Jodie Foster

Everybody reads for me. I was never weird about that. I never minded coming in and reading. They should know if I'm the right person, and I should know if I want to do a movie.

Knowing what paint a painter uses or having an understanding of where he was in the history of where he came from doesn't hurt your appreciation of the painting.

My earliest memories are doing commercials and TV.

I don't direct so that I can have an identity and so I can go on to CGI movies. I had a big identity as an actor, and that's not what I'm looking for from directing. Directing is a whole different goal.

I was never the ingenue or the pretty girlfriend of Tom Cruise in a movie. I didn't have that career, so I don't have to compete on that level.

Part of me longs to do a job where there's not a gray area.

I fantasize about having a manual job where I can come home at night, read a book and not feel responsible for what will happen the next day.

I didn't have any ambition to produce big mainstream popcorn movies.

I spent a lot of time not in school, so I didn't have deep relationships with kids my own age.

I like to be in a different place when I make a movie so that I can't really focus on anything else, and that is your world.

Most actors don't really have a director's sensibility. They have an actor's sensibility.

As I've said before, and I still hold to, I truly am the most boring person alive. And if there was a great investigation to be found at the end of the resume, it would be, the most boring person alive.