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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.

-Lena Dunham

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I've Been A Little

Lena Dunham

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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.

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At A Brunch Potluck, I Realize That I Do, In Fact, Hate Everybody.

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

Artists Themselves Are Neurotic And Fearful People, And You Can Look At Their Work And Figure Out What They're Scared Of.

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

Position Of Power

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

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.

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 Never Thought Of Myself As Like, A Funny Person.

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

I Refresh Twitter As Thoughtlessly As Some Twirl Their Hair.

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

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

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.

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

I Mean, I - It's So Funny, I Am, You Know, I Am, You Know, A Working Woman Out In The World, But I Still Live With My Parents Half The Time. I've Been Sort Of Taking This Very Long, Stuttering Period Of Moving Out.

I Would Go To Work From 9 To 6, Go Home, Nap For Two Hours, Then Write From 8 To 2 A.m.

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

The Only Time I Felt Like A Weird Exploiter - Even Though I Knew I Wasn't One - Was When I Was Writing A Sex Scene Between Me And My Adorable Co-star [adam Driver] In Which He Had To Tell Me How Much He Loved My Potbelly. It Seemed Like A Weird Wish-fulfillment Thing, Where I'm Directing My Own Fantasy.

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.

I Don’t Really Read Reviews… That’s Not Where My Attention Goes.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.'

The Experience Of Directing Yourself In A Sex Scene Is, In A Way, Great. It's The Fantasy We All Have In Our Lives All The Time.

I Think Grace [dunham] And I Are Always Working From A Personal Place, And The Fact That These Were Issues That We'd Been Talking About In Our Own Families Really Clicked, But Also Jason's [benjamin] Passion About It And His Clear Sense That This Was Going To Be Something Emotional And Remarkable To Watch. It Was Very Hard Not Get Excited About It And Want To Help In Any Way We Could.

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

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

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 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.

I'm Really Lucky Because I Surround Myself Onset With People Who I Really Trust To Give Me Feedback, So I'm Directing Myself.

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].

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.

Guys Warning Girls Not To Fall In Love With Them Is So Truly Douchey That It Should Have A Higher Success Rate.

Falling In Love

I Love Flawed Female Characters, Duking It Out.

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.

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.

I Had Always Written. I Had Written Stories And Poems. Then I Started Writing Plays.

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

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.

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.

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.

I Don"t Feel Like There Are A Tremendous Amount Of Roles For The Size I Am.

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'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.

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

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

If Someone Doesn't Answer Your Email Within Six Hours, It Means They Hate You.

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

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.

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.

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 Had No Friends. I Worried A Lot.

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

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 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.

When I Graduated College I Had A Series Of Just Humiliating Jobs That I Couldn't Believe I Was At.

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.

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 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 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.

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

I've Only Recently Realized That I Have A Radically Different Relationship With My Parents Than A Lot Of People.

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

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

I Can Play Very Annoying Girl, Very Lost Girl And Then All The Things In The Spectrum Between.

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

Purity And Innocence

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

Making A Difference

I Hate To Be The Person That's Like, "we're Doing Something That's Never Been Done Before."

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

I Am Not A Particularly Political Person, But, As A Tribeca Resident, The Commodification Of September 11th Is Offensive To Me.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Can We Call A Moratorium On The Use Of The Term 'ladyparts'? Grazia!

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 Would Have Specific Books [when I Was 12 Or 13] That Had Pages That I Knew Had Sex On Them That I Would Go And Read.

I Seriously Consider Television To Be The People's Medium.

Pushing Boundaries

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.

Instagram What You Think Is Funny And Exciting And Try Not To Include Any Animal Abuse!

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.

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.

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

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 Get A Lot Of Unasked For Sexual Confessions.

My Weight Fluctuates Depending On My Mood And My Current Devotion To My Fitness Routine.

Everyone Needs Something From Me.

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.

You're A Small Business And You Have To Take Care Of Yourself The Way You Would A Small Business And Take Care Of Yourself The Way Any Small Business Owner Would.

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

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 Think That As Our Country Becomes More Tolerant As A Whole Of Certain Things, Hopefully Becomes More Tolerant, There's A Way That Certain Kinds Of Bullying Will Be Passe And Unacceptable.

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

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.

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.

I've Always Loved My Own Little Office Spaces No Matter What They Were Like. It's The Virginia Woolf, Room Of One's Own Concept, It's Really Important.

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.

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.

Enjoy Going Through Life As Yourself.

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?

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.

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.

But I Want To Tell My Stories, More Than That, I Have To In Order To Stay Sane.

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.

