I'm not sure what it means fully to be a parent.

The thing that I love about moviemaking is how many people it takes to make it.

I would never say no to comedy.

Any time I was at Trader Joes, and the person bagging my stuff would be like, 'Did I go to college with you? How do I know you?' Then it took awhile, and suddenly people were like, 'Oh, you are the girl from 'United States of Tara.'

It seems like people have to get their thrills somehow.

Anything that keeps me off balance is vital.

I'm really not interested in acting as a facade, I'm interested in it as an emotional expression and as a transcendent experience for an individual. I find that a lot of people, a lot of young actors, haven't gotten to the point where they're comfortable being stripped down. They're still interested in ornate jackets.

I'm pretty tough and picky when it comes to actors that I admire.

Trends are not real; they are for the consumer, and once we can get enough of us to free ourselves from it and realize that it's not about strong-arming our way through, it's about understanding that we are so needed for the balance of this planet, then I think we can start having changes.

We're coming into a new generation of women where there's the submissive woman, and then our reaction to it is, 'No, I'm a man, too, and I'm masculine,' and then we fight against it, which isn't the answer, either.

In my personal opinion, you miss out on the beauty of the moment if you go in planning what the moment is. It's like having a vacation too jam-packed with activities. You miss all of the sunsets.

Toni Collette has been a huge influence. She was my absolute number one idol, and then I got 'United States of Tara.' I was pinching myself. I couldn't believe the first day I was on set, and I got pages of dialogue of real stuff to do with her.

I've been really fortunate that I've worked with a lot of strong women who are also mothers.

Any movie I've done, my character has had a secret. Whether it's in the movie or not, it is usually never and it's usually not something I tell anybody. It is for me.

I don't deal well with being told what to wear and sit on a mark. It just feels like my soul is being ripped out.

I think I was always a little sponge as a kid, and I was always looking for more information constantly.

I made three or four different fonts during 'Short Term 12' -' it was how I'd calm my mind between scenes. I have graph paper and gel pens, and I would do the alphabet: just do 'a' over and over again until I got it perfect and then go to 'b' and then 'c'.

I was born in Sacramento but moved to Los Angeles with my mom and my little sister when I was seven.

I get uncomfortable and kind of scared sometimes of certain public situations because, since I've been on TV or I've appeared in some films, people think this boundary between us has been removed, and I owe them something.

I love Grimes.

I don't like being able to be reached. I enjoy my solitude. Even people having my phone number seems like too much.

I'm a bit of a lurker on Reddit.

We all enjoy a magic show, but we don't demand a Q&A afterward explaining how it was done.

I think if a movie makes you cry, you probably needed to cry.