Quotes from Julia Stiles

I love the interactive nature of theater. I just craved it. As much as I love working on a film or TV set, most of the storytelling happens in the editing, whereas when you're doing a play, the storytelling is in your hands as an actor.

I think audiences, producers and directors included, develop crushes on actors (actresses in particular) and then lose interest and move on to the next one.

We didn't have a backyard, so as I child, I would turn the coffee table into a stage and put on shows. But it was just a fun thing to do; I never thought about it as a profession. That started as a fluke; my mother had a friend who was an artist with a theater company, and I started going there after school because my mom knew I'd be safe.

With film, so much is in the director's hands. Once something is cut together - unless you're in the editing room - you don't really remember what the alternatives are. The exercise in theater is night after night, you are doing the same play, but you have another opportunity to explore.

I think with '10 Things I Hate About You,' I was an angsty teenager, and in some ways, I responded to that character. That was one of my first big jobs, so I think maybe I lucked out, and casting thought that I was a good match for it. Since then, as I've gotten older, I'm a much more happy, joyful, almost carefree person.

I wish I could be on 'Politically Incorrect.' Because Bill Maher basically dismisses teenagers, and I think I could give my generation a good name.

Some of the best projects I've worked on - 'Dexter,' the 'Bourne' series - were leaps of faith. I couldn't read the scripts in advance.

In terms of directing a feature, I'd want the story to be right - you know, it's a year of your life, and you have to be focused on one thing, so I want it to be a story that I really, really care about and will enjoy making.

I was reluctant to join Twitter. My biggest concern was, I don't want these thoughts that pop into my brain to be immediately broadcast. There's a danger in that. And also - who cares?

My grandmother took me to a lot of theater. I was exposed to performance quite a bit - everything from Broadway to off-Broadway and dance and music as well. I was very lucky that way. It was a very rich childhood.

I think women get caught up too much in having a plan - 'I'm going to get married at this age; I'm going to have a kid at this age' - and then they just try to find a guy who will fit into that picture. I don't want my life to be based on that.

I think the culture of the red carpet is too much like a modern-day coliseum. If you're being photographed all the time, and you don't like having a bad photograph taken, and if you're super, super thin, chances are you're never going to look fat in a picture.

It would probably help my career if I lived in L.A., but I think it would be all-consuming. New York has its own little rat race going on, too. But it's also really diverse and has a lot of people doing different kinds of jobs. In L.A., work would be the only thing I'd think about, and sometimes, I need a break from that.

At the heart of any drama, there's conflict. When you are acting, you get to play out the confrontations you want to have in real life but can't. Or the emotions that you would want to have in real life, but sometimes they are too difficult.

I always feel like a goofy little kid.

One of the wonderful things about 'Jason Bourne' and that franchise is getting to work the same people sporadically and over the course of many years. I'm not so keen on having to get to know a whole group of people.

I so find Harold Pinter and David Mamet's writing to be exciting, and obviously there aren't that many female - at least with Mamet, there aren't that many good female roles. But I always thought it would be interesting to play one of the guy roles.

When I was a child, I would draw these little stick-figures, and my mom would put them up all over the loft and tell me how wonderful they were. Then you get out there into the harsh reality of the world, and you realize not everybody loves every little thing you do the way your mom did.

I studied Shakespeare in college, but not theatrically, more in terms of literature, and then I kind of took a break from it. Now there's resurgence in my appreciation for him. It's amazing: there are so many book titles and song titles that come just from lines that he wrote.

In my early career, I look at that time as a series of trial and error and learning as I go.

I worked regularly from very early on, and some of it was probably a bit premature.

I directed a short series for Hulu called 'Paloma,' and being in an editing room, I learned a lot about acting. It gave me a new bolt of energy in terms of my interest in filmmaking because it made me realize how collaborative filmmaking can be and also that you're not just limited to one job.

I went to a Chekhov play with my grandmother, and at the end, I was talking about how the first act was so boring. And my grandmother didn't see that at all. I realized it was because I need, like, the constant images changing. I wrote a paper about this.

Sometimes I have these abstract ideas and then lose track of myself.