I realized there are no lobbyists for critical thinking, and I realized there are no lobbyists for bravery.
— Rose McGowan
It's nice being able to speak for myself. Every interview I did for so many years and every time I was in front of the camera, pre-Twitter, there was no way for me to speak for myself. Every interview started with, 'What was it like to work for this man?'
We performers sacrifice so much for your entertainment.
People are like, 'Do you watch movies?' I'm like, 'I don't care.' I've ceased caring. I can't watch that construct anymore.
I never considered myself a celebrity. I hate that word. It's tawdry.
I'm not interested in worrying in if I make people uncomfortable. I'm interested in stopping women and children dying - that's what I'm interested in.
I think gay marriage should be the national law.
That's my takeaway from 'Scream' - I know I can fit in dog doors. You have to jimmy your body in a certain position and really hope you're not wearing something super fancy.
I'm not attracted to dangerous men. I'm attracted, apparently, to height. One ex was 6'6; the one before was 6'4, then 6'3. I like freakishly tall people.
I went to regular schools and I was home schooled a lot but I don't have any history in schools. Like, I literally don't exist. I didn't even get a birth certificate until the mid-80s. I always feel like I could be, like, 10 years younger, or maybe I'm 70!
I love the absurd - kind of absurdist comedy, absurd things in life.
At 13, when I was a runaway, I was taken in by the most amazing drag queens in Portland, Ore. We didn't always know where our next meal was coming from, but there was so much camaraderie and love. Not to mention, those girls could paint a face, and I learned how because of them.
I came out of the womb waving red lipstick.
I've seen many actors go awry by making the wrong choices early on.
I think I ran so hard and so fast, in a lot of ways, from my life and I kind of took a fall. It was like - what do they call it? - post-traumatic stress syndrome.
They're definitely having their moment now because they know how to work the system, and I know I have to be that way, too, in order to succeed. But it's never been more frustrating for me.
I say, 'Be brave. Do it even if your ankles shake, because they will.'
What's wrong with being angry? There's a lot of stuff to be angry about. If you're angry, anger covers pain. I don't know if you can truly deal with pain.
I really believe in being egalitarian.
If I've got a script, you think I'll go to Hollywood to get money? I was bored with the people around me, so I just created my own movie, my own character. I'm the story of my own movie, and you know what? My movie is going to be better.
I don't care what people say! Please get that straight. I really don't. Because I can't.
What I do with my work is, I give women permission to be angry. Because that's our right. Because it's an emotion. Because it's been taken away from us. Because we've been silenced.
I would like Obama to be tougher on going up against the Republicans, I don't think he should try to be so moderate.
I like strong, strong women who don't go down without a fight. I like iconic roles. They don't come around very often, so I have to wait for them. Obviously I'm not the typical blonde who stands by the side, while the man has all the fun.
I've had, like, four long-term boyfriends. I tend to be in relationships for long periods of time.
There was a story that I was in a shoe shop and that I threw a pair of flip flops at the wall, shouting, 'I can't believe how overpriced these are!' I thought, 'Gosh, if I'm gonna take a big stand on something I would hope it would be for more than flip flops!'
Quentin Tarantino is controlled insanity, I would say. He's very loud and fun. I don't think there's anybody on the planet like him that I have ever met.
I have a lot of brothers and sisters, and each movie has helped pay for tuition. And then I was like, I only have one left in college, so why am I doing this? But now I want to go back to Italy and live on a farm in Tuscany.
I was up watching Meet Joe Black at four AM. I was hoping Brad Pitt would die, and he was still alive at seven forty in the morning! I actually felt sorry for once, for critics.
I have great luck. I'm used to people dying and going away. Not used to it exactly - but I expect it. Like, whenever people go off on a trip, I save their phone messages because I think they might die.
I was with somebody else at the time, who I left - one, because I didn't really want to be with that person, and two, because I felt I'd had so much tragedy I needed to go off, go crazy, and maybe live on the outside for a while.
My movement is 'Rose Army.'
Someone asked me who I would be if I were a character in the 'Wizard of Oz.' I would be the curtain. I would be the one who saw both sides that nobody noticed, that was pretty and there to be used and discarded when they were done.
I don't know what it's like to get to face down my attacker in court, but I do know that they lie.
I use language to pierce the brain. If I spoke like everybody else spoke, it would just dull everything.
My focus isn't Hollywood; my focus is using Hollywood as an example. Because what happens here does happen everywhere. It's just a really concentrated and tense version here.
Women's rights are women's rights. One of the things that woke me up was equal pay. I started thinking about it: Who is the leader of women? Take me to your leader. And there were no leaders.
I like people who are fit. I figure if I work out, you can at least return the favor. Would I go out with a meathead? No.
Poe was such a tragic and brilliant figure; he's somebody whom I've been somewhat obsessed with my whole life. I first read 'The Tell-Tale Heart' at age four.
Because I do so many action-oriented films, I started working with stunt people doing fight training, then I found it to be just great exercise. Also I like to be fit, so I've continued on with fight training. Right before I got to do 'Conan,' I was fighting off four guys. Its great fun. And strange.
I did a cover for 'Rolling Stone' the other day and it was a kind of crazy lack of outfit. I thought, 'Oh, Lord. I'm never going to be Jane Austen in a film now!' 'Cause that's what I'd really like to do.
I'm not really one of those people who goes and writes some big back story and agonizes over characters. I think you kind of can get it. For me personally, it's just kind of more instinctive. But I don't have kind of an acting background. I fell into it accidentally.
I never started out trying to be an actor. That was not my passion, this was not my thing.
I realized a career is built as much on what you don't do as what you do do.
There have been a lot of murders and suicides in my family; it's like the primary cause of death. I wonder if there's a certain energy that attracts that.
It wasn't that I was shy to go out with him, I just didn't want people with preconceived notions to assume anything about why we were together. I was pretty careful for a while.
