Zooey Deschanel

“I just feel like growing up in Los Angeles, you learn, 'Well you're never gonna be the prettiest girl in the room, so just don't even try.' I mean, I care about being pretty, but it's not my most valued thing.”

“I've always straddled a weird line - there's a lot of mainstream stuff that I love. At the same, I still feel like an outsider. I'm the outsider who's on the inside.”

“I can't even remember the first time I started singing.”

“Classic Christmas cookies are really time-consuming. Instead, make a bar you can bake in a pan and just cut up, like a brownie or a blondie or a shortbread, which still has that Christmas vibe.”

“I feel there are tone singers, and there are more vocal gymnastics singers. And I think that's amazing when people can do that, but I think there's room for the tone singers. And there aren't a lot of them.”

“I always wanted to be normal. I tried really hard, but it's like I try so hard and then people still say I'm offbeat. I've learnt to accept that and take advantage of it as an actor.”

“I'm not going to say I'm a big girl. I'm a very small person, but I'm a healthy weight. That might be a little weird for Hollywood.”

“I will wear tights even if it's 100 degrees outside. Tights are my safety blanket.”

“In a lot of movies, you'll see people on crazy dates, and you're like, 'No one would ever do that!'”

“When you have endless time, you take all day to go to the grocery store. But, if you have to be at work for 14 hours a day, you manage your time better. I know I do.”

“I love downtown L.A .and I relish any opportunity to spend time there.”

“There's something about guitars, they're just so big, you know what I mean? You're just like, 'Ugh!' It just seems so overwhelming. And the ukulele is, like, the opposite of overwhelming.”

“I think my knowledge of music theory is rooted in jazz theory, and a lot of the writers of standards - Rodgers and Hart, and Gershwin.”

“I hate camping, but I love summer camp.”

“There are so many cute vintage dresses made out of synthetics from the '60s and '70s - but they're so itchy and hot. It's not worth it!”

“My sister was always very motherly, babysitting and stuff.”

“I remember having this friend in school who said she didn't like the Beach Boys. And in that moment I knew we couldn't be friends anymore.”

“I'm wary about this thing about being in the generation of social networking where people are like, 'I am my musical taste.' I am not just a collection of music. Or a collection of movies. I think that's a thing that people romanticize: 'Oh my God, she likes this band so she is a dream.'”

“If 'New Girl' had been a movie, I don't know whether I would have been given the opportunity to do it.”

“Anyone who knows me knows that I am really into hair. I'm a real girly girl and love doing my hair and experimenting with different styles.”