Mara Wilson Quotes

#1. I generally assumed a guy was gay until proven straight, taken until proven single, and not interested until he'd put his tongue in my mouth.

Mara Wilson

#2. When people asked me what I was going to do when I grow up, I always said, 'I'm going to be a writer. I'm going to write screenplays. I'm going to write books. I'm going to write plays. That's what I'm going to do.'

Mara Wilson

#3. As an adult, most of my friends are women . . . they, too, had that moment when they realized they were all the "other girls," and that every girl in the world is, too.

Mara Wilson

#4. Children all over the world do ridiculous, borderline dangerous things, and no one around them questions it, because it's ingrained in their culture. So it was with child acting in Southern California.

Mara Wilson

#5. I think if I could do it over again - as much as I loved meeting the people I did on the films after 'Matilda' - I wish that I had stopped after 'Matilda.' I wish that I had just focused on my own life for a while.

Mara Wilson

#6. Very sad, very upset, very glad I did not have to hear about this though Twitter. Probably going to be taking some time off it for a while.

Mara Wilson

#7. The next time a former child star is in the news, look at the age at which he or she started performing. Then imagine making a life-changing decision at that age. Chances are good he or she wasn't the one who made it.

Mara Wilson

#8. If I ever have children of my own, they will read 'Matilda.' They will watch the movie. And you can bet they will see 'Matilda: The Musical.'

Mara Wilson

#9. I'm originally from southern California, so I, like, say 'like', like, a lot. I've been trying to scrub any traces of Valley Girl from my speech since I moved to New York, but it's, like, totally way harder than anyone thinks, you know?

Mara Wilson

#10. The ones who scared me, who still scare me, are the girls who see all other girls as competition, who see themselves as the persecuted ones, the ones whom the pretty and popular girls hate. When you believe you're persecuted, you will believe anything you do is justified.

Mara Wilson

#11. Assume everything you put on the Internet can and will be seen not only by the person you're talking about, but your future romantic partners and bosses, too.

Mara Wilson

#12. The celebrity aspect is nothing short of ridiculous, and auditioning is brutal and dehumanizing. Every time I see a pretty young girl on the subway reading sides for an audition, my only thought is, 'Man, am I glad I'm not doing that anymore.' I never feel nostalgia, just relief.

Mara Wilson

#13. I can't take much pride in my childhood acting. It feels like it happened in another lifetime, and even then, it felt like a hobby.

Mara Wilson

#14. Considering all the legal hassle child stars can be, I won't be surprised when they are phased out by CGI children voiced by adult actors.

Mara Wilson

#15. I didn't want to be a former child actor for the rest of my life, although in some ways I suppose I am. I am going to be that.

Mara Wilson

#16. I think that when I was child, acting was mostly just a hobby for me. It was something that my parents encouraged me to think of the way that my brothers thought of their cross-country classes, or my little sister to dance classes and art classes, and it was something like that for me.

Mara Wilson

#17. 'Matilda' was my favorite movie to film and my favorite to watch, as well.

Mara Wilson

#18. People who meet me as an adult are often surprised that I'm alive and have never been in prison or rehab. Sometimes they're disappointed I'm not cooler.

Mara Wilson

#19. If I were to talk to Lindsay Lohan, I'd encourage her to get the hell out of acting and into something soothing. Take up botany or something.

Mara Wilson

#20. The best times I had on film sets were the times the director let me express myself, but those were rare.

Mara Wilson

#21. 'Mrs. Doubtfire' is still a fun movie, and it's still fun to watch, but it is hard to watch myself sometimes. I get very critical. And people will say, 'Mara, you were five.' And I'm like, 'Yeah, but I still should have known better!' I'm a lifelong perfectionist, what can I say?

Mara Wilson

#22. I don't know if I'm always going to be acting. Maybe when I grow up, I will be a scriptwriter. I already have a few scripts in my head.

Mara Wilson

#23. But there is a place where people like me live and love while fretting constantly about their own mortality and the fate of the universe. I know who I am now: I am a New Yorker.

Mara Wilson

#24. Most people have embarrassing videos of themselves as children. Few have theirs copyrighted by Twentieth Century Fox.

Mara Wilson

#25. In the book, you lost your powers. In the movie, you chose not to use them as much. I guess I did a little of both.

Mara Wilson

#26. Here is something no real celebrity will ever tell you: film acting is not very fun. Doing the same thing over and over again until, in the director's eyes, you 'get it right' does not allow for very much creative freedom ... In terms of sheer adrenaline, film has absolutely nothing on theater.

Mara Wilson

#27. I think I might like to try film again just as an experiment, but I know that I could never do the mainstream thing again.

