Greta Gerwig

There's nothing more thrilling than watching great actors say things that you wrote and bring them to life.

I'm all for the banalities of life and humiliation and everyday tragedies, but I also think people have big moments, and they have bigness in them.

Books and theater were the way I understood the world and also the way I organized my sense of morality, of how to live a good life.

When I was a kid, I used to do my homework in the living room, where there was a picture window. I was hoping that someone would walk by and see me looking very studious in my living room.

Courage doesn't grow overnight. It can be a long process.

I had dreams, but I didn't have the sense that they would necessarily work out. They seemed very far-fetched.

I'm so interested in taking tropes from other movies and putting them on something where it doesn't belong.

I have very intense feelings of joy or sadness. I used to not like that so much because I was worried it was girly, and I wanted to be more stoic. I think this happens a lot. When you're 16, there are qualities you wish you didn't have, and then when you're 30, you're like, 'Thank God I have that; otherwise, I'd be living less vividly.'

In terms of sheer pleasure, Tom Stoppard was very big for me because he is so funny and so smart, and it felt delicious reading him.

I'm interested in long careers where you take detours.

I always have a soft spot in my heart for New York designers and independent designers, people who are doing the fashion equivalent of what I'm trying to do in film.

When you're on set, and that clock is going, every second you spend doing something is a second you spend not doing something else. That's true of all of life, but it's very vivid on a film set because you're always managing that.