How you go about moving within the world you live in says so much about who you are.

I think the fact that my parents are still, "Hey, great, that's great!" and not, "We need you to do this and be a star!" - it was never like that. My mom's a translator, my dad's a woodworker; that's the world I grew up in, that's the world I'm most comfortable in. The whole idea of Hollywood or any of that other stuff that unfortunately goes along with film, that wasn't part of my upbringing, thankfully.

So much of how you look at yourself in the mirror reflects how you feel about yourself, and how you comport yourself.

Trust your gut. You know yourself, so don't let somebody else tell you who you are.

The most bizarre demographics come up to me. Men in their 50s come up to me and are like, "Alison is my favorite. I hated her at first, and now I love her." I don't know what that says about people's psychology.

I wanted to get everything right. I was super nerdy and academic. I got so much satisfaction out of getting good grades.

It's always been my dream to just continually do really cool indie movies - character-driven stuff.