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I Always Thought That If You Had Any Real Proximity To Famous People, That Your Obsession With Famous People, Would Wane Is Some Way. Like, I Wouldn't Want To Deep Google Matthew Mcconaughey's Early Relationships For Hours Before I Go To Bed. And It's Just Gotten Worse.

-Lena Dunham

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I Always Thought That

Lena Dunham

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I Always Thought That If You Had Any Real Proximity To Famous People, That Your Obsession With Famous People, Would Wane Is Some Way. Like, I Wouldn't Want To Deep Google Matthew Mcconaughey's Early Relationships For Hours Before I Go To Bed. And It's Just Gotten Worse.

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I Never Sort Of Thought Of Myself As A Comedy Writer, By Nature.

The People Accusing Me Of Being Productive Don't Know How Hard It Is For Me To Just Bend My Elbow Sometimes.

I Think We All Feel That Way When We're Young We Don't Think Teachers Have Lives. We Don't Think Therapists Have Lives. We Don't Think Doctors Have Lives.

I'm Not Jealous In Traditional Ways - Of Boyfriends Or Babies Or Bank Accounts - But I Do Covet Other Women's Styles Of Being.

Katherine Heiny's Work Does Something Magical: Elevates The Mundane So That It Has The Stakes Of A Mystery Novel, Gives Women's Interior Lives The Gravity They So Richly Deserve -- And Makes You Laugh Along The Way.

I Still Go To A Party And Say Something Embarrassing To Someone, And Then Write Them A Weird E-mail About It The Next Day, And Then Write Them A Text Because I Think They Didn't Get The E-mail. No Matter What Happens With Your Level Of Success, You Still Have To Deal With All The Baggage That Is Yourself.

One Of My Favorite Facts About Jason [benjamin] Is That He Collects Shirts From Tattoo Parlors. He Has A Bunch Of Tattoo Parlor T-shirts, But No Tattoos. And Then He Wears, Like, Vans And Jeans. My Boyfriend Said He Looks Like A Modern Bruce Springsteen, Which Is A Pretty High Compliment.

I've Been A Little Haphazard About How Nude I Get, And The Only Thing That Keeps Me From Getting Anxious About It Is That I've Had Complete Control Over It.

I Have To Remind Myself That When You Exercise, There Is A Natural Calm That Comes From Knowing That You Did Something With Your Body That Day. Actually Going And Working Out Makes Everything Else Easier And Better.

The Biggest Fear That Everybody Has Is Dying. Not To Get Too Meta On You, But I Think Every Fear That People Are Trying To Work Out Is Really Like I'm Going To Die And No One Is Going To Care, And It Doesn't Matter Because God Might Not Exist. That's What People Are Trying To Figure Out. I Wish We All Had One Fear So We Could Think About It Together And Figure Out A Solution, But We're All Doing Different Things.

I'm Glad If My Work Can Make A Difference.

Making A Difference

You Know, I Always Think Of Myself As Sort Of Ready For Every Criticism.

I Kind Of Look Like Every Other Girl Walking Around.

I Think About My Best Friendship - Which The Marnie-hannah Friendship In Girls Is Based On - As Like A Great Romance Of My Young Life.

I Was Raised On The Internet.

It's Very Easy For Me To Say What Success Is. I Think Success Is Connecting With An Audience Who Understands You And Having A Dialogue With Them. I Think Success Is Continuing To Push Yourself Forward Creatively And Not Sort Of Becoming A Caricature Of Yourself.

My Mom Said The Term Heavy Petting Existed A Lot When She Was In High School.

My Parents Are Pretty Liberal. But They Were Just You Know Trying To Look Out For My Innocence Or Whatever. But My Babysitter Had "forever" [by Judy Blume]. And I Said "well I've Read Judy Blume Books, Can I Borrow That?" And She Said No, This One's Not Appropriate For You. Which Obviously, Got Me Really Worked Up. So I Took It.

We're Living In A World Where [judy Blume] Books Were Ever Banned, And Now Like "fifty Shades Of Grey" Is Being Read In High Schools. Like It's Just A Wild.

There’s Always An Article Coming Out, Saying, ‘the New Thing Is Funny Women!’

I Refresh Twitter As Thoughtlessly As Some Twirl Their Hair.

Let's Call A Spade A Spade - A Lot Of Times When You Are A Vegetarian It Is A Just Not Very Effective Eating Disorder.

Eating Disorder

I've Always Had A Talent For Recognizing When I Am In A Moment Worth Being Nostalgic For.

Self Reflection

Now If You Went To Someone's House To Look For Them, You Would Be A Psychopath.

