I wrote the script to 'Lady Bird,' and it really came out of a desire to make a project about home - like, what the meaning of home is, and place. I knew Sacramento very well, obviously, growing up there, and I felt like the right way to tell a story of a place was through a person who's about to leave it.

I just don't feel like I've seen very many movies about 17-year-old girls where the question is not, 'Will she find the right guy' or 'Will he find her?' The question should be, 'Is she going to occupy her personhood?' Because I think we're very unused to seeing female characters, particularly young female characters, as people.

I'm really interested in trying to tell stories about women that don't involve romantic components. That's so much a part of the way we feel about female characters and their needs that it feels like it's built in - but I'd like to find a way that it's not. There are so many more stories than that.

When you're writing a screenplay, it's like you're dreaming the film for yourself again and again and again until it becomes almost like a memory before you make it.

Wherever there is a human being, I see God-given rights inherent in that being, whatever may be the sex or complexion.

I don't think happiness comes with money, but if you are hungry, you can't be as happy as if you aren't hungry.

In life, even in our own personal life, we find our self at times fighting against the hand of God. And I believe that. In other words, we can be a rebellious and stubborn people, individually, nationally, or corporately.

Love God; love others; do your best in all you do, even if you fall short!