I try to just pay attention to what I'm feeling. If something is scary to me, then that's sometimes a good sign - although, sometimes it's not.

All we want is to be treated like human beings, and not to be patronized, or experimented on like guinea pigs.

I remember realizing, when I did Little Women [1994], that that was the only time girls that age were being written about. It was always boys - from David Copperfield to Lord of the Flies to Holden Caulfield. There were never young women going through adolescence or teen years; there were only little girls.

I remember being 18, and my first boyfriend said to me, "Unless you're in the room, you don't know if it's true." We were talking about gossip.

If I showed you scripts from my first few movies, the descriptions of my characters all said 'the ugly girl'.

Break-ups are hard for anybody, but it's particularly tough when it's being documented and you see the person's picture everywhere. Most people don't have that added problem when they break up with someone.

I really lucked out in terms of how my parents encouraged me to develop my own personality so I didn't just feel incredibly insecure and like I didn't fit in.