The poetry when I was a kid felt like something that I could control, and whether it failed or not, whether it was good or not, was totally on me and I could accept that. It was entirely mine.

And one of my other friends could not believe in God if he came down and tapped her on the shoulder. She's a biologist - a student at UCLA - and I don't judge her either, because I really believe that God is a personal opinion, and only that

After I saw my first poem published, I became interested in the immortalization of words and the fact that you could put something out there that you felt and that meant something to you, and that it could be interpreted by many different people to mean many different things.

Because the role-model pressure becomes so insane, the personal and private takes a backseat to whatever it takes to maintain that fame and to maintain that lifestyle, and before you know it you're not a human being anymore.

Honestly, I am not trying to discourage anyone from becoming an actress, but if you want to become one be prepared to face everything that comes - along with it

I think we, especially in American culture, are so afraid to talk about death. And I'm not talking about literal death. I'm talking about shedding skin. I'm talking about rebirth, ultimately, and how we continue to change as human beings and continue to grow. There's that great Henry Miller quote, "All growth is a leap in the dark."

I think at the end of the day this movie is respecting what we as women go through as we grow up. The experiences, what we deal with, other women, things about images, things that we deal with as women. This movie addresses that in a very appropriate and sincere way.