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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.

-Lena Dunham

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This Could Very Easily

Lena Dunham

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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.

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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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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 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 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.

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

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.

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 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.

Luxury Is Nice, But Creativity Is Nicer.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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 Thought I Wanted To Be A Journalist Or A Novelist.

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

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.

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 Always Feel That There Are Two Choices For Women. Either Be Totally Confident About Your Non-size-zero Body And Say, 'i Love What I Look Like And This Is Who I Am,' Or Be The Person Who Is Obsessed With Diet And Exercise And Keeping Toned. What Feels More Realistic To Me Is That Some Days I Wake Up And Think I Love How I Look. On Other Days I Say, 'if I Had Real Self-control, I Would Be 10 Pounds Lighter.' That Contradiction Is, To Me, What Being A Girl Actually Feels Like.

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

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

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

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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.

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

Everyone Needs Something From Me.

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

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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.

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

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

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

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

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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 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.

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 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 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.

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

My Mom Knows Pretty Well How I See Her.

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.

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 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.

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 Have To Take My Shoes Off, You Guys.

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

Hell Hath No Fury

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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'm Really Lucky Because My Sister Is A Real Activist Soul And Also Hyper-intellectualized In This Way That's Really Allowed Me To Wrap My Mind Around Some Of The Bigger Intellectual Concepts And Really Understand The Language Around Identity In The Gender Nonconforming Community.

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.

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

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

Self Reflection

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Position Of Power

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Purity And Innocence

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?'

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

Marriage Equality

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

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

No One Wants To See A Tattoo On A Stomach.

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.

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

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 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'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.

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.

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

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 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 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.

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.

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.

Every Time I Start Feeling Sexy I Trip.

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.

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

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

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

I Get A Lot Of Unasked For Sexual Confessions.

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.

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.

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.

I Love Flawed Female Characters, Duking It Out.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

Enjoy Going Through Life As Yourself.

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

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

I Have An Authority Problem.

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

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

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.

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.

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