Quotes from Jill Soloway

I always love the soapy conflicts between somebody's family of origin and their new family - 'Do I have Thanksgiving at my husband's parents' house, or at my parents' house?'

I'm embarrassed that people will know that I can't ride a bicycle. For years, I have been feigning bad ankles and saying I wasn't in the mood for a bike ride.

Watching 'Girls,' it was really angering for me at first, because I really had spent decades hiding unlikable, unattractive Jewish girls in likable, attractive, non-Jewish actors and characters.

I used to think that, when I was a director, I would have a very specific vision of what everything would look like, but now I am more of a camp counselor.

I love TV, I love writing, but I love movements more.

I think, because of the Internet, we're not looking at the very, very narrow channels for distribution that there used to be.

I love the Army-Navy surplus store Surplus Value Center. They have really good long underwear and multicolored bandanas, cool camo jackets, and really, really scary-looking knives. If you're into that sort of thing.

The network shows have this very commercial voice that you have to adhere to, and the cable shows, it's kind of like winning the lottery. The independent film world is a world you can actually get to. You can get the under-a-million-dollar film by finding a good cast and financing.

Your first job, I tell people I mentor, is managing your affect. Be nice and say nice things. Make it so that the people walk away from interacting with you and say, 'That was fun.' That will make them want to come back and do it again.

I want women to be the subject, not the object.

Because so many rooms are run by men they're just used to women being the "that" - to be adored and dreamed about.

On some sets, if a helicopter goes by, what would normally happen is that somebody would go, 'There's a helicopter. Stop.' I'd never stop for a helicopter. I am always trying to make sure that the machine is in service to the actors.

I've been told by people I respect that flashbacks only work if they have their own narrative, but they can't be part of the present narrative.

For clothes, I like this little store on Fountain, Matrushka Construction. Beth Ann Whittaker and Laura Howe make amazing things. You can get a designer skirt with cool embroidery for 40 bucks instead of $400 or $4,000.

What I have to offer as a writer/director is the stuff with the feeling in it.

I was running the show on 'United States of Tara' and 'How To Make It In America' where I could say, 'Okay, I'm in charge of everything now.' But it still wasn't my show.

In my own work I am invested in art as a way to break through impasses, whether those impasses are personal, social, or political.

I haven't made art about Israel. There's a covert subtext of Jewish identity in my artwork.

On Sunday morning, it's Brooklyn Bagels on Beverly Boulevard. We get them hot. Then we walk some of the famous Silver Lake steps or hike in the hills to the highest vantage point to see the reservoir.

I was so mad that because I am a woman it had fallen into my lap to organize the party, and also do everything else that created our children's lives: to buy clothes and make summer plans and babysitter arrangements and school deliverables and sports sign-ups and health forms...I'd never signed up for this role. All of my duties were assumed, no negotiation or divvying up of responsibilities, no questions asked.

If I were a man I'd be in the top 1 percent of all fathers. As a mother, I was a complete and total failure.

I think of my work as this kind of holy trinity — funny, dirty, sad. It's really easy to be funny. You get a lot of funny people in a room, the show is funny. It's really easy to do sad, you just put on some sad music and write dramatically — everybody can do that. It's really hard to get dirty right.

I am the opposite of most people: for me home is work and work is home. I breathe a sigh of relief when I am buried under the weight of immense work obligations, and I vibrate with anxiety when I imagine this thing called relaxing with a cup of tea.

Can anyone calculate the dollar amount that has been spent to put duct tape over women's mouths in comparison to the amount these companies have paid women to write or direct? I want to compare the money spent on quieting every unspoken truth against every unsold screenplay, unpublished article, and rejected application.