I'm So In Awe Of What Visual Artists Do And I Do Understand The Differences Of What Visual Artists Do. I Have A Small Art Collection I Hope To Expand.

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

What A Snarky Jerk. (obviously, I Later Slept With Him.)

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

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

Feminists Believe That Men And Women Should Have The Same Opportunities. If You Are A Feminist You Believe In Equal Rights As A Whole. That’s Not A Concept You Can Really Shoot Down.

Directing Is About As Visual As I Get And I Will Leave Artmaking To The Rest Of The Family.

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.

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

But Ambition Is A Funny Thing: It Creeps In When You Least Expect It And Keeps You Moving, Even When You Think You Want To Stay Put.

My Thoughts On Body Image Are Simple: If You Are Being Kind To Yourself Mentally And Physically You Never Have Anything To Be Ashamed For, Ever.

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

No One Wants To See A Tattoo On A Stomach.

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 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.

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 Do Think Girls In Their Twenties Accept Certain Kinds Of Lesser Treatment Than They Would At Other Times In Their Lives.

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.

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

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.

It’s Interesting To See How Other People React To An Oversharer.

You Should Always Go Where There Is A 'you-shaped' Hole In The World.

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 Thought I Wanted To Be A Journalist Or A Novelist.

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.

I Really Loved ["the Love Affairs Of Nathaniel P" By Adelle Waldman]. It's Having A Really Hot Moment. Unlike Many Hot Books, It's Actually Really Wonderful. I Tend To Have That Reaction: I Don't Want To Read It If Everyone Thinks It's Cool. It Was A Really Interesting Insight Into Being Young And Male. Now That Made Me Feel Really Thankful For My Boyfriend And Really Thankful Because He Wasn't Like That Protagonist, But I Know So Many People Who Are Like That Protagonist.

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

I Used To Think Twitter Was A Waste Of Time And Sort Of Ran Counter To My Ability To Be Productive And To Write And Now Twitter Feels Like A Really Cool Part Of The Creative Experience.

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.

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.

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

You Know, When I First Started Making Online Videos, There Were A Lot Of Filmmakers I Befriended Who Were Doing It Too.

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

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.

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?

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

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.

You Don't Need To Be Flamboyant In Your Life To Be Flamboyant In Your Work.

I'm Always Afraid That I'm Being Unprofessional, Yet I Continue To Sign All My E-mails 'xoxo.'

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

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.

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

I Have To Take My Shoes Off, You Guys.

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

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.

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

The End Never Comes When You Think It Will. It's Always Ten Steps Past The Worst Moment, Then A Weird Turn To The Left.

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

I Support Selfies! I Think The War On Selfies Is Really Unjust!

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’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.

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 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 Learned About Sex Pretty Early When I Was, I Remember, My Friend Amanda Delauro Explained It To Me When I Was Six And Then I Went Home And I Told My Parents, "oh My God, Amanda Said This Ridiculous Thing, Can You Believe How Stupid This Is? She's Insane.

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

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."

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

Luxury Is Nice, But Creativity Is Nicer.

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

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.

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

Hell Hath No Fury

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

My Parents Are Artists; In Their World, In The World Of Modern Artists, You Are Supposed To Just Go Into Your Studio And Tune Everything Out, And Your Entire Relationship With Your Work Is Supposed To Be A Super Private One. That Was The Way To Do It And You Weren't Deeply Truly Artistic If That Wasn't The Way You Were Engaging The Press.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

The Idea Of Being A Feminist-so Many Women Have Come To This Idea Of It Being Anti-male And Not Able To Connect With The Opposite Sex-but What Feminism Is About Is Equality And Human Rights. For Me That Is Just An Essential Part Of My Identity. I Hope [girls] Contributes To A Continuance Of Feminist Dialogue

My Sister Is Bold, Independent, And Not Afraid To Wear Overalls. Some Of Her First Words As A Child Were "that's Not Fair," And She's Been Committed To Social Justice Ever Since. She's My Hero.

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.

We're The Last F - Ing People Who Have A F - Ing Opinion On What You Should Do With Your Body. Anything That Makes Your Day Easier, As Long As You're Not Feeding Your Baby Crack In Milk, Is Really Good By Us.

You Get Reactions And You Connect To People And I Love Twitter.

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.

My Dad Finds Twitter Just Infinitely Unrelatable. He's Like, 'why Would I Want To Tell Anybody What I Had For A Snack, It's Private?!' And I'm Like, 'why Would You Even Have A Snack If You Didn't Tell Anybody? Why Bother Eating?'

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

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Matthew Lillard

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