Maggie Gyllenhaal

We were lounging around in this beautiful house in LA, and I'm coming from NY, so sometimes when we weren't working I would just sit on those folding chairs.

I feel there is no shortage of real interesting women's roles. But I found them and did all of them just now.

I get magnetically pulled towards a project because there's something in it that offers me the opportunity to explore the edge of my understanding about myself.

Most people are interested in seeing 27-year-old women who are in movies somehow connected to sex. It's interesting to everyone. Especially little movies that are having trouble getting made, there's always sex.

I don't see that many movies lately that are actually about something, that are trying to challenge something about the way that people interact.

I was always dressing up as a kid. I had a dress for all the Los Angeles bar and bat mitzvahs that I was going to when I was 13 which I was crazy for. It was green, dark, shimmery. Very 1980s. It was slightly off-the-shoulder, which I thought was very sophisticated.

When I was in grade school in L.A., I really loved Cyndi Lauper. I did everything I could to look like her. I had wild outfits and always wore different coloured socks. I wore loads of ribbons in my hair and let them fall in my eyes.

I think sex is very interesting for most people, but I'm interested in sex as a way of communication, I'm not that interested in the fantasy version of a sex scene.

A big part of being an actress specifically is feeling entitled to your artistic opinion, feeling that it means something, and being able to stand by it.

After making 'Secretary,' it was a real shock to me to learn that some directors just aren't interested in what actors have to say. They just don't want to collaborate.

I think what happened to me was I was so lucky to have made 'Secretary' so young. It's unusual to be given an opportunity to express yourself as an actress that young and that thoroughly.

I don't think I'm a brilliant writer, but I'm a good writer, and it's just so empowering to get involved.