Laurie Halse Anderson Quotes

I’ve seen people where it rules their lives, you know, who want to be thinner or have bigger boobs, and how it wears them down. And I just don’t want that in my life.

I know people will think it's funny because I've done glamour modelling in the past, but I felt embarrassed about my body and just wanted to cover it up.

I used to beat myself up about weight and working out, and no matter what I did I never felt good about myself. I decided to accept myself and know that I am good.

I don't want someone photographing my cellulite - I can't take it!

I am self-conscious, and I'm aware of my body. But I struggle with America's limited idea of what perfection is.

I hate running. I know I'm curvier - I know I'm small, but I'm not ripped. But I make a choice to be that way. I realize my arms aren't as toned as Halle Berry's but I don't want them to be.

When I found out I had to take off my shirt in 'Teen' movie, I panicked and hit the gym. I was like, 'It's going to be on film, documented, for my children to see. I can't be 140 pounds. I need to put on a little bit of muscle.'

Being a person who has had plastic surgery and goes to the gym five days a week to work my muscles up so they don't look atrophied as a 60-year-old, I don't disparage people who want to maintain their appearance. But what I don't want is a society that tells me I have to.

When you're a woman, you have such a strange relationship with your body because - especially when you're in the public eye - you're constantly being judged.

I've spent so much of life thinking of my body as my enemy.

I felt embarrassed about how my body looked being so pale.

There are much more important things than a man going to the gym. Of course they have to take care of themselves on a certain level, but it's not essential. I think men do it more to impress other men.

I was pretty self-conscious about my body because everybody kept going on like, "Oh, she's so curvy!" and "She's a plus-size model!" and this and that. It's all people would talk about - how I'm not very skinny. For a while, it made me pretty upset and I got a bit obsessive about it. I did a bunch of dieting and exercising and everything. I was losing weight, but I was still much bigger than everybody else. I didn't really see the point of making myself crazy anymore, so I kind of toned it down a little bit.

Standards of beauty are arbitrary. Body shame exists only to the extent that our physiques don't match our own beliefs about how we should look.

I had spent my entire career not wanting to talk about weight, not wanting to deal with it, wanting to be an actor first.

I've talked to so many people, men and women alike, that get overweight and their self-esteem just goes in the tank. They think they're judged. They think they're unattractive.

Work out really hard and be confident because bodies are beautiful, sensual and natural. I've also trained in Wushu, a form of martial arts - it's very beautiful and flowy, and it's predominantly used in fight scenes in movies, which is how it was introduced to me, and I just love it.

I remember when I was a kid, I could never find anything positive about chubby girls. If a girl was pudgy in books, she wasn't okay. She couldn't be happy or make friends unless she lost weight.

What is this drive to be thinner, prettier, better dressed, other? Who exactly is this other and what does she look like beyond the jacket she's wearing or the food she's not eating? What might we be doing, thinking, feeling about if we didn't think about body image, ever?

There was a kind of physical anarchy that dominated most of my younger life. I was always too skinny, not hairy enough, my voice jumped around. It was a thing that drove me away from towel lines in gym class.

Some people would like me to be round again.

I'm no stranger to weight issues. I've had cellulite since I was about nine years old. I have enjoyed the uber support of Spanx many times.

It's embarrassing to tell you how much my friends make fun of me. Seriously, when you have a doll made of your face, it's ridiculous how creative your friends can get... pictures, videos, little animated cartoons that they've made.

I worry about how accessible cosmetic surgery has become. Of course, if it has genuinely helped people, and their confidence has grown as a result; who am I to form an opinion?

I know I'm not a buff dude in any sense, but I'm more than comfortable with my body.