BRIE LARSON

Whenever you want something that you're not going to get, suddenly the whiney 3-year-old comes out in you.

I'm learning with the older that I get that some feelings are just universal and that I'm not the only one who hates their hair or their life at times.

I wasn't interested in going to the school dances. I wasn't interested in going to the football games. What I wanted was to be in my room painting my walls and doing weird stuff. That's what I wanted and I got to do what I wanted, so that, to me, is my high school experience.

It's really hard to see yourself and to recognize that you are a human being like everybody else. You just think everybody's judging you.

I didn't have a regular school experience and wanted a more abstract way of learning. I started exploring in lots of different creative ways. It gave me the opportunity to travel and play music, so it was good for me.

I know that I'm an actor and I guess I could kind of put on an act, but it takes so much more time to be someone you are not. I feel so much better just being comfortable with myself and hopefully girls will accept that.

It's very scary to allow the world to see you.

Sometimes I laugh with my parents, and sometimes I yell at them, and both are therapeutic.

I have a sister and her name is Mimsy, like from 'Alice in Wonderland,' so we've got some strange names in our family.

I know how to have a conversation, but I've never done improv. I've never taken improv classes.

I had a tough time fitting in, as I guess most kids do. I felt like school was kind of a grand opportunity to figure yourself out and to figure out what you wanted.

I was the type of person that would show a PowerPoint presentation about why I should do something versus crying and screaming over it.

I'm so used to swimming with the piranhas. And they're really not that bad.

I was 3 when I told my mom that I knew what my dharma was and that I wanted to be an actor.

I think more things are becoming socially acceptable. I think that just by having more media, whether that's TV or Internet, we're able to see more things.

For me, the dumbest rule is that you can't chew gum in school.

Singing is an incredible expression and something that is important to me, but where I feel comfortable with how much I reveal about myself is acting. I enjoy the characters, the costumes, the wigs and just being a chameleon.

Maybe you're not perfect, but you're willing to actually look at yourself and take some kind of accountability. That's a change. It might not mean that you can turn everything around, but I think there's something incredibly hopeful about that.

I think it starts to feel really redundant when you start to do something the same way over and over again. I don't think it's good to become so dependent on a certain writing process.

I didn't go to prom - I was homeschooled.

In the past I've been very into the falling part, very into the swimming in the dark, deep emotional water. 'Rampart' I really went into it and it took me three times as long to get out of that depression as it did to just do the scenes. I had to learn to give it my all and then go home and laugh.

I was home-schooled, was always very close with my mom and was very straight-laced and square. I was never the rebellious one, and I never threw hissy fits.

For some reason, chewing gum for me gets my brain going.

Maybe it goes away, but this is the way I've chosen to live: I want to go down or rise up as an artist. I don't want to get swept up in lipstick or whatever the hell.

I was not a child star. I was more like a young auditioner.