The friendship that you create between you and a mom - or you and an older woman figure - is so important and so influential. I think that my relationship with my sister, my relationship with my best friends - when I'm feeling really terrible about myself, they're always there to let me know that I am being dramatic about something, or I'm being stupid about something - it's good to have those kinds of people to drag you back down and protect you.

I started acting when I was 5, and it was always a part of my life. My life and acting weren't separate things; they were always one.

I think something that I've learned from other actresses is to really take the time to get to know yourself, especially because I think that your sense of self is easy to lose when you're playing other people.

I genuinely love to be by myself, but at the same time, it's such a relief to know that I have another person's head who I can go into and whose life I can live. It's kind of an escape route, almost like therapy. It's refreshing to know that I can go back to a place where I don't have to be myself.

The Catcher in the Rye had such a deep impact on me, because it felt like it was just Holden and me. I didn't feel like any other person had read that book. It felt like my secret. Writing that I identify with feels like it's just me and the writer. So I hope that whoever is reading what I do feels like that.

There's this whole debate about whether being PC is just being like political or whether it's just being a good person, and I feel like that's something that people need to take into consideration because, you know, people are like, "Oh PC culture is ruining America." It's being a good person. If you're offended when people are not, you know, sexist or racist, then you're a part of the problem.

It's really scary, when you're on the verge of becoming a teenager, and you don't know if people like you for you or if they like you for the show you're on. So I started finding friends who were not that way, who are accepting and see you who you are.