Girls Are Trained To Say, ‘i Wrote This, But It’s Probably Really Stupid.’ Well, No, You Wouldn’t Write A Novel If You Thought It Was Really Stupid. Men Are Much More Comfortable Going, ‘i Wrote This Book Because I Have A Unique Perspective That The World Needs To Hear.’ Girls Are Taught From The Age Of Seven That If You Get A Compliment, You Don’t Go, ‘thank You’, You Go, ‘no, You’re Insane.

I Love What I Do, I Love Every Minute Of It.

It'll Be Taught In Homes That It's Not Okay To Make Fun Of A Kid Because He's Gay Or It's Not Okay To Make Fun Of A Girl Cause She's Fat. But That We Have Been Living For So Long In A Culture Where So Many People's Parents Supported Those Beliefs That There Wasn't Any Infrastructure For Children Understanding Right And Wrong In Those Situations, If That Makes Sense.

I Always Thought That If You Had Any Real Proximity To Famous People, That Your Obsession With Famous People, Would Wane Is Some Way. Like, I Wouldn't Want To Deep Google Matthew Mcconaughey's Early Relationships For Hours Before I Go To Bed. And It's Just Gotten Worse.

It Completely Sickens Me What Our Culture Is Doing To Women. Last Week I Wore A Big Top And Little Shorts And A Bunch Of Stuff Came Out Saying I Was Without Pants. 'the No-pants Look,' It Said. And I Didn't Go Out Without Pants, I Had Shorts On... If Olivia Wilde Had Gone To A Party With A Big Silky Top And Little Shorts She Might Have Been Told Her Outfit Was Cute... What It Was Really: 'why Did You Show Us Your Thighs?'

I'm So Proud Of Jason's [benjamin] Work. I Can Say This And He Can't, But There's No Group Of Documentary Subjects More Devoted To Their Documentarian. The Vibes Are Really Positive, And I Feel So Lucky.

Don't Wait Around For Someone Else To Tell Your Story. Do It Yourself By Whatever Means Necessary.

I Started Writing Plays, But The Fact That Plays Don't Last Forever Was Too Much For Me To Bear.

I Spent All My Time On My Movies Worried That People Were Eating And That The Schedule Was Being Kept, So To Have Experts In Those Areas Giving Me The Brain Space As A Writer And Director Is Huge.

On A Personal Level, I'm Proud Of Grace Dunham For Being So Staunchly In Her Identity. It's A Very Unusual Thing For A Young Person. I Think She's Been Very Strong About It.

I'm Just Waiting To Be 85 And Be In A Pajama Community. Everyone's Welcome To Join Me.

It's Interesting How We Often Can't See The Ways In Which We Are Being Strong - Like, You Can't Be Aware Of What You're Doing That's Tough And Brave At The Time That You're Doing It Because If You Knew That It Was Brave, Then You'd Be Scared.

Calling Someone A Drama Queen Is So Negative. Why Not 'content Creator'?

I'm Always Having To Be Told To Brush My Hair.

Of Course You Don't Want Anybody To Feel Shame For Their Sexuality. But You Also Want To Make It Clear That A Loud, A Loud And Proud Approach To Your Sexuality At A Young Age Isn't Necessary To Be A Fully Integrated Person.

I Feel Prettier With A Naked Face And Chapstick. But A Good Haircut Makes A Huge Difference.

It's Almost Like When You're Young, Your Friends Take On The Romance Role, And Then Guys Take On The Role Of Your Friends Later.

The Male Capacity For Turning The Negative Into A Compliment Is Really Alarming.

This Could Very Easily Be Taken Out Of Context, And I Think It's Funny Now, But I Remember Looking In The Mirror As A Kid And, It Would Be Like For An Hour At A Time, And I'd Be Like, 'i'm Just So Beautiful. Everybody Is So Lucky That They Get To Look At Me.' And Of Course That Changes As You Get Older, But I May Have Held On To That Little-kid Feeling That Was Me Alone In My Bathroom.

Running Had Always Been Off The Table For Me. It Just Looks Embarrassing When I Do It. I Viewed It Like Learning A New Language - Best To Learn It As A Child.

I Took "forever" [by Judy Blume] To The Bathroom To Read [when I Was Eight] And Then I Heard My Mom Coming So I Stuck It Under The Toilet And Went Running Out. And I Went Back Later To Check For It. And It Was Gone.

I've Always Been Someone In [childhood] Period Of My Life Sort Of The Pains And Anxieties Of Being Young Are The Things That Have Really Stuck With Me.

There Is A Sort Of Backlash Of People Who Feel Like You're Not Representing Them Accurately, And You Want To Say As Elegantly As You Can, "i Wasn't Trying To Represent You I, Was Just Doing What I Could Do To Make Being Alive Easier For Me." And If It Helped Anyone Or Made Them Feel Comforted In The Process Then It's The Greatest Thing You Can Ask For.

Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Who Has Accidentally Napped.

Hell Hath No Fury

The Thing That's So Hard About Being A Kid Is You Don't Have Enough Knowledge To Explain Things Yourself.

It's Okay To Change Your Mind. About A Feeling, A Person, A Promise Of Love.

I Learned That People Are Much More Game To Mock Their Own Personas Than You Would Think.

I Didn't Drink In The Essence Of The Classroom. I Didn't Take Legible Notes Or Dance All Night. I Thought I Would Marry My Boyfriend And Grow Old And Sick Of Him. I Thought I Would Keep My Friends, And We'd Make Different, New Memories. None Of That Happened. Better Things Happened.

If You're Writing, You're Starting In Private. It Can Really Be This Amazing, Private, Freeing Experience. Forget That It's For Other People - That Comes In Later.

I Can Never Be Who I Was. I Can Simply Watch Her With Sympathy, Understanding, And Some Measure Of Awe. There She Goes, Backpack On, Headed For The Subway Or The Airport. She Did Her Best With Her Eyeliner. She Learned A New Word She Wants To Try Out On You. She Is Ambling Along. She Is Looking For It.

I Just Hope That I Continue To Keep A Line Between My Private Life And Who I Play, Even If They Are Closely Intertwined, And So I'm Careful. I Don't Even Know Where My Line Is, But I Know I Have A Line.

I Have Sort Of A Zen Body Philosophy, I'm Sort Of Like: We're One Weight One Day, We're One Weight Another Day, And Some Day Our Body Just Doesn't Even Exist At All! It's Just A Vessel I've Been Given To Move Through This Life. I Think About My Body As A Tool To Do The Stuff I Need To Do, But Not The Be All And End All Of My Existence. Which Sounds Like I Spent A Week At A Meditation Retreat, But It's Genuinely How I Feel.

The Way In Which You Share Your Body Must Be A Choice. Support These Women And Do Not Look At These Pictures.

I Think Breakfast Is The One Meal When You Don't Have To Eat Animal, Maybe.

There Is No Way That My Mother Hasn't Influenced My Career. She's My First Critic. She's My Best Critic. She Has The Best Instincts From Writing To Style To Editing, To The Visual Elements Of My Career.

Okay, 'best Party Ever' -- To Me, That's Like Saying 'best Gym Ever' Or 'best Nature Documentary Ever,' Like How Good Can It Really Be?

On Girls I Like Being A Mouthpiece For The Issues I Think Young Females Face Today. It’s Always Shocking When People Question Whether It’s A Feminist Show. How Could A Show About Women Exploring Women Not Be? Feminism Isn’t A Dirty Word. It’s Not Like We’re A Deranged Group Who Think Women Should Take Over The Planet, Raise Our Young On Our Own And Eliminate Men From The Picture. Feminism Is About Women Having All The Rights That Men Have.

You’ve Learned A New Rule And It’s Simple: Don’t Put Yourself In Situations You’d Like To Run Away From. But When You Run, Run Back To Yourself, Like That Bunny In Runaway Bunny Runs To Its Mother, But You Are The Mother And You’ll See That Later And Be Very, Very Proud.

When Someone Anonymous Tells Me I'm Fat, That's Not A Person To Me. If They're Not Going To Acknowledge Me As A Person, I'm Certainly Not Going To Acknowledge Them As A Person.

I'm Not Great At Dating, But I Need To Do It To Relax.

I Think Women Are Conditioned To Stand By Their Man And Watch Them Make It To The Top, But Most Men Never Believe The Person They Get Into A Relationship With Is Going To Rise Any Higher Than She Was When They Met. It Takes A Very Special, Evolved Person To Be Able To Deal With Change Within A Relationship.

Like Summer Sisters Comforted Me Just Because I Was Like, Okay Things I've Seen With My Own Eyes Are Not So Terrible, And Even Though I Knew Adult Gay People And Had Absolutely No Issue With It. And I Just Couldn't Articulate What Made Me So Uncomfortable About The Space That I Shared With My Friends Becoming A Sexual Space. And It Was Very Healing For Me To Read That, And Feel Like It Was A Part Of Other Friendships, Even Fictional Friendships I Admire.

Enjoy Going Through Life As Yourself.

I Think Of My Body As A Tool To Do The Stuff I Need To Do, But Not The Be All End All Of My Existence.

I Frustrate Myself As A Writer. There Are Certain Things That I'll Think, 'well, That Would Be Really Fun To Play... If Somebody Else Was Playing This Character.'

