Asia Kate Dillon

“I really like working with different directors. It's really fun.”

“I love that although the world is a dangerous place, I still find it to be beautiful.”

“Labels can be really helpful when we have the autonomy to label ourselves. But when other people label us without our permission, that's when it becomes dangerous.”

“Me feeling ambiguous about my gender identity has been a lifelong feeling, certainly.”

“This character I play on 'OITNB' is an antagonist in a Black Lives Matter storyline, but you need antagonists in order to tell those stories.”

“I think that it's important to say that trans people exist, and we are valid, whether we choose to transition or not. It's really up to anyone to decide what is going to make them feel the most like themselves.”

“I struggled coming to terms with the fact that I'd been assigned female at birth, but that I didn't feel like a girl or a woman or a man or a boy.”

“I think we're at a really critical time in terms of art, and I think it's totally possible to have a project that is entertaining but also moving the cultural needle forward. I think it's one of the reasons I'm so grateful to work on 'Billions.'”

“I find that, often, when I tell people what pronoun I use, I don't get a lot of backlash. I'm really lucky in that respect.”

“I spent so many years not understanding my own gender identity and not having the language for it, and not having those conversations, that now I'm so eager to talk about it. Then I learn more about myself and other people.”

“Within my immediate creative community, I would say gender is something that I've always been interested in and always talked about.”

“I wish everyone could just be free.”

“I believe the arts are the best way to help people go on a journey of self-discovery toward their own compassion and empathy for humanity and themselves.”

“Some people's gender identity conforms to the sex they were assigned at birth, and some people's identity doesn't. That realization was certainly very freeing for me - and could be very freeing for other people.”

“Creating more characters that represent historically marginalized and historically disenfranchised people in television and film is certainly important.”

“Gender-neutral clothing is often, for lack of a better term, bags on bags. A baggy shirt with baggy pants, that sort of erases any individuality, as opposed to enhancing it.”

“What I learned through my research is that the word 'actor,' specifically in reference to those who performed in plays, came about in the late 1500s as a non-gendered word. It applied to all people, regardless of anatomical sex or gender identity.”

“For all of the incredible messages I've received about how my visibility is helping people, those people who I follow on social media still receive daily death threats and the most derogatory, inhumane vitriol.”

“I remember specifically a couple of performances that I saw when I was young - River Phoenix in 'Stand by Me' and also Michael Jackson, in particular his ability to command such power and love while maintaining such deep vulnerability. It really moved my soul from a very young age.”

“My impression of Wall Street growing up was certainly that it was like the big, bad place where all of the men did the bad things with our money.”