Mara Wilson

#28. I consider my relationship with acting in Hollywood as sort of a mutual breakup. Through puberty, Hollywood didn't really want me anymore, and I was like, 'Yeah, I don't really want you, either.'

Mara Wilson

#29. I still get recognized. It's flattering, but it can be uncomfortable. Maybe because it only seems to happen when I'm looking and feeling crappy.

Mara Wilson

#30. I spent a lot of time feeling scandalized, and I loved it. There is nothing more fun than being young and judgmental.

Mara Wilson

#31. A lot of men wonder what a woman wants. The answer is power. There are many ways to get it, but the easiest way is to tear other girls down. Any girl can play that game, but there's no way to win, except not to play at all.

Mara Wilson

#32. I'd rather be known for my accomplishments, and for things that I really do take pride in, rather than known for this doll-like image I had when I was a child.

Mara Wilson

#33. Danny DeVito later told me that he knew he wanted me for 'Matilda' the second I walked in the door. I'm not sure if this is true, or if he was just being nice, but I was thrilled when I got it.

Mara Wilson

#34. The idea of living forever makes me uncomfortable, and at this point I've lived long enough and seen enough Twilight Zone episodes to know that there's always a catch.

Mara Wilson

#35. Back from 'Roam if she wants to'!" yelled Renee. She had that condition unique to choreographers and directors, where they can listen to the same line or lyric thousands of times without ever getting it right.

Mara Wilson

#36. If you can affect someone when they're young, you are in their heart forever,

Mara Wilson

#37. Actually, I do like pink clothes, but it's not because I'm girly, it's because I'm the reincarnation of Oscar Wilde.

Mara Wilson

#38. I had people in 'Entertainment Weekly' talking about how they wanted to throttle me because they thought I was too disgustingly cute, as if that were my fault, you know, as if that was my fault, not the fault of directors and producers and such.

Mara Wilson

#39. If I were really really ridiculously wealthy, I wouldn't buy a mansion, just tiny apartments in every city I love.

Mara Wilson

#40. I don't have any plans to pursue film acting. It's not my thing anymore, if it ever was. Yes, I do still act sometimes. But when I do, it's with people I know and trust, people who respect me as a person and appreciate what I have to offer.

Mara Wilson

#41. Live your fear." Why didn't we teach kids that? Why wasn't that in a graduation speech? Commencement speakers should start telling the truth: "You're going to fuck up, but most of the time, that's all right.

Mara Wilson

#42. There is a surprising amount of overlap between the storytelling and burlesque communities, maybe because they both, in a way, involve getting naked. People who choose to be vulnerable are rare. People who manage to do it well are even more so.

Mara Wilson

#43. I've always been more of a nerdy, academic type. I loved 'Star Wars' growing up. I have three older brothers, so they were a big influence on me. We loved 'Danger Mouse,' and we love 'Monty Python'. We loved any kind of British comedy and 'Wallace and Gromit' and all of that stuff.

Mara Wilson

#44. The defining characteristic of a hipster - the thing everyone agreed on, and most hated about them - wasn't so much their taste, but their contempt and condescension toward those less cool than themselves.

Mara Wilson

#45. No, you will never see me on 'Dancing With the Stars.' Sorry.

Mara Wilson

#46. That's my suggestion for kids who want to act, by the way: Make sure it's really your choice, get out of it when it stops being fun, and get an education.

Mara Wilson

#47. Film can be exciting, but more often, it's tedious.

Mara Wilson

#48. From then on, I vowed, I would never say anything negative about a woman's appearance. it had nothing to do with them as a person and it wasn't something they could easily change. If I didn't want looks to matter, I would have to stop talking and acting as if they did.

Mara Wilson

#49. When they were things he was afraid to do, he made himself do them. When they were abstract ideas, he told himself not to dwell on what wasn't rational and what was out of his control.

Mara Wilson

#50. My mother died when I was young, and I was filming all the time. I was all over the place. Acting was the one constant.

Mara Wilson

#51. Not many child stars make it out of Hollywood alive or sane, and at any given time there are at least three former ones having very public breakdowns.

Mara Wilson

#52. Acting is something I did when I was a kid. I do act sometimes in friends' projects, but when I do, it's just for fun. It is actually a hobby for me now. I do still love stage acting, but the day-to-day process of being an actor is so exhausting and so taxing.

Mara Wilson

#53. I remember feeling enormous pressure because I didn't want to be Shirley Temple. Shirley Temple was Shirley Temple, and I didn't ever feel like I could live up to that.

Mara Wilson

#54. I'm pretty cautious and not very athletic, so I've only had really dumb injuries, like sprained ankles and allergic reactions. I did have to go to the hospital after slicing my finger while trying to cut a Kaiser roll in half.

Mara Wilson