A Huge Part Of The American Trans Population That's Often Overlooked Are Trans Teenagers. Many Of Them Are Homeless, And Those Are Not The People Who Are Necessarily Going In For A Custom Suit. But That's One Of The Reasons Why We Were Excited That We Got To Do A Contest With Hbo To Sponsor A Young Person Getting A Suit Made Who Might Not Have The Means To Do It On Their Own.

It Was Only When I Started Making Short Films In College And I Was Looking For Girls To Play The Me-ish Parts That I Thought, Well, Maybe I'm Just Going To Try Doing This Myself Before Somebody Else Comes In And Handles It. For A Long Time My Acting Was Just A Marriage Of Convenience Between Me And These Characters That I Was Writing.

Once, My Little Sister Was Walking Down The Street In Her Thick Black Glasses, And A Homeless Man Muttered, Talk Nerdy To Me.

I Deserved Kisses. I Deserved To Be Treated Like A Piece Of Meat But Also Respected For My Intellect.

I Went To An Amazing School In Brooklyn Called St. Anne's That's A Really Kind Of Creative Hot Bed.

It's A Very Specific Body. Even Great Reviews Will Be Like: Chubby, Portly, Overweight. . . . Sometimes I'm Like, 'ugh, How Did I Make Myself The Guinea Pig For This?' But On The Other Hand, Hating My Body Has Not Been My Cross To Bear In This Life. Which I Feel Very Lucky About.

Women Want To Control Other Women Because They've Been Controlled Themselves. It's A Cycle Of Control. I'm Not Blaming Women For That, But I Am Saying We're Part Of A Toxic Culture That's Feeding All Of Us The Same Messaging.

For Anyone That Has Ever Done A Sex Scene, It Takes On The Feeling Of Learning A Ridiculous Dance, Like The Electric Slide. It's Not A Sexy Experience.

My Fears Came True: People Called Me Fat And Hideous, And I Lived. And Now I Keep Living.

Here's What I Have To Say About Being Married: Someday You Will Look At Him, Hating Him With Every Fibre Of Your Being, Wishing That He Would Die The Most Violent Death Possible. It Will Pass.

Not To Speak For Jason [benjamin], But He's A Straight Married Dude With Two Kids.

There's A Certain Grace To Having Your Heart Broken.

Things That Feel Super Personal Actually Feel Really Universal. It's Sort Of The More You Really Identify Something Specific Within Yourself, The More People Connect To It Because Ultimately We Are All Connected In Some Way.

My Mom Knows Pretty Well How I See Her.

I Think If You Feel Like You Were Born To Write, Then You Probably Were.

But I Also Think When We Embark On Intimate Relationships, We Make A Basic Human Promise To Be Decent, To Hold A Flattering Mirror Up To Each Other, To Be Respectful As We Explore Each Other.

Intimate Relationships

My Relationship To Eating, My Relationship To Critiquing My Own Shape, All Of That Has Changed Since I've Started Viewing My Body Much More As A Tool To Do My Work.

I Feel Like You Don't Know If Someone's Equipped For A Romantic Relationship Until They're Out Of Their Twenties.

Romantic Relationship

I Should Do The Things That Make Me Feel Cool And Smart. As I Get Older, I'm Realizing More And More That It Doesn't Really Matter If I'm Good At It, It Just Matters That I Try. My Own Effort, My Own Willingness, Are Becoming What's Appealing To Me.

I Feel Like So Much More Than My Gender And So Much More Than My Relationship To My Body And My Relationship To Men. And, But Suddenly You're Sort Of Asked To Be An Expert.

When It's Low-budget, And You Have One Other Person On The Set, You Have To Make Rules.

I Feel Like A Lot Of The Female Relationships I See On Tv Or In Movies Are In Some Way Free Of The Kind Of Jealousy And Anxiety And Posturing That Has Been Such A Huge Part Of My Female Friendships, Which I Hope Lessens A Little Bit With Age.

I Remember It Made Me Feel Better Because So Many Of My Friends At School. Were Doing That Stuff And Doing That Stuff On Sleep Overs. But I Just Didn't Feel Ready. It Wasn't Like I Had Any Judgment Of It Being Two Women. It Would Have Scared Me As Much If Not More. I Was Like A Three Month Period In Which All The Words Sleep Over Was Code For Was "let's Get Together And Touch Each Other's Vaginas." And I Was. Haunted. And I Remember Going Home And Feeling Like I Couldn't Tell My Mother Even Though She Would've Understood And Probably Laughed.

One Of The Reasons I'm So Proud Of My Mother Is She Took Her Skills Of Over A 40 Years Photographic Career And Translated That To A Film.

