The Wizard of Oz' is my favorite movie. It was the first movie I can ever remember watching.
Ezra MillerFamily is this very deep, complex thing that for most people becomes everything. It informs your entire life.
Ezra MillerIf one took a role with the intention of, "I'll show them what I can do!," then it's not going to be good because the ego is going to just block everything.
Ezra MillerThe most important part of my practice as an artist has been remembering to stay humble. There is so much hurt, so much sorrow, so much pain in the world, and I think when you're born and bred into privilege, it's easier to have a closed perspective on things. But there's this opportunity that's open to all of us to let empathy connect us back to one another.
Ezra MillerHousing Works is the coolest thrift store in the world, because not only are they the best thrift store - they're not the most thrifty thrift store - but they have amazing stuff and all of their proceeds go directly to kids, mostly homeless kids, living with AIDS and HIV in New York, in the metropolitan area.
Ezra MillerSometimes it'll happen to people, that their self will stop coming through. And people will just cease to understand them.
Ezra MillerActing and making art is just something I love to do, and I love to tell stories that feel important, honest and necessary. It's not about me. It's about being part of something.
Ezra MillerI think that artists don't make art - the art makes itself through us. I'm not the doer. I'm just along for the ride. Acting really reminds me of that because I don't write the words; I don't make the decisions. That's the director. Narcissism is a tragic condition. It must be so miserable to live trapped in a reflection that only includes the smallest version of our identities. Our true identities should have no bounds and no limits.
Ezra MillerThe token gay character is always so funny and so fantastic. That's happened a lot. Or they're often purely victims.
Ezra MillerI don't need my sexuality celebrated, and I certainly don't need it to be criticized. I didn't necessarily want it to be observed, but here we are.
Ezra MillerDoing things like playing music, something that's so natural and basic to human function, running around in nature, eating delicious food. These things are intrinsic in basic, primordial to human beings, so that's sort of a way to return to a blank canvas, allowing my true personality to return.
Ezra MillerI'm super down with being irresponsible. I'm just trying to make sure my lack of responsibility no longer hurts people.
Ezra MillerI don't feel like there's any need to hide the fact that I smoke pot. It's a harmless herbal substance that increases sensory appreciation.
Ezra MillerNew Jersey was actually a very cold place. There was such an intense concentration of wealth, and such a low concentration of any actual human happiness. A lot of people seem to be similar to the kid in school, which is doing a lot of things with no direct consequence to their joy, or their lives.
Ezra MillerIโve had many, you know, happy ending sleepoversโin my early youth โ my period of exploration. I think thatโs essential. Anyone who hasnโt had a gay moment is probably trying to avoid some confrontation with a reality in their life.
Ezra MillerWeโre not living in an age of no hope. We are living in the age of choice, which is much scarier. It means that what we do every day matters, which is always a bummer for humans. But itโs a great thing and itโs inspirational and we need to remember that. We have a long way to go and not a long time to get there.
Ezra MillerThere's no true value placed in learning, if the point of you learning something is to simply know it for a test, to get a grade, to go to the good school.
Ezra MillerEverybody feels like an outcast because the world is so large and every fingerprint is so vastly different from one another, and yet we have these standards and beliefs, and dogmatic systems of judgment and ranking, in almost all the societies of the world.
Ezra MillerFriends that I value most are people who would essentially use physical violence against me at a time when I seem to be teetering on the edge.
Ezra MillerI shop only at thrift stores and vintage stores. In New York, I like a place called Star Struck, and a place called The Family Jewels.
Ezra MillerFor a long time I felt like I was fighting my age, like I was constantly trying to prove to people that I was a savvy peer, and I felt them viewing me as a kid. I was a cocky kid, and I felt like I was an adult at, like, 9, you know? I think thatโs because my parents always treated me as an adult.
Ezra MillerI went to a school that was founded on a lot of very radical ideals of how education should be changed. But what's happening to schools like that sort of all over the country is in economic pressure they're becoming more and more preparatory because that's what people will really pay the money for private schooling for now.
Ezra MillerI've fallen prey to my fair share of moments of the phobias of others and the way that that can become an attack.
Ezra MillerI'd like to make as much art as I possibly can before I die, so I'm working on a few things.
Ezra MillerI think everybody's crazy, and if I'm the one being a little direct about it, that's fine by me.
Ezra MillerI was a cocky kid, and I felt like I was an adult at, like, 9. I think that's because my parents always treated me as an adult.
Ezra MillerI feel like a sickness and dystrophy is growing in people, like people are getting sicker, something about our society, something about our psychological structures. Weโre not whole.
Ezra MillerGetting socially outcast can be the best and most informative thing that can ever happen to you because you have to learn who you are separate from the pack.
Ezra MillerI always thought it would be really, really cool to play Edgar Allan Poe, because when I was a kid, he was one of the authors who really blew my mind open to all sorts of weird dark and twisted places.
Ezra MillerI think a lot of people are projecting their own troubles and fears concerning sexuality onto those around them, and it does result in the perpetuation of a lot of hateful notions. As long as I can remember, I've felt really horrified watching those dynamics play out.
Ezra MillerI genuinely think I have a hugging superpower. I'm starting to master the transformative hug. I have a strange memory ability. There's a lot of information that I don't cognitively know, but that seems to rise up at moments of need. That feels like a superpower. Something that nobody knows about me is that I discovered at a young age that I could sing in two tones. I don't do this in performance, because it's something very special to me. But I've learned that it's a practice that goes back far in time.
Ezra MillerThe most important thing is actually raising up children with a true and lasting burning sense of curiosity. I don't even know how they do it. Good parents are a marvel.
Ezra MillerIf there's any sort of superpower we desperately need right now, it's this transcendental force that reminds us of union and connection. I think that superhero stories come from somewhere. We make these aspirational images, to remind us that we have this capacity in ourselves already. I think that electricity can run through disconnected wires. Superheroes, every single one of them, come from the world of imagination and they're played by humans, they're written by humans, and it's in the belief that we invest in these characters that they come to life.
Ezra MillerI guess the big thing is that I don't buy anything first-hand. It's a personal policy I have for all sorts of reasons. If you research to the textile industry yourself, you'll know why. I came to it personally.
Ezra MillerEvery teenager deals in his or her own sexuality and has to face it and figure out how it can coincide with the rest of their lives in a healthy manner. And try to navigate it in our modern society, which is wrought with stigma and taboo and repression, and sort of as a result, these inner monsters that some teenagers really struggle with.
Ezra Miller