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.

'It Girl' is supposed to be something that only lasts a certain amount of time. They keep calling me an 'It Girl,' and at this point it makes me laugh, because I've done that so many times: 'You're it;' 'You're not it.' What is 'it?'

I grew up believing my sister was from the planet Neptune and had been sent down to Earth to kill me. I believed this because my sister Emily convinced me of it when I was a toddler. I think she'd seen Invasion of the Body Snatchers and her imagination ran away with her. There's a part of me that still believes it.

Romantic comedies are usually about when love works.

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 like to make colored xeroxes of things. I clip out pictures of Liza Minelli and her husband from magazines and I fax them to people anonymously.

A lot of people work out to be skinny. That's so boring, and it seems like a depressing goal for a modern woman.

I like having a schedule. I tend to be the type of person that thrives on something being regular.

I've personally never wanted to be 'the babe', and refuse to let vanity get in the way of my acting because I don't see my job as being a beautiful person.

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.

If I could give my teenaged self any advice, it would be 'Calm down!'

If you can make a character likable that's not very nice, that's the challenge of the job.

I have had brown hair and bangs since I was 2. One year I dyed it blonde, which felt so weird.

My nursery school did a production of 'The Three Little Pigs.' I played the third pig. When the wolf knocked on my door, I refused to get up and answer it because, to me, he was knocking the wrong way. I just lay there, snoring away on stage, fully immersed in my character. My dad turned to my mom and said: 'Dustin Hoffman.'

I accidentally entered a youth pageant when I was 14. That's like a beauty pageant, but without the beauty. It was terrible.

The Internet's like one big bathroom wall with a lot of people who anonymously can say really mean things. It's fine, I believe in freedom of speech and I think people should think what they want, but I don't care to hear it.

One thing I love about Christmas music is that it has a tradition of warmth.

I put myself out there; it's part of my job, and I get it: people will attack me. At first I was thrown off, but now I have a pretty thick skin about it.

No, I've been singing forever. I started out doing musicals. I think that was part of the reason why they gave me the part, because I sang.

I don't have control over what's on screen, and that's terrifying.

The red-carpet thing of premieres and parties is probably my least favourite part of my job.

If I'm going to be 'too' anything, 'too cute' is fine. I love puppies. So what? Who hates puppies?

If people just want to be famous, that's just not enough to get you up at 4 in the morning to go to work. You have to love what you're doing.

To be a gluten-free vegan is, like, the most difficult thing you can possibly be.

I went to Northwestern because I had gone to a really nontraditional high school. I was like, 'It'd be cool to have a traditional college experience.' Then I was like, 'Oh, but none of these people understand what's cool about me. My specialness is not appreciated in this place.'

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

I'm always trying to do stuff I haven't done before or challenge myself so I'm not resting on my laurels all of the time because if I just found my little niche and never left it, I'd be pretty boring, I think.

The moment you sense someone is making something because they think people are gonna buy it or like it, it's just so phony! The public has a nose for phony like nobody else.

There's a vegan and gluten-free bakery called BabyCakes that I love. They've got shops in New York and Los Angeles. Their stuff is amazing.

Especially in comedies, I think a lot of time the female characters are there to provide a balance for guys.

In my mind, I always think of myself as an underdog type.

I like to play the ukulele, but I'm not, like, awesome at it. I mostly play the piano and the guitar.

From my perspective, probably women are won over by people who are sweet and respectful and courteous and kind and funny. I think those are the things that win women over.

Growing up in Hollywood meant there were a lot of film stars' kids at my school - but no conspicuous wealth. It wasn't cool to show off that you had money.

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 did not have a date to the prom. I went to my junior prom alone, and my senior prom, I was doing my first movie. I went in a limousine with, like, a bunch of people to my junior prom. It was a group date.

I started out doing musicals.

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.

People sometimes say, 'Oh, you were a movie star,' and I'm like, 'No, I was a supporting actress.' I wasn't an A-list actress, and I'm fine with that. I'm proud of what I did in film.

I think that if you haven't been to the grocery store in a really long time, it's really easy to get very out of touch.

I'm a very positive person. I get excited easily, and I like to jump around.

I was doing about five movies a year for many years. I was just so tired. I walked around feeling like a Mack truck hit me.

I tend to like simple music. And clever, succinct lyrics. Songs that don't try to be more than they need to to be effective, to stir up something emotionally within you.

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

Know what suits you. Now I understand proportion and recognise the shapes that look good on my figure.

I have Pro Tools on my computer, and I make CDs all the time.

When you work on a movie, especially an independent movie, it's a lot of work to make it! It's not just our job as actors - so many people are working so hard, and even the littlest movie takes a lot of work.

Always the aim for me is making people feel like they are not alone. That's just the greatest feeling.

I get embarrassed a lot of times getting attention, but I like being onstage. Do you know what I mean? If I'm in a crowd of people and they're all looking at me, I will feel embarrassed. It's a strange dichotomy.

It's cool cause my sister is older than me and we went to the same high school, so by the time I got to high school, I got the lowdown on all the teachers and everything.

Well, my piano's really beautiful. I actually have two pianos. I have a Yamaha upright from the '60s that's blond, wood, and black, and I also have one from the '20s from Chicago - not a well-known brand or anything.