I Went To Schools That Were Small Enough That Basically Everyone Was In A Play. I Played A Bouncing Ball In A Production Of Alice In Wonderland And A Fat Man In An Italian Commedia Dell'arte Play. I Was Given Some Small Chances.

I Get A Lot Of Unasked For Sexual Confessions.

I Write At All Different Times. I Write In My Bed, I Write At The Table. I Need To Get It Together. I'm Working On A Book And Working, And Just Jam It In Whenever It Makes Sense.

My Parents Were Very Supportive When I Was Growing Up And Have Been All The Way Through.

The Parts I Enjoy Playing Aren't Really Available To Me. So I Have To Write Them.

Feminism And Issues Surrounding Being Female In The World, Always, But Particularly Right Now At This Complicated Cultural Moment. It's A Huge Part Of What's Important To Me.

I Think Some People Are Really Connected To Who They Were As Children. And Some People Aren't.

I Love Directing Scenes That I'm Not In Because Suddenly I Really Feel Like A Filmmaker Which Is A Different Thing.

I've Always Been Someone Who Feels Better, If I See What I'm Going Through In A Movie.

Women Saying "i'm Not A Feminist" Is My Greatest Pet Peeve. Do You Believe That Women Should Be Paid The Same For Doing The Same Jobs? Do You Believe That Women Should Be Allowed To Leave The House? Do You Think That Women And Men Both Deserve Equal Rights? Great, Then You're A Feminist.

I Didn't Have To Wait Six Years To Get My Show On The Air, Worry That Someone Else Had A Similar Idea, Or Wait Around For Notes That Took My Voice Out Of The Show.

For Straight, Hetero People It's Very Easy To Unintentionally Say Something That Might Not Honor People's Identities Fully, And Grace Dunham Is A Really Amazing Educational Resource.

I Think Romantic Comedy, When Done Right, Is My Favorite Genre. It's Just A Genre That's Very Human.

For Me, My Life Goal Is To Be In A Position Where I Can Wear Pajamas 24 Hours A Day. That's What Makes Me Happy.

My Boyfriend's A Musician, And I Think When He's On Stage Is The Only Time He's Not Worrying. And So That's The Reason He Keeps Doing It Is Because It Gives Him That Sort Of Experience Of Weightlessness That I Only Get Out Of Being Sort Of, Deep Into Writing Something Or Really Lost In A Moment On Set, Like It's Available To Me In These Select Moments Through My Work.

When I Write I'm Never Really Thinking About Themes Or The Universal.

I Wanted To Be A Poet. I Had A Really Romantic Idea About What That Would Mean. My Parents Knew Some Poets, And I Liked How They Dressed And Acted, But I Didn't Really Acknowledge That I Only Liked Reading Some Bits Of Poetry While I Was Peeing Or Something.

I Thought I Was Really A Radical, Political Person, Which Of Course I Am Not.

I Love Flawed Female Characters, Duking It Out.

I Think What People Really Hate Is To Be Caught By Surprise By Criticism.

That's The Feeling [of Relativity] I Always Had About [judy Blume] Books Which I Re-read And Re-read And Re-read.

I Don't Want To Get Married Until All Gay People Can Get Married.

Marriage Equality

My Shape Reminds Me A Lot Of My Grandmother, Whom I Was Really Close To. She Died When I Was 13, And We Have A Really Similar Body Type, The Squat New England Woman Who Can Roll Out Dough And Bring In Your Lawnmower. That's Kind Of The Vibe Of My Body, And I'm Into It.

I Shared A Bed With My Sister, Grace, Until I Was Seventeen Years Old. She Was Afraid To Sleep Alone And Would Begin Asking Me Around 5:00 P.m. Every Day Whether She Could Sleep With Me. I Put On A Big Show Of Saying No, Taking Pleasure In Watching Her Beg And Sulk, But Eventually I Always Relented. Her Sticky, Muscly Little Body Thrashed Beside Me Every Night As I Read Anne Sexton, Watched Reruns Of Snl, Sometimes Even As I Slipped My Hand Into My Underwear To Figure Some Stuff Out.

I Felt Like I Was A Writer, And I Just Thought Filmmaking Was The Best Way For Me To Express That, Because It Allows Me To Embrace The Visual World That I Love. It's Allows Me To Interact With People, To Be More Social Than Fiction Or Poetry, And It Felt Like The Right Way For Me To Tell The Stories That Felt Pressing To Me.

We Both Followed Our Hearts And Had No Choice But To Hurt Each Other Deeply.

I Have Been Envious Of Male Characteristics, If Not The Men Themselves. I'm Jealous Of The Ease With Which They Seem To Inhabit Their Professional Pursuits: The Lack Of Apologizing, Of Bending Over Backward To Make Sure The People Around Them Are Comfortable With What They're Trying To Do. The Fact That They Are So Often Free Of The People-pleasing Instincts I Have Considered To Be A Curse Of My Female Existence.

