Mae Whitman

“The coming-of-age story has sort of become a joke. It's something to capitalize on, and that is painful because when you are coming of age - when you are going through something like that - the genre is so meaningful.”

“I like to be a lot of different things at once and dress different ways and I change my hair all the time, so being an actor lets me live out the fantasy of living out 100,000 different lifetimes in one, without all of the repercussions.”

“For me, one thing I love is having an arc for a character.”

“Being on a movie set when you have a great strong people there supporting you can be very nurturing. You get to explore these creative parts of yourself as a child that most people don't explore until they're in college.”

“I love to watch 'Chopped,' 'Jeopardy,' and 'Breaking Bad.' You can't pass up that one. Oh! One other show I love to watch is 'Suburgatory.'”

“It's funny, because I don't have a very addictive personality in any way except for things like stories or books or movies or TV. I just get, like, completely enamored and lost in that world, especially when one really hits the right way. Like, I just can't do anything else.”

“Act because you love to act.”

“You do have to continue, as you grow as a human, checking in and going, 'Is this what I want? Am I giving away things that I don't want? Who am I and what do I want to keep doing?'”

“I don't really have an aversion to watching myself. I think I've been doing it for long enough that I have a system of separating it in my brain from my egotistical neuroses for the most part.”

“I really love poetry. I'm a big E.E. Cummings fan and a big Walt Whitman fan, and I have a big book of poetry.”

“I'm a single child. I wanted a little brother or a little sister growing up, but when I think about it, I'm happy I'm an only child.”

“My mom had an audition for a commercial when I was about two and a half, and I ran in crying and interrupted her. They thought I was cute so they offered me a commercial role. My mom was skeptical and a bit nervous about the child actor thing, but I was extremely bossy and convinced them I wanted to try it.”

“Being a teenager is hard.”

“There have been a lot of events that have made me really look at the real world, like September 11th. There are so many things that just make you realize that you're not going to live forever and that you have to enjoy every day.”

“I only have room to do things that I have a love for in my life.”

“I had a friend where it turned out that she hated my guts, all through our friendship. I thought she was my best friend, and then, in high school, she turned on me and had sordid affairs with all of the people that I'd dated. It was less hurtful because I was in high school, so it was more like, 'What's wrong with you? Gross!'”

“People should recognize who you are and how you can act rather then how famous you are.”

“I feel like I am a lot of who I am because I watched these shows that said it was okay to be a total weirdo. Shows like 'Pete and Pete,' 'Hey, Dude,' 'Salute Your Shorts' - that's what I grew up with.”

“I'm, like, the biggest fan ever of 'Arrested Development.' To be a part of it is incredible. Same goes for 'Parenthood.'”

“I don't have one role that I'm particularly fond of doing, and I don't really look for it to differ all the time, but I will try anything and do anything. If it's a role I connect with, I'll go for it, no matter what's involved.”