Julia Stiles Quotes

“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.”

— Julia Stiles

“I was gonna throw the first pitch at a Mets game, but there was a rain delay. So I'm waiting for it to stop, and the team's manager, Willie Randolph, comes by. Now he's already intimidating to begin with. But he comes over to me and says, 'If you screw this up, they will boo you.' And I said 'Thanks.'”

— Julia Stiles

“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.”

— Julia Stiles

So I am happy to have fans, especially if it enables me to keep working. And I am really grateful when people respond to my work.

— Julia Stiles

“It's actually really great to be a student and an actor, because I get to do this job that I love, then just when I think my head might explode, I get to go to school where they don't really care about what magazine cover I'm on.”

— Julia Stiles

“Even after such milestones as Kathryn Bigelow winning an Oscar, there still seem to be few women in leadership roles.”

— Julia Stiles

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

— Julia Stiles

“Of course my family and friends are incredibly valuable to me. They keep me sane, they teach me things and I love spending time with them. I think that ranking what you value is a sort of western and linear way of looking at things.”

— Julia Stiles

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

— Julia Stiles

“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 Stiles

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

— Julia Stiles

I am a big fan of horror movies but I had never thought that I had wanted to act in one because I don't think that actors get to do much in them. They're usually just reacting.

— Julia Stiles

“I pretty much grew up in public.”

— Julia Stiles

“I always feel like a goofy little kid.”

— Julia Stiles

“I wear everything from hip-hop baggy pants to beautiful Armani dresses. I also like to mix vintage clothing with designer pieces.”

— Julia Stiles

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

— Julia Stiles

“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.”

— Julia Stiles

“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.”

— Julia Stiles

“If I'm gong out to a club I like to have fun with it. I'll use blue or red sparkly eyeliners and glittery eye shadows. Then I'll put on some blue mascara. I focus on the eyes.”

— Julia Stiles

“Make yourself useful, not just on a day to day basis, but as a lifetime thing.”

— Julia Stiles

Being an actor is looked at like a prolonged game of dress-up. America puts movie stars on pedestals. In college, it's the flip side. I sometimes have to justify my job to my professors because they're focused on intellect and ideas.

— Julia Stiles

“Yoga has stopped me from destroying my joints after running. It slows me down. My brain and body can go into overdrive - yoga teaches me to focus on the moment and not get ahead of myself.”

— Julia Stiles

“I am forever grateful that I got some training in the theater - it reduces performance anxiety.”

— Julia Stiles

“I tend to gravitate toward the more powerful roles. As opposed to the doe-eyed girl who bats her eyelashes and runs around in towels, you now what I mean? Because that kind of makes me want to vomit.”

— Julia Stiles

“My regular school didn't know what to do with me!”

— Julia Stiles

“Seeing other people in pain causes me pain.”

— Julia Stiles

“I always loved how people like Jon Voight and Laurence Olivier shocked you every time they came on-screen. They were so different each time. That's what I hope to do with acting - be the chameleon and not get stuck in a type.”

— Julia Stiles

“I really like Shakespeare a lot. The characters that he writes for females, I think, are really great and a lot more compelling than what modern writers write, which is weird because they didn't have actresses then.”

— Julia Stiles

“The only thing that gets me through any type of pain, emotional or physical, is to make it worthwhile by putting it into my work.”

— Julia Stiles

“It's fun to stay at the Y! M! C! A!”

— Julia Stiles

“I took the role of Ophelia in Hamlet because she is so naive, loving, and innocent.”

— Julia Stiles

Theater makes working in movies or TV seem like a cake-walk.

— Julia Stiles

“Theater is like going to the gym for actors.”

— Julia Stiles

“I know it sounds earnest, but I do really feel in my bones that acting is just a small part of the equation when you are making a movie. The director really is in charge. Actors are as important or unimportant as the rest of the people around them.”

— Julia Stiles

“I think I was born an artist. But the key is that I have a mom that encouraged and supported my artistic side. She still has the stick-figure drawings framed.”

— Julia Stiles

“I've really turned a corner recently in terms of not taking work too seriously, so it is much easier for me to not take my work home.”

— Julia Stiles

“Education is huge for me. I went to public school until I turned thirteen, and was lucky enough to afford college once I became successful as an actress.”

— Julia Stiles

Fundamentally women and men are different.

— Julia Stiles

In my worst moments, I try to think about loving instead of hating. Creation versus destruction, know what I'm sayin'?

— Julia Stiles

“I am forever a romantic. I try to bring that into my work. I try not to be fooled by romance. Or work.”

— Julia Stiles

I used to struggle a lot with dwelling on how the day at work was, and I would dwell on my performance. Now, I'm like, "Well, that's over and done with, and I can't control the outcome, so move on." I just remember that it's entertainment I am making.

— Julia Stiles

“I'm not good at keeping secrets. If I'm entrusted with a secret from a friend, I can do that because I'm a good friend, but I don't like having secrets, it makes me nervous.”

— Julia Stiles

I kind of don't believe in actors directing themselves. Obviously some people have done it well, but I don't see how I could. It's funny that you ask, because I've just been thinking that maybe I'd rather direct The Bell Jar than act in it. It's a huge leap to go from a short to a feature, so I'm tentative - I'm like, Well, that's just so triple-type-A personality of you.

— Julia Stiles

“I never think of myself as an actor who takes work home with them.”

— Julia Stiles

“It's not my job to critique the writing. I'm there to serve it. I had to figure out a way to make it work.”

— Julia Stiles

“As an actor, you're only one little piece of the puzzle; you're fulfilling someone else's vision. If you're involved earlier on, you're kind of creating your own.”

— Julia Stiles

“We can become very short-sighted in terms of objectives. The first thing to go during times of economic crisis and budget cuts is funding for things that are essential and not-quantifiable, like the arts. Save Big Bird”

— Julia Stiles