I Feel Lucky In That The Same Way I've Surrounded Myself With People I'm Creatively Comfortable With, I've Surrounded Myself With People Who Are Accepting Of The Way That I Look.

I Have Never Been A Physically Engaged Person. Like, I Was Not An Athletic Kid. I Was The Kid Who Came Up With A Thousand Excuses Not To Take A Gym Class. Even Now, If I Could, I Would Do All My Work From Bed.

I Felt Highly Anxious In A Way That I Didn't Think Other Children Were.

I Wish That Author [ E. L. James] All The Success In The World. It's Just Not For Me.

I Quit Acting When I Was 11 Because I Was Cast As A Bouncing Ball In 'alice In Wonderland,' And I Felt Slighted And Wounded.

This Weird Pressure That Mothers Are Put Under, Like This Idea That If You Can't Breastfeed, You're Not Doing Something Properly, Or If You Choose Not To.

I Always Imagined That Having A Baby Is Something That I'm Going To Keep In A Private Place, But Maybe My Curse Is That All I'm Going To Want To Do Is Tell Everybody About What My Birth Process Was Like And What My Children's Nightmares Are.

I Remember Asking My Mom, "do You Think That I Will Ever Have Enough Money To Live Outside Of Your House?" And She Would Be Like, "you Just Never Know."

I Never Set Out To Make Any Statements About A Specific Character, I Just Set Out To Tell What Feels Like Is A Truthful Story, A Person That You And I Might Truly Encounter.

I Think That People In The Phase Between Being Someone's Kid And Being Someone's Parent Have Always Been Uniquely Narcissistic, But That Social Media And Twitter And Livejournal Make It Really Easy To Navel-gaze In A Way That You've Never Been Able To Before.

When We, As Young Women, Are Given The Space To Read, The Act Becomes A Happy, Private Corner We Can Return To For The Rest Of Our Lives. We Develop This Love Of Reading By Turning To Stories That Speak To The Most Special, Secret Parts Of Us.

It Is Really Funny How Even Cool Chicks Are Sort Of Like, 'our Moms Covered That Feminism Thing And Now We're Living In A Post-that World,' When That Just Isn't True.

Let's Be Reasonable And Add An Eighth Day To The Week That Is Devoted Exclusively To Reading.

I Sort Of Tend To Equate Tattoos With Prisoners, Punks Or People With A High Level Of Self-confidence. I Don’t Necessarily Have A Covered-in-tattoos Personality.

Self Confidence

You Just Have To Work, We All Have To Work Really Hard To Take Care Of Ourselves And Feed Ourselves Good Information, Just Like We Feed Ourselves Good Food. Feed Ourselves Good Books And Good Messaging And The Things That Make Us Feel Like We Can Be Connected With Ourselves And Others In A Deeper Way.

I Have An Authority Problem.

You Can't Force Other People To Like You And You Just Kind Of Have To Ride The Wave. I Think I Could Have Saved Myself A Lot Of Sleepless Nights With That Advice.

You Have To Move So You Don't Die. You Have To Move So Your Brain Doesn't Atrophy. You Have To Move So That You Look A Little Bit Like A Person That You Might Want To Be. There Are A Thousand Reasons Why Exercise Is Important, And I've Had To Find Ways To Make It Sexy For Myself.

I Don't Think Anyone Would Want To Come To My Gallery Show.

It's Really Hard To Grow With Another Person.

My Parents Were Open About Sex. And My Dad Makes Paintings That Have A Sexual Component And It Still Scares Me.

I Thought About Starting A Novella Club Because It Seemed Less Ambitious.

I Sometimes Want To Make A Book Of Every Tattoo I Wanted To Get Before I Actually Got A Tattoo, Because There Were So Many Awful Ideas And Concepts.

People Are Ultimately Threatened By Young People Taking Positions Of Power.

Position Of Power

I Probably I Went Into My Room Alone [when I Was Six] And I Was Just Like, How Have I Even, How Can I Even Continue On This Earth With This Terrible, Terrible Knowledge [about Sex].

The Fact Is That I Write Under Duress, Often In My Bed, Often At The Last Minute. I'm Kind Of A Binge Writer I Would Say, Which I Don't Support. I Was Always Kind Of That Way. Probably The Time I Was The Most Regular As A Writer Was College. It Was Like, What Else Is There To Do When You're Living In The Midwest Studying Creative Writing?

Mine's [fans] A Lot Of Like Weird Guys In Prison. So I Don't Need To Answer Them.

