Ari Graynor

“All we can do in life is push through the things that make us afraid and try to be better.”

“I've started to get more stage fright the older I get.”

“I was the girl who got out of my athletic requirement by managing the boys' sports teams. Which is pretty ingenious, because when I was a sophomore, I got a prom date out of it. That was really strong planning on my part.”

“Not one person has ever sent me a drink because I was Caroline in 'Nick and Norah.' People reference it; people say really nice things about it, but I was sure I would be getting more free drinks.”

“The Bowery Hotel is always a great place to meet people for drinks. It's so cozy in there, especially in the late fall and winter.”

“You know what no one tells you about driving a truck? You are driving a truck. There are only side mirrors, and it does not handle like a Prius.”

“I'm a little quirky, a little offbeat, and I'm certainly not a classic beauty.”

“As an actor, there's no faking it.”

“Sometimes you can fall into bad habits on film or rest on your laurels, and you can't do that in theater. I think it's such a useful tool as a person and as an actor to go back and forth between those two mediums.”

“My mom was in the chorus of 'Hello Dolly' and 'The Worldly Players'; my dad would build the set.”

“I've had curly hair for years, and I never wore it curly. I didn't know what to do with it.”

“The worst thing you can have as an actor is too big an ego. It just kills creativity.”

“I love to cook for people. I equate food with love.”

“Usually, when I'm at a festival with a movie that I'm in, I'm in and out in 24 hours.”

“Humans are complex, and I think in entertainment in general, it's very easy to put people in boxes.”

“Twitter's a lot of work! That's the first thing I would say. There's so much pressure to be funny.”

“I was made fun of for being fat from fourth or fifth grade to eighth grade. That was pretty rough.”

“The real heart of comedy is uncovering a truth about yourself or about the world that you didn't see.”

“I think it's important to have goals and to have dreams, but you also have to live in the moment of what the reality is.”

“I've done a bunch of Broadway, so I'm a theater nerd when I come to New York.”