, something kids do. You have to go through that idealistic phase with your parents, but at a certain point, you need to see people as just people.”

— Joan Cusack

16. “It was fun; you know, at this point in my life it’s like, I want to do stuff that’s meaningful.”

— Joan Cusack

17. “I tend to come from a more psychological – that’s sort of my passion. I’m interested in the psychology of politics as well – and obviously I’m interested in what’s going on in the world – but my passion is more the psychology of people.”

— Joan Cusack

18. “I want my kids to experience passion. I want them to see that I have things I feel passionate about because it is such a great feeling to really love something.”

— Joan Cusack

19. “As a woman, you listen to more female singers, like guys listen to more rock bands. So in that way, they influence you because you’re trying to create an identity; you look to others to model.”

— Joan Cusack

20. “A relationship is hard in and of itself. And having kids is really hard work, but I think it’s really meaningful, as is a relationship. But they all take work.”

— Joan Cusack

21. “It’s incredibly, incredibly difficult to get a movie made.”

— Joan Cusack

22. “I think there’s a million talented people out there, it’s just a matter of luck a lot of the time. And good training, which we were lucky to have. And I think that’s what people are curious about – other people, and what they’re like.”

— Joan Cusack

23. “I think there’s a million talented people out there, it’s just a matter of luck a lot of the time.”

— Joan Cusack

24. “I think that everything’s hard now anyways, so you might as well do stuff that you love and believe in.”

— Joan Cusack

25. “A lot of women get out of the business because it’s so not family-friendly. And so women that could be in there making good women-roles don’t do it, ’cause they’re smart and get out.”

— Joan Cusack

26. “You’re curious about someone, or why they’re doing what they’re doing. Because everyone who gets to work in this field is so lucky, and it’s such a rarified world, I understand that. At the end of the day, I’m interested in demystifying it.”

— Joan Cusack

27. “We need comedies in the world! We need to laugh, it’s all so hard.”

— Joan Cusack

28. “You know, I think I’m more of a micro-person, so to me, the context and the framework of trying to do what you love and feel passionate about, in supporting your family in that way, is the most important thing to me.”

— Joan Cusack

29. “The fact of the matter is, if you have to have a process, I think, to figure out how to make everything work together, you just don’t get that. But maybe there’s a way to do it.”

— Joan Cusack

30. “Us gals need to stay in and just change the way it works, so men aren’t being workaholics and avoiding life and relationships, and they can make films in a reasonable amount of time, so you can have a family and a life outside of work. And have more balanced, content-driven, enjoyable movies.”

— Joan Cusack

31. “I think it’s fun to have work that you can relate to, that you can feel like is meaningful.”

— Joan Cusack

32. “I play- it’s kind of like a slice-of-life, LA women in their forties, playing forty kind of what’s their friendship like, and what’s their life like and so I just play one of the four friends.”

— Joan Cusack

33. “Maybe I’m more drawn to those kind of parts because they are meaningful to me. I mean, more parent-y ones, I find them interesting to do.”

— Joan Cusack

34. “It’s nice to be able to work; I’d love to be able to do another TV show I could do in Chicago so I could live and work in the same place. It’s hard being a parent and being in a good marriage, and it all takes a lot of work, but if you’re not there you can’t do any of it.”

— Joan Cusack