I Have Work, And Then I Have A Dinner Thing. And Then I Am Busy, Trying To Become Who I Am.

Survivors Are So Often Re-victimized By A System That Demands They Prove Their Purity And Innocence.

Purity And Innocence

I Thought I Wanted To Be A Journalist Or A Novelist.

I Always Say That I Can Play Sort Of Six Variations On One Girl, All Of Whom Are A Variation On Me. Maybe I'll Think Of Myself As An Actor If, Like, I Do A Corset Drama.

All My Freakouts Have Been Pretty Private And Directed At Family Pets And/or People I Have Been Dating For Too Short A Time To Freak Out At In That Way.

I Find It Really Awkward To Do A Scene Where I'm Supposed To Seem Like I'm In Love.

From What I Hear, [ "fifty Shades Of Grey" ] Is Not A Way That I Feel Like I Need To Be Turned On Or Like A Hole That Needs To Be Filled In Me.

I’m Not Super Thin, But I’m Thin, For Like, Detroit

I'll Start By Saying That "fifty Shades Of Grey:" It's Like I Don't Have. An Elicit Confused Relationship To My Sexuality. So I Don't Need A Book Like That.

Escapism For Me Can Come In The Form Of Someone Else's Reality.

I Seriously Consider Television To Be The People's Medium. Like The Idea Of Seeing Your Parents Naked Or Having Somebody Go Down On You And Worrying About Whether You Smell, Or Worrying About Whether Your Body Is Weird Or What Goes Across The Face Of A Person Who's Supposed To Be Experiencing Pleasure But Isn't - Those Are Things I'd Love To Normalize On Tv.

When Someone Shows You How Little You Mean To Them And You Keep Coming Back For More, Before You Know It You Start To Mean Less To Yourself.

There Is Nothing Gutsier To Me Than A Person Announcing That Their Story Is One That Deserves To Be Told, Especially If That Person Is A Woman. As Hard As We Have Worked And As Far As We Have Come, There Are Still So Many Forces Conspiring To Tell Women That Our Concerns Are Petty, Our Opinions Aren’t Needed, That We Lack The Gravitas Necessary For Our Stories To Matter. That Personal Writing By Women Is No More Than An Exercise In Vanity And That We Should Appreciate This New World For Women, Sit Down, And Shut Up.

I Never Thought Of Myself As Like, A Funny Person.

I Also Really Like To Read Good Books And I Don't Have Enough Time To Do It. So It's Really Hard For Me To Imagine Willingly Submitting Myself To A Trilogy Of Books That I've Been Told Are At The Fourth Grade Reading Level Which Isn't A Very Nice Thing To Say But.

Positive, Healthy, Loving Relationships In Your Twenties... I Don't Know If Anyone Would Disagree With It: I Think They're The Exception, Not The Norm. People Are Either Playing House Really Aggressively Because They're Scared Of What An Uncertain Time It Is, Or They're Avoiding Commitment Altogether.

I Had No Clue What Anyone Was Talking About Like, You Know I Don't Think I, I Don't Think Any Of The Depictions Of Sex Were More To Me Than Just Like An Image Of Two People's Arms Rubbing Together [when I Was Eight], I Just Had No Clue.

If A Young Woman Is Looking At The Landscape Of Hollywood, What She Sees Is Almost Only Challenges.

I Don't Feel Like My Work Is Dependent On My Size. I Feel Like My Work Is Dependent On The Fact That I'm An Everywoman. I'd Be An Everywoman If I Lost 20 Pounds Or If I Gained 50 Pounds, Because Of My Attitude And It's My Relationship To The World And The Fact That Like I Have Two Front Teeth That Are Bigger Than The Rest Of My Teeth.

The Work That's Interesting To Me In Other People Is Really Confessional.

Scandal Has Made Wine And Popcorn Seem Like A Viable, Even Healthful, Meal.

Luxury Is Nice, But Creativity Is Nicer.

My Uncle's A Lawyer And I Remember Going To See Him In Court And Thinking, 'that's Cool, Too Bad I Could Never Be A Lawyer.'

It Doesn't Occur To So Many People That If You Don't Have A Clear Heterosexual, Gender Confirming Identity That There Are Parts Of Day-to-day Life - Like Using A Bathroom Or Getting Your Clothes - That Just Aren't Going To Be As Easy.

When You're Writing A Script You Have The Option To Embellish On Life Or Switch The Order Of Events Or Make It Generally More Cinematic. I Would Stick Too Closely To My Own Experience And Not Necessarily Think About The Fact That It Needs To Have An Event Happen. Realising That I Could Channel My Own Experience Into A Story That Was Slightly More Cinematic Was A Very Important Moment For Me - Allowing Myself To Accept That The Kind Of Screenwriting I'm Doing Is A Work Of Fiction.

