Kalki Koechlin

“Now I know Hindi, and I can read and write Hindi, but the problem is that I can't improvise when I am acting because I think in English, so I have to translate my thinking from English to Hindi, and therefore, I speak slowly.”

“If you can't go for a honeymoon, steal a weekend and go somewhere. Anurag and I do it quite often. We switch off our phones and go for a small weekend getaway.”

“In the beginning, I was very stubborn and always wanted to be just an actor. I was told by a lot of people to try my hand at writing or directing, but I always thought, 'I am an actor, and this is what I want to do.'”

“As a teenager, I was very awkward in my skin. I was never in the cool gang. I had braces and was quite the geek as well as a tomboy.”

“I think the glamour industry, all over the world, does portray a version that is 'Photoshopped' - a picture that is not very realistic.”

“I want to work with as many directors as possible because with each director, you learn something new.”

“In your 20s, you are worried about body issues, your weight, how you are dressed. In your 30s, you're like, 'Oh my God, I am getting old. I am going to enjoy everything.'”

“Once I wanted to get into films, I took my time about it because when I first got to Bombay, I gave my photos and CDs to all the production houses. But the roles that came my way were the 'typical white girl dancing in the background' kind of roles, which I was not too interested in, or it was advertisements.”

“People like Priyanka Chopra and Kangana Ranaut are really paving the way for successful women.”

“I, in particular, am in a confusing spot because I am Indian, but I am white, which people don't get. So often I find myself struggling to explain my Indianness.”

“In India, you can just show up at a friend's house, and they will feed you; you can borrow someone's clothes and touch each other. In London, they would say, 'Oh, let's meet for coffee at 4:15, and we will talk about, I don't know, this play that we saw.'”

“I have always been good with kids, as I used to teach drama to kids.”

“In marriage, a woman becomes the weaker sex, even if her husband doesn't want her to be. This happens because of the way society has built the institution.”

“I love outdoor places in the evenings; I don't like box-like clubs.”

“In Bollywood, it's always feast or famine for an actress. That's the way of the game.”

“It's great to come home always... coming home to good south Indian meals or Andhra food is always a pleasure.”

“Every role that one does - at least, that's what happens in my case - becomes a sort of therapy.”

“Often, we hide our personality and are afraid of bringing it out in our clothes. So, I think when people are fashionable, they are able to express themselves.”

“I like fashion, but it's not something that I follow religiously.”

“There's a thing about opinions... They are formulated over time. They tend to change with time, and you are going to change your mind many times.”