When I go into a pitch room and I'm pitching something with a writing partner, everybody tends to look at the guy, even if I'm doing a lot of the talking.
— Brit Marling
Nothing seemed as scary as waking up at 40 and realizing that I had not lived a very courageous life.
I feel like I'm a much better person when I'm developing my imagination and my innocence and my vulnerability. I like that version of me better than the version where I'm just working on my analytical mind.
As an actor, you have an accumulated knowledge base. But there's also something about it that every time you really feel like you're doing it for the first time; you have no idea whether you're capable of it.
Modern life has gotten so strange, we all get 150 emails and text messages a day, and it's hard when things are moving that quickly to keep that sense of wonder about being alive.
I think what's so attractive about acting is that you get to live several lifetimes in one.
The only thing that's important is that every day I'm waking and doing something that I really love to do.
If you play it safe every time, then you're missing the best part of acting. You haven't learned anything about your humanity.
I'd studied theater growing up and loved that, but didn't have many examples of artists around me.
I think I realized very early on that you can spend a lot of time constructing a really perfect scene in final draft and just end up throwing it away because you didn't figure out that mathematics of the story first.
I think we're always looking for an excuse to connect.
I think we're scared of intimacy - all of us, a little bit.
I wasn't actually very naturally good at economics. My brain doesn't work very well, in terms of mathematics.
Science fiction has a way of letting you talk about where we are in the world and letting you be a bit of a pop philosopher without being didactic.
We put limitations on the way that we think about things, on ourselves, think about all the boxes we live in, male or female, you're this age, that age, this is your job, this is not your job, everything is about getting boxed in.
Is there anything worse than being called the 'It Girl?' By definition, there will be a new one in two weeks.
Living in Cuba made me unafraid of whatever could happen to me.
I didn't understand how you could be an actor if you didn't also study philosophy and study political science, astronomy. And also just go out and live life and have experiences.
I think there is a general unrest or curiosity about what a human future is going to be like, and whether the way we're living is even sustainable.
When I was a kid and going to the movies I was overwhelmed by the way women were always second-class citizens in the film.
Human beings are flawed and complicated and messy.
You are the sum total of the choices you make every day.
Life is beautiful because it doesn't last.
Then in college, besides economics, I also majored in studio art and got involved in photography and making short films and acting. But I didn't know you could make a living that way.
You know, I can't imagine 9 to 5 writing. That takes some stamina.
We're always just telling stories, and stories are always just approximations of the truth. It's never the truth exactly.
I think I am looking as an actor to find ways to push myself into places I haven't been before as a human being.
I learned from my parents the idea that, if you are devoted enough and you want to study something enough, you can really teach yourself anything.
The litmus test for whether I want to take on a role or not is usually fear. If I'm afraid of it, then I want to do it.
Writing so that I can act became a way of having not more control over my future but not having to wait for permission. You can choose yourself. Hmm, who should play this part? I nominate me!
When I'm sitting writing, I know that something works if I've made myself cry, or laugh, or have a visceral emotion.
So writing became a way to get to act in things that I thought were meaningful, and hopefully write stronger roles for other women.
So at some point you realize that your life is not just going to start one day in the future, that you're living it.
I always feel like the editing room is like coming into the kitchen. What kind of a meal do you make from there? It can be anything.
Here's the thing that I think about life - if you manage to get into a space where you don't need that much, where the overhead of your life is not that great and you're pretty happy and relaxed without that much stuff, you are really liberated because you never have to say yes to something because you want another refrigerator or car!
I'm still a bit of a romantic and an idealist and hopelessly naive.
A couple of compromises in a row and suddenly you're very far way from the person you thought you were.
A lot of people think, 'I'll give acting or poetry or filmmaking a try. And if it doesn't work out I'll go get a law degree, do something else that's more practical.' For me I went the reverse way. I lived the back-up plan.
I think sometimes big budget means explosions! CGI! CGI, the possibilities are so limitless that it begins to be impractical.
I've found myself at one in the morning just sitting at my desk spending an hour returning emails from the day until like two in the morning. It's ridiculous, I should be sleeping, or dreaming, or reading a novel.
I get uncomfortable when people give me presents and watch me open them. I don't have birthday parties, because the idea of a group of people singing and looking at me while I'm blowing out candles gives me hives.
A whole film is just about arriving at a moment where you hopefully transfer some feeling to the audience.
One of my favorite stories growing up was 'A Wrinkle in Time'. I loved that book.
One of the great pleasures of acting is surrendering to someone else's point of view of the world - living inside a character and a story that never would have come out of your mind or heart.