I think that the mistakes that anyone can make going on dates is probably not being themselves because you can only trick people for so long.

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 still have in me the same awareness when I was 12 and chubby and a girl was spitting in my face. I'm the same person.

I'm always doing something musically - when I'm working or when I'm off.

I wanted to be a child actor so bad that every day I'd beg my parents if I could audition, but my mom said, 'Not until you can drive yourself to auditions.'

I just sort of follow my bliss, so to speak, and then I see where that takes me.

I've always been really picky about roles and make a point of reminding myself that it's not about the money - because, obviously, there's a lot of money to be made in this business if you're willing to do anything.

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 like songwriting is an experiment in empathy.

Do your eye shadow first, then your foundation. That way, you can clean up any mess without starting all over again.

I played a lot of sarcastic, wisecracking characters for a long time, and people would think that was me. And it's very much not me, and then people would think I was being sarcastic when I wasn't: 'Oh, you're making fun of me right now.' And I wasn't!

I'm just being myself. There is not an ounce of my being that believes any of that crap that they say. We can't be feminine and be feminists and be successful? I want to be a f-ing feminist and wear a f-ing Peter Pan collar. So f-ing what?

It's interesting, because as a musician, I don't feel like I need to be on the top of the pop charts.

I think there's a certain space people have decided I occupy - the funny-sidekick thing.

The first job I ever had was singing in a jazz club when I was like 15 with my friend, and we earned like 70 bucks. We were like, 'Oh my God!'

'Pastoralia' by George Saunders is one of my favorite novels.

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 love indie movies. I think that independent cinema is where it's at and where a lot of trends begin. It's where new filmmakers are breaking through.

I'm a person who gets better with practice. Getting older is awesome - because you get more practice.

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

Being an actress can be a little like being a girl in the '50s: You're stuck waiting by the phone, hoping that the boy you like will call.

I like romantic comedy as a genre, but I think it can get stuck in its ways.

I don't think there are that many awesome roles out there, whether we're talking about movies or TV.

We all know guys who've had their hearts broken in real life; we just don't usually see it in the movies.

I love having a lot of content. I prefer to have constant stimulation.

Certain aspects of my personality are always going to come out on-screen. I guess that's just me - if they say I'm quirky, I'm quirky. It's better than being boring.

I think penguins are cute.

I don't like business talkers, you know, people who are constantly like, 'Blah blah blah movies.' I find it incredibly boring.

I never have time to have a dinner. I have to eat while I'm memorizing lines. The only way to maintain energy is to eat all day long. I must eat all day long.

I think I'm a fun flatmate. I'm always cheerful. I go on tour with my band so it's 12 people on one bus and I feel like I'm the one who's happy in the morning. I'm not a chaotic person, but I might slack off on doing the dishes from time to time.

I gravitate towards happy music. I love the Beach Boys.

I think my own personal style always ends up seeping into characters that I play. I've always had a very distinct idea of fashion for myself, and what a character should wear.

Oh my God, there are so many songs I wish I had written. 'Waters of March,' I wish I had written 'My Baby Just Cares for Me,' I wish I had written 'This Will Be Our Year,' I mean, there's millions of them. 'Wouldn't It Be Nice?'

I think it's better to have your personal life and your work life separate. That way they don't corrupt each other, so to speak.

Its not about women acting like men. Its about women acting like women and being successful.

If you're eight and you live in Los Angeles and everybody has toys and you go to a country that has a Marxist dictatorship and there are no toy stores and nobody speaks English and it's blazing hot every day and they only have fish, which you don't like, then you tend not to appreciate the cultural lessons you're learning.

It's very much a piece of myself when I write a song. I don't mean to say it's very personal, like the lyrics mean something personal to me. When I write a song, that's my taste in music - my taste in chord progressions and melodies.

I know a lot of people that have had fake Twitters... actors and musicians that I know. It's sort of a problem. There are all these people that sign up thinking that they're getting somebody's real thoughts when it's just some guy.

I get really insecure because even though I can speak in musician's terms, I don't know as much as real musicians.

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 wasn't really the most charming person, socially - it took me a long time to develop my people skills - but the one place I was always comfortable was onstage, acting or singing.

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.'

When I exercise, I like to take lots of different classes because I want to really apply myself and feel like I'm learning a new skill. Not that I ever want to have to demonstrate any of those skills!

Nothing could be as hard as middle school.

I like singing as much as I like acting, and all through high school I thought I might be a Broadway singer.

I sort of consider myself a comedic actress, not a comedienne. I think it's different. You know, I'm not a stand-up or anything, but playing into comedic situations is sort of where, I think, my strength lies.

What led me to be an actor is that I have a strange something in me that can drastically change the way I appear to the world. Growing up, I couldn't understand why people would always have different ideas of me - but because of that I became aware of how you can manipulate your own ability to change. And then I learned to make a career of it.

I'd be more likely to go for somebody who is like me. Well, I like creative people, so whatever that means... Yeah, authentic and creative.

I'm the worst at picking what movies are going to do well. I have no idea. I'm really surprised if a movie I like does well.