Quotes

I started acting as a child because I loved stories and wanted to be part of them. I thought it would be something I could do for a few years, but it shows no sign of going away.

I get to play a lot of teenage girls with supposed problems. But I don't see them as problems - just part of the process of growing up.

[When told by an interviewer that she has a good head on her shoulders for someone who's grown up in the scary world of Hollywood:] But the scary world is all around us. Whether the walls are Hollywood or the walls are New York or the walls are Afghanistan. It's just a scary world, you have to know what you want from it, what your intentions are, and know that those things continually change.

[In reference to growing up without a father figure but rather with two mothers] I grew up with two moms. They were lovers until I was nine. Then they split up. I was the product of a one-night stand. But I met my father once when I was four. He lives somewhere in Reno. The thing is, I had two loving parents. Love in any shape or form is a beautiful thing. I didn't grow up missing my father.

What's the point of doing anything without music?

I have this camera so I just taped myself doing this little piece of voice-over and I sent [director Sean Penn] a DVD. Four days later, he called me back and said he usually never hires anyone without meeting them, but could I do it? Literally, I would wash the floor for him. I just respect every part of what he's done with his career. (On landing her role in Into the Wild (2007)).