Wendi McLendon-Covey Quotations

What's the most humiliating thing? When you take someone to dinner or you cook somebody dinner and they get food poisoning. I mean, how bad do you feel?

Now, I love playing moms who can't hide their paranoia.

As a performer, you can't just sit around waiting for the phone to ring. You have to write and develop projects for yourself, because casting people aren't always going to see you the way you want to be seen. Write a one-person show, shoot a short film, do plays, whatever - activity breeds activity. No one's interested in a stay-at-home actress.

Back when I was growing up, it was like, 'You're too young to know what you want. We're telling you what you want. It doesn't matter if you like it. And you are stupid. Just so you know.'

Different people's houses smell like different weird things. God forbid someone should come and nail down what my house smells like. It'd probably be a litter box... sweaty socks... and burnt bacon. That probably is what it smells like.

I like to play the weirdos. I like to play the people that are hard to like. You get to say and do things that you would never say and do in real life.

Oh my gosh, if I could be on '30 Rock', my life would be made. That is my favorite show. My absolute favorite show.

You think your friends have good taste in fashion, until they ask you to wear an ugly bridesmaid dress!

Come on, planning a wedding, let's be honest, it's not fun. It's not fun being in a wedding.

If you want to play the good roles, spend more time in in college and in acting class than you do in the gym, and you'll have the career you want.

Pulling away from your parents, that's the natural thing to do; that's how life progresses.

Weddings are really good for making you feel terrible about yourself if you're not where you want to be in life.

You can't beat a Diane Von Fostenburg wrap dress; I always tend to go for the wrap dresses with a little more structure. I also love Prada shoes.

I've got a bunch of books... I rely on funny books and movies to cheer me up. Oh, but I must say, I do have the world's most perfect husband, so a cuddle from him always cheers me up. He's a good guy.

You always end up saying and doing such horrible things to your family, 'cause you know they're never going anywhere, and at some point, they're going to forgive you.

You have to ask yourself if you want to be the kind of actress who's interesting, or the kind of actress who's meant to play the pretty-but-uninteresting wife of a chubby guy on a network sitcom.

You know what? At the end of the day, funny is funny. I hope to see the end of all the female cliches that are written in a lot of comedies that are named chick flicks.

Improv is more than just spitting out a bunch of funny stuff that's unrelated to the material. You have to stay in character, you have to react and respond as the character you're trying to play. You have to service the story, and I think improv training has helped with my listening, responding, and my audition technique. It's sounds so silly, but it's true. Because not only do you improvise during the audition, but once you get the part, they'll say, "Throw away everything. Just improv this scene. Do whatever you want." Someone could panic if they're not used to doing something like that.

I learned how to let other performers have their moment. A lot of people can't do that. They just chew the scenery and steamroll over their scene partners. It doesn't make you look better in the long run to do that. You have to have balance in your scene. If it's somebody else's moment, let them have it. Learn how to be generous. Plus, it makes the audience hate you.

I had seen some shows at the Groundlings [legendary L.A. improvisational and sketch comedy troupe] and thought, "If I could ever do that, that would really mean something, that I have arrived." So I went through the program and said to myself, "I'm going to stay here until they kick me out." Seriously, they can ask you to leave at any point. Luckily, they never did that to me.

Growing up, I was the weird, theatrical kid who always tried to make people be in my plays. I've always loved comedy, but when it came time to figure out what I was going to go to school for, my parents were like, "Acting?! I don't think so. No." It took me a while to get the courage to pursue it. I had to do it in secret for a little bit, and then when I got married and was out on my own, I went for it.

I grew up fascinated with comedy and with people who could capture someone's attention.

I used humor to avoid being picked on as a kid. Or I would try and make my parents laugh, so I wouldn't get in trouble. But as a kid, I would watch Flip Wilson and I would memorize his whole routine, listen to Bill Cosby's records constantly, Steve Martin, Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball. I just drank that stuff up and loved it.