Actress

There are so many opportunities to learn things online, like between Coursera and Khan Academy and Duolingo. There are these awesome websites that are kind of these little personal Aristotles. There are times when I'm preparing for a role of some kind, and then I'll focus on a certain subject.

Everything is changing all the time, and I'm not going to stress out and spend my entire time chasing something that ultimately doesn't exist.

A big producer offered me the part of the pretty girl that waits at home for the guy, and I couldn't do it. That's not a story I ever want to tell.

We lived in just a studio apartment with just a room and a bed that came out of the wall, and my mom couldn't afford even a Happy Meal. We ate Top Ramen. I had no toys, and I had, like, two shirts, a pair of jeans, and that was it. But I had my mom to myself, and I remember it being the coolest period of time. I loved it. I really loved it.

I'm really interested in mythology and folklore. I'm interested in moralities, why we're here, faith... all of these bigger questions that I think we can place in films that allow us to question and give us a safe place to feel. Those types of questions can pop up in all sorts of different types of films - drama, comedy, action movie.

I love exploring the characters that I play, but the reason I sign on for something isn't the details of the story but the universal message.

I still have moments when I close myself in, but I wouldn't be on the path that I am with the career that I've had if I didn't have a deep understanding of the sense of my inner freedom.

In this industry, where things change so quickly, I've found that having no expectations is the happiest way to go.

We've all recognized the moment when the world has handed us a situation that is bigger than our youth can handle, and we have to grow up in a second. And when you do get to the other side, all it does is take us to this new level of existence that is more beautiful and more complex and, in some ways, more painful.

I was not a child star. I was more like a young auditioner.

I am becoming more recognisable in some ways, and some aspects of my privacy are going. But there's an upside: I have more opportunity to tell bigger stories and connect with more people. And I really relish that responsibility.

It's very scary to allow the world to see you.

My life is scheduled to the minute. I used to be notoriously hard to get a hold of. But now, it would be irresponsible for me to say, 'I'm not checking my phone.'

I have no problem talking about how hard it's been, how broke I've been, and how broke I was not even that long ago.

The idea of singing and dancing throughout my life and finding that bliss is something I wanted to express and explore within myself and hopefully spread that idea to other people.

For some reason, chewing gum for me gets my brain going.

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.'

I think it's always the moments that are the trials that end up making you become a hero in the end. You're not a hero unless you've gone through the trials. And it makes these moments so much sweeter, so much better. I don't believe in 'deserved,' but I might believe in 'earned.'

I love Grimes.

I've been so impressed by the material that's been sent to me, but I don't think that's because it's me.