Quotes from Evangeline Lilly

That's what happens in Hollywood. People are like, 'I want to hate you, because everyone else seems to love you.' But the reality is this: I'm a simple person who's not interested in attention and who just wants to go about her business.

Peter Jackson has just really earned the right to be Tolkien's torchbearer on screen.

I was a massive Tolkien fan. 'The Hobbit' was... my favorite book as a little girl, and the Silvan Elves were my favorite characters in the book.

I was fortunate enough to be one of those stories where I was scouted on the street by somebody and actually refused to go to the agency, and was approached on different occasions and finally kind of caved and said, 'OK, I'll try it and see what happens.'

I think of the 'Hobbit' films as being films for the family.

My son was three months old when I started filming 'The Hobbit,' and I was still breastfeeding.

My home is my castle, and I spend a lot of time nurturing it, redecorating - moving this and adjusting that, adding flowers and candles.

I'm always changing things around. I have to change it all the time. I'm rearranging furniture and taking down paintings and putting up new ones, and buying new pieces of art.

Around the time I graduated from high school, I decided better to underachieve and have friendship than to overachieve and be alone.

I'm surrounded by people who care about me and love me. I have a great job. I have wonderful roommates who take care of me. I have a family who adores me.

I have been a bit of a reluctant actress since the get-go, since the beginning of 'Lost.'

Every woman is after a kind of classy image.

If you're going to tell stories about life, you have to include a woman in your story.

'The Hobbit' didn't include female characters at all and was a very linear story, a book for children, really.

I love being outside - that's where I'm the happiest.

I love the creative end of acting. But I hate fame.

Even if you're unhappy, just pretend that you're happy. Eventually, your smile will be contagious to yourself. I had to learn that. I used to think, 'I'm being fake ' but you know what? Better to be fake and happy than real and miserable.

Acting is something I appreciate, and I think it's been an amazing experience. But I'm not passionate about acting the way you probably should be to call yourself an actor.

The people on my mum's side of the family are atheist intellectuals who are ueber-proper. My dad's side of the family are missionaries who are more comfortable sitting around in sweatpants than they are in a five-star restaurant. But those two influences converged in my life.

To put it simply - you know, a lot of people believe that the benefit of this job is fame and fortune. I believe that you pay for the fortune through the fame. I don't buy into the notion that being famous is somehow a good thing, or an exciting thing, or a wonderful thing.

My family didn't have a lot of money, and I'm grateful for that. Money is the longest route to happiness.

I'm from Canada, and New Zealand feels like you took all the best bits of Canada and squished them onto a tiny island like Hawaii. I was absolutely blown away by the beauty of the South Island.

The people on my mum's side of the family are atheist intellectuals who are ueber-proper. My dad's side of the family are missionaries who are more comfortable sitting around in sweatpants than they are in a five-star restaurant. But those two influences converged in my life.

I'm a pretty skeptical person, and I'm a realistic person.