Being pretty... I'm just confused about it. I mean, I love getting my nails done, but I also like dressing like a boy. I think I feel most myself when I'm mixing femininity and masculinity. Like, fifty-fifty.

Independent filmmakers already have their heads around people on their couches watching their movies.

We're a whole culture of people who have a really hard time seeing beyond themselves.

There's always been something about Jeffrey Tambor, not only as an actor but as a person, where his ability to embody a sort of very dignified feminine way of being just - this was just very clear to me.

I always wanted to do a family show.

'Six Feet Under,' for me, was college. Alan Ball and Alan Poul ran that show and really taught me what it meant to really run a show in a classic way.

Something I've really been wanting to do, ever since 'Six Feet Under' ended, was create my own version of this idealized writer's room as well as the ideal family.

I took all my TV experience and what I learned about - by writing and directing and bringing a movie to Sundance - about the realities of the independent film market: 'Transparent' is the marriage of those two situations.

I always love the soapy conflicts between somebody's family of origin and their new family - 'Do I have Thanksgiving at my husband's parents' house, or at my parents' house?'

Normally, you cast a pilot, and you have to make compromises about being political about who you cast.

I wouldn't necessarily say that 'Alpha House' or 'Betas' embodied a particular vision of Amazon of the kind of brand or programming they were gonna do. I think those were the first lucky creators who hit it right for them.

I've been writing about misogyny for 20 years and trying to understand what femininity means for my entire career.

If you're female, and you want to express your femininity, you're actually demonized in the 'Free To Be... You And Me' generation.

I really relate to the feeling of falling in love 10 times a day and wishing I could never stop falling in love.

I'm a fan of Louis C.K., I'm a fan of Lena Dunham. I love shows about people that other people would consider unlikable, or, like, the work of Woody Allen and Albert Brooks.

When I went to Sundance for 'Afternoon Delight,' I came back feeling like I wanted to take my experience that I learned from directing and bring that into a series.

I've noticed that women are always punished for their sexuality in popular culture.

When you're making an independent film, it's like this actor plus this actor equals this funding, this financing. Pull this actor out, this actor is still here but this money's gone. It's this frightening puzzle mosaic that is the world of independent film.

Femininity in and of itself - and the feminine - can be not only privileged, but honored or worshipped.

I really feel like becoming a director came from other women saying, 'Yeah, you can do this.' I wanted to direct 'Six Feet Under,' and no, they didn't let me.

I think, because of the Internet, we're not looking at the very, very narrow channels for distribution that there used to be.

Whether you're writing television or movies, at some point you're going to encounter a male executive or investor who's going to say, 'I don't like that woman. She's unlikable.' And often, it's literally for being a regular human woman as opposed to an attracting human woman.

It's a struggle every day to get people to invest financially in portrayals of women that aren't satisfying to straight white men.

Most people privilege the technology, almost as if actors are in service to the machine.

On some sets, if a helicopter goes by, what would normally happen is that somebody would go, 'There's a helicopter. Stop.' I'd never stop for a helicopter. I am always trying to make sure that the machine is in service to the actors.

For me, when I'm not working, the day goes by so fast. I never have enough time - getting a manicure, getting a pedicure, getting my workout in, making sure that I ate healthy. Those things can become treacherous to the mind.

Perfection would be something that you see in 'Architectural Digest.'

You must speak the vision of your project in a way that convinces people to pay for it. If they won't pay for it, that is the artist's fault. It is my fault. It is your fault. It is not the executive's fault or the world's.

To me, it wasn't 'Star Wars' that shaped me; it was more 'Mary Tyler Moore' and, nowadays, 'Louie' and 'Girls.'

I just feel like content is content; people want to see it resonate.

Getting into Sundance is a certain sort of passport to a level of anxiety I've never experienced, even having had a baby in the NICU for a week. For about ten minutes, you're a world-class director. Then you become an entry-level, harried, low level concierge with absolutely no juice.

I am beyond excited to share 'Transparent' with the world through Amazon. They've been so supportive through this incredible process.

The more horrible the truth that you admit, the better you connect. You have to tell the truth.

I noticed that people were craving a way of reinterpreting tradition and of being Jewish without joining a synagogue.

I was running the show on 'United States of Tara' and 'How To Make It In America' where I could say, 'Okay, I'm in charge of everything now.' But it still wasn't my show.

I like to create a community where people want to come and have a good time and do their best work.

As much as possible, I put my family first.

You just have to say over and over again: 'I am a director.' Nobody gives it to you. Nobody anoints you.

A lot of the people I know connect through working. We're all so ambitious. Sometimes my friends will say, 'I want to hang out with you.' And I just go, 'Well, let's do a project together.' That's the only way I can.

I love the Army-Navy surplus store Surplus Value Center. They have really good long underwear and multicolored bandanas, cool camo jackets, and really, really scary-looking knives. If you're into that sort of thing.

If you can laugh with your friends over something, you own it.

Years of my life were lived knowing that I'd get a book out of them one day.

I don't think it's a contradiction to find painfulness funny.