I don't know why femininity should be associated with weakness. Women should be free to express who they are without thinking, 'I need to act like a man, or I need to tone it down to be successful.' That's a very good way to keep women down.

I feel like making music because - and this has much to do with the way I was able to make this record - there's more of myself in it.

That people equate being girlie with being nonthreatening … I mean, I can't think of a more blatant example of playing into exactly the thing that we're trying to fight against. I can't be girlie? I think the fact that people are associating being girlie with weakness, that needs to be examined. I don't think that it undermines my power at all.

I'm a big fan of the '80s fantasy genre that I grew up watching, movies like "Krull" and "Clash of the Titans" and "Time Bandits" and all that stuff.

Girls get competitive, as though there's only one spot in the world for everything _ but that's not true. We need to stick together and see there's more to life than pleasing men. It's important not to cut yourself off from female friendships. I think sometimes girls get scared of other girls, but you need each other.

I actually did a lot of improvised movies or movies that were partially improvised.

I like playing sort-of-crazy people. There's something really, really fun about that.