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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.

-Lena Dunham

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Katherine Heiny's Work Does

Lena Dunham

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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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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 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.

Luxury Is Nice, But Creativity Is Nicer.

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

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.

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

I Had No Friends. I Worried A Lot.

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.

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.

When I Was Nine, I Wrote A Vow Of Celibacy On A Piece Of Paper And Ate It.

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.

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

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.

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

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 Kind Of Look Like Every Other Girl Walking Around.

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

Enjoy Going Through Life As Yourself.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Sometimes I Was So Bored That I Started Arguments Just To Experience The Rush Of Almost Losing Him.

I'm Ridiculous In My Oversharing; My Mom And Sister Are Very Open But A Little More Judicious Than Me... And My Father Is A Decidedly Private Person.

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

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 Was Raised On The Internet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

There's People Who Don't Want To See Bodies Like Mine Or Bodies Like Their Own Bodies.

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

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.

None Of My Actions Have Ever Sort Of Been Motored By The Search For A Husband Or Wondering If I Was Going To Have A Family Someday Or Wanting To Live In A Really Great House Or Thinking It Would Be Really Great To Have A Diamond.

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

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.

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.

I Am Thinking Particularly Of A Shower I Took Where The Lower Half Of My Body Was Under The Running Water And The Upper Half Was Laid Out On The Bath Mat, Eating A Loaf Of Bread.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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 Would Be A Horrible Girlfriend At This Point In My Life, Because I’m Both Needy And Unavailable.

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.

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

I Just Don't Want To Be Around People Who Don't Hate Everything In Their Life Right Now.

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.

Every Time I Start Feeling Sexy I Trip.

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

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

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.

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

I Get A Lot Of Unasked For Sexual Confessions.

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 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.

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

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

Position Of Power

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

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

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

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.'

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Current Economic Climate Means Getting Out Of College Is No Guarantee Of Getting A Job, And No Guarantee Of A Satisfying Work Life. My Dad Feels That This Is The First Generation Of Americans That Expects That There Children Will Have A Harder Time Then They Did. That's A Fascinating Concept.

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.

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

I'd Love To Write Something For A Male Protagonist. That's Sort Of The Next Frontier For Me. I Think It'd Be Really Amazing To Write The Kind Of Parts That I Love For Women But For A Guy.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

It Would Probably Be Too Easy A Cop Out To Say That Just Republican Males Hate Me. Though There's A Large Swath Of Them, For Sure.

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

Hell Hath No Fury

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

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 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 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.

But I Am A Girl With A Keen Interest In Having It All, And What Follows Are Hopeful Dispatches From The Frontlines Of That Struggle.

As A Woman Who Doesn't Necessarily Fit The Beauty Standard In Hollywood... I Really Related To The Narrative Of Looking For Something You Felt Comfortable In That Would Properly Express Your Identity, Especially When Your Identity Didn't Feel Like It Necessarily Matched The One That Was Being Imposed On You.

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 Thought I Wanted To Be A Journalist Or A Novelist.

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.

Throughout The Day I Often Ask Myself, Could I Fall Asleep Right Now? And The Answer Is Always A Resounding Yes.

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

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

Basically, Anything A Sexual Predator Might Do To Woo A Small Suburban Girl, I Was Trying.

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.

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.

I Would Rather Spend My Entire Life Doing Nothing Than Have My Name Attached To Something Mediocre.

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

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.

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

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.

In Hollywood, You've Got A Hundred People On Set, And Shooting The Sex Scene You're Wearing Nude-toned Underwear And Tape On Your Nipples. Nothing Is Going Beyond Where You Want It To Go.

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

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

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.

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 Refresh Twitter As Thoughtlessly As Some Twirl Their Hair.

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

Pushing Boundaries

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.

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

Purity And Innocence

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.

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 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.

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 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 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].

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

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 Can’t Imagine A Passionate Affair With A Native Man

I Am Comforted By The Fact That I Find A Real Range Of Female Bodies Beautiful, And I Hope That Other People Do Too. And Even If They Don't Find It Beautiful I Hope They're Just Glad That Something Like It Is Happening On Tv.

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."

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.

Confidence Lets You Pull Anything Off, Even Tevas With Socks.

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

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.

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

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 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.

I Have An Authority Problem.

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

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

There Is Something Vulnerable About Showing Your Tattoos To People, Even While It Gives You A Feeling That You Are Wearing A Sleeve When You Are Naked.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.'

Don't Put Yourself In Situations You'd Like To Run Away From. But When You Run, Run Back To Yourself.

Self Reflection

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 Thought About ["summer Sisters" ] So Often As I Was Writing About These Female Characters Who Love Each Other And Hated Each Other And Were Sort Of In Love With Each Other.

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

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

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

I Actually Didn't Enjoy Being A Child Particularly At All Even Though I Had Nice Parents In A Comfortable Place To Live. Just Because I Was Too Confused In Generating Too Many Answers For Myself That Just Scared Me 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.

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.

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

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

It's Really Hard To Grow With Another Person.

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

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

Self Reflection

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

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.

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.

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

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.

I Have To Take My Shoes Off, You Guys.

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

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.

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.

It's Not That I Don't Want To Hear About That [blow Job] Stuff, I Just Want To Hear About It Immediately. And I Want To Hear About It On More Comfortable Terms.

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

No One Wants To See A Tattoo On A Stomach.

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

My Mom Knows Pretty Well How I See Her.

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

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.

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