A biography for Maggie Gyllenhaalhasn’t been written yet.
“Therapy was incredibly enlightening. I don't think it's only necessary if you're unwell - it's a useful tool for me to understand my own mind and how it works.”
“I happen to be in a line of work where I get given lots of clothes, and I definitely think it's fun, but I know that, ultimately, fashion is not that important. I use fashion, though, as a way of thinking about who I am.”
“I was always dressing up as a kid. I had a dress for all the Los Angeles bar and bat mitzvahs that I was going to when I was 13 which I was crazy for. It was green, dark, shimmery. Very 1980s. It was slightly off-the-shoulder, which I thought was very sophisticated.”
“I'm still trying to figure out what the right line is between myself and the people I play. Sometimes I go too far one way or too far the other.”
“I studied English literature; I took 2 independent religion classes, but I wasn't a religion major really.”
“Describing someone as quirky is a way of erasing them. What does it even mean? In so many interviews over the years, that's how I'm described. It doesn't sit comfortably with me.”
“I don't think I'm a brilliant writer, but I'm a good writer, and it's just so empowering to get involved.”
“Simple black-and-white thinking or action is always going to be problematic.”
“For a long time, I bought into the idea that if you are a woman who is a storyteller and a lover of movies, then the best way to express that is as an actress. Obviously, there are women my age who are directors who didn't buy into that idea, but I did - and now I've broken that down inside myself.”
“I have a raging temper. I'll shout and scream, then it passes like a wicked storm.”
“I made a movie where I played a girl that just got out of prison and we shot it very very quickly but very intensely-that took me a long time to get over.”
“I think Secretary's funny, it is about sex, and there's a lot of sex in it, sex is the key, but you're talking about a lot of other complicated things.”
“I don't see that many movies lately that are actually about something, that are trying to challenge something about the way that people interact.”
“Motherhood brings you to your knees in a way that doesn't leave room for you to judge others. It makes you see that there's no ideal - a constant struggle, constantly compromising, but ultimate love.”
“I like clothes. And I think it's OK to think about clothes just so long as you also think about other things. I'm not interested in clothes to the point where they'll push other things out of my mind; I just see them as a way of expressing yourself, and a pleasure, really.”
“After making 'Secretary,' it was a real shock to me to learn that some directors just aren't interested in what actors have to say. They just don't want to collaborate.”
“I think sex is very interesting for most people, but I'm interested in sex as a way of communication, I'm not that interested in the fantasy version of a sex scene.”
“I want to have some effect on the way the world works in whatever way I can, and I also want to have the power to help get the movies that I think are important made.”
“Who can I trust? You have to invest in somebody and chances are you're probably going to invest in somebody who's going to deceive you. I've been conned a couple of times, but now I'm a little more savvy.”
“I think it's worth putting energy into affirmative action in terms of having diversity in positions of power because the door was shut for so long.”