Quotes from Julia Stiles

I tend to shut myself off from people. It's gotten harder and harder for me to meet new people. It takes a lot of effort to open up to them and spend time with them.

Dating in college and dating in Hollywood are actually really similar in that the relationships don't last long. Other than that, lots of people in Hollywood tend to be narcissistic, and it's hard to have a relationship with someone like that.

Compared to film or television, theater is more interactive, collaborative.

I love baseball. As a teenager, I was a contrarian and picked the underdog instead of just rooting for the Yankees. It's a hard team to root for, but there's something that always keeps me hopeful.

'Big Night' is the best food movie ever made. It's such a celebration of food, and the Italian tradition of celebrating people. Plus, everything looked delicious!

It actually makes perfect sense why women in Hollywood get so skinny: because it's a way of controlling how people see you.

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 would give anything to sit down with my maternal grandmother and have a cup of tea and play Scrabble. She died 10 years ago.

I am not a fan of rats or pigeons. In New York City, they have become very confident. When I was a child, you went on the subways, and the rats would stay down on the tracks, but now they hang out on the platform.

I like to stay balanced in life, so I don't have to do some radical diet. I love my job, and I obviously want to feel good when I am working, but I also want to feel energized and agile all the time. As a New Yorker, I live in the land of plenty, and yet every day I see people who could use a good meal.

The true test of a relationship is traveling together.

I'm going to Columbia University but I'm trying to keep that low-profile because I don't want weird people following me there. I want the experience of normal college life.

Julia Roberts taught me how to knit on the set of 'Mona Lisa Smile.'

It would be great to go to school all year and do movies during the summer, but it doesn't work that way. I'm not Julia Roberts, so I have to be flexible.

I like analyzing human behavior. It's complex. That's what keeps me going.

I'm terrified at the prospect of Donald Trump becoming president. I think he's disgusting, he's offensive. I think that it would be embarrassing for our country to have him sit down with world leaders and try and have a conference or even take a photo op. So we'll see what happens, but it's a very pivotal time in the U.S.

The best working experiences I've had are with directors who want to create with you while you're on set. I prefer a much freer environment. That's why I'm always trying to mess things up, just to know that I can!

I'm slowly working up the courage to sing in front of other people, but I can carry a tune. I do some mean karaoke.

There are a handful of actors who sustain interest because it's exciting to watch them get better at what they do. I want to be one of those actors.

I think that ultimately I just have to be myself. You know, I don't do anything that outlandish anyway.

I met this homeless man who had never owned a shirt in his life. He had taken his pants and worn them as a shirt and I thought it was so creative. He was liberated from the conventions of fashion.

I don't naturally have a good metabolism, but I am lucky in that I am naturally drawn to healthy food.

I have pessimistic moments when I think I should go on a diet because people are paying money to see movies with exceptional-looking actresses. But being in college has helped me realize that the best thing I can do is to feel good about myself and forget about other people's standards.

We don't have cable, so I don't watch a lot of traditional TV. I watch a lot of Netflix, and there's this thing in Canada called Show Me, and then I also get things from iTunes.