It's Not Brave To Do Something That Doesn't Scare You.

Aren't Most Of Us Dealing With The Fact That We Have Moms Who Either Weren't Ready To Be Moms Or Had Some Level Of Resentment About It? Everybody Is Dealing With The Different Iteration Of Pain Their Mom Has Handed Them.

I Felt Like My Parents Were Always Involved With Abstraction, And I Wanted To Do Something Very Specific.

Here's Who It's Okay To Share A Bed With: . . . A Heating Pad. An Empty Bag Of Pita Chips. The Love Of Your Life.

Everyone Needs Something From Me.

I've Never Thought Of Myself As An Actor, So Somebody Recognizing Me For That Would Be A Real Shock.

It's Funny, I Never Considered That People Are Going To See Me On The Show And Maybe Stop Me On The Subway.

My Dad Once Told Me That He Would Rather I Had An Old Boyfriend Than A Tall Boyfriend. I Don't Know Why, I Think He's Just Feels Stressed By... He' Not That Short I Just Think The Idea Of A Really Tall Guy Is Super Anxiety Producing To Him. And Now I'm With Neither Old Guy Nor A Very Tall Guy. So Everything Has Worked Out Perfectly.

I'd Always Loved Movies, But It Wasn't Some Sort Of Desperate Love Of Celluloid. It Was Literally Like, "i Want To Write Things, And I Want People To See Them More."

I Think That People In The Phase Between Being Someone's Kid And Being Someone's Parent Have Always Been Uniquely Narcissistic, But That Social Media And Twitter And Livejournal Make It Really Easy To Navel-gaze In A Way That You've Never Been Able To Before. People Taking Pictures Of What They Eat And Showing Them On Their Facebook. People Assume That People Have A Level Of Interest In What They're Doing That's Maybe Far Greater Than It Is, Although There Is An Audience For All That Stuff.

If You Watch My Movie, You Understand I Am Perverse And Weird And Angry And Not Looking To Direct A Film That Ends With A Bunch Of Teenagers Exploding Into Glitter.

I Didn't Tell Him I Was A Virgin, Just That I Hadn’t Done It “that Much.” It Hurt A Little More Than I'd Expected But In A Different Way, And He Was Nervous Too And He Never Came. Afterwards We Lay There And Talked, And I Could Tell He Was A Really Nice Person. I Commended Myself For Making A Healthy, Albeit Hasty, Partner Choice. I Really Couldn't Wait To Tell My Mom.

I Consider Being Female Such A Unique Gift, Such A Sacred Joy, In Ways That Run So Deep I Can't Articulate Them. It's A Special Kind Of Privilege To Be Born Into The Body You Wanted, To Embrace The Essence Of Your Gender Even As You Recognize What You Are Up Against. Even As You Seek To Redefine It.

Basically My New Litmus Test For People Is, Do They Make Me Hear About A Blow Job They Gave In The First Ten Minutes Of Us Talking? And If They Didn't Then I Can Feel Excited.

It's Not Brave To Do Something That Doesn't Scare You. Performing In Sex Scenes That I Direct, Exposing A Flash Of My Weird Puffy Nipple, Those Things Don't Fall Into My Zone Of Terror.

I Always Thought The Saddest Feeling In Life Is When You're Dancing In A Really Joyful Way And Then You Hit Your Head On Something.

I Feel Like I Don't Watch That Many Shows With Death.

A Girl's Night For Me Is With A Member Of My Family On The Couch, Eating Takeout, Watching Something Good, Going To Sleep Early, It's So Boring, But It's Just What I Need!

Barbie’s Disfigured. It’s Fine To Play With Her Just As Long As You Keep That In Mind.

At My Age, No One Is Married, No One Has Kids, No One Has A Career.

Part Of Being A Feminist Is Giving Other Women The Freedom To Make Choices You Might Not Necessarily Make Yourself.

No One Wants To See A Tattoo On A Stomach.

I Can’t Imagine A Passionate Affair With A Native Man

I Have To Take My Shoes Off, You Guys.

I Think That Social Networking Makes People More Connected, Yet More Distant, So There Are People With Less Ties To Real Friend Groups And Less A Sense Of Self.

I Know That When I Am Dying, Looking Back, It Will Be Women That I Regret Having Argued With, Women I Sought To Impress, To Understand, Was Tortured By. Women I Wish To See Again, To See Them Smile And Laugh And Say, It Was All As It Should Have Been.

There Are So Many Reactions To Art That Make Sense To Me - But 'ick' Means Something.

I Value My Health And My Happiness. And I've Realized Exercise Can Give Me Both Of Those Things.

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