Julia Stiles

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I pretty much grew up in public.”

“My mother always taught me to think about things from other people's perspectives and think about where they're coming from.”

“One minute, I really am in awe of filmmakers, and I want to be working in film, and then the next minute, I get the itch to get back on stage.”

“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.”

“Obviously, if I'm in Argentina, I'm going to have a steak, but I don't love meat, really. I always think about where the food came from and who had to get it.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“The true test of a relationship is traveling together.”

“My musician friends could always practice what they loved doing, but I can't go on a street corner and start reciting a monologue. Acting is very collaborative, and you always need other people with you - mainly an audience.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Sometimes I think it's easier to play someone who's very, very different from yourself. Besides, I wouldn't want to play people who are just like me; that would get awfully boring very fast!”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”