Ben Mendelsohn Quotes

I was the youngest of my entire family so you are tap-dancing to try to get the attention of your older cousins. I really hit my social stride in 6th grade, but before that I was a pretty big dork. You learn how to be amusing and how to work for it.

I was a shy kid, a late bloomer. At 22, I was probably 16 emotionally.

I suppose I do think I go out of my way to be a very normal person, and I just find it frustrating that people think that I'm some kind of weirdo reclusive that never comes out into the world.

I understand people have preconceived notions of who I am or what I do. But I do find it a bit bizarre that people find it bizarre that I've grown up.

People love teen movies because everyone can relate.

Ever since I left Northern Ireland, I've always been pretty comfortable on my own, which contradicts a lot of people's perceptions of me.

I used to hate getting dressed, getting in front of the camera and walking down the red carpet. It bothered me because I felt like I couldn't be what they wanted me to be. Now it's still not my favorite thing, but I get through it a lot easier because I know that my work brings value to who I am.

Puberty extends into your twenties, for sure, and some people don't get over that until much later in life. I feel like I'm just starting to get over puberty - basically twenty years of insufferable, totally self-obsessed hell.

Adolescence is when girls experience social pressure to put aside their authentic selves and to display only a small portion of their gifts.

Women think the people that I play are smoldering and dangerous. I look in the mirror, and I go, 'I don't get it.'

At a young age, I was very aware I was different and not perceived in a good way. For a lot of my adolescence, I struggled with that, trying to identify where I belong and who my real friends are.

The Kevin Abstract project kind of represents being socially awkward in high school, which I'm low-key kind of tired of.

I had never heard of 'young adult novels,' which I guess are about teenage gangs and the new boy in town or something.

I definitely think being a young girl, there's a time where - like when you're in middle school or when you first start liking boys - you don't really feel comfortable. You remember that time when you first got your period, or when your boobs started coming in, that you were like, 'This is weird.' You have to grow into yourself.

I enjoyed being a teenager.

Growing up in public is especially hard sometimes.

I have no issues with my identity.

I think I draw most inspiration from writers like Richelle Mead and filmmakers like John Hughes. They both really understand the experience of being a teenager and how insistent and intense everything feels, but they're also smart, savvy, and fun.

I think that is a universal adolescent feeling, trying to find your place. The adolescent who is perfectly adjusted to his environment, I've yet to meet.

I'm glad I went through all the normal teenage dramas that a lot of people go through. I can really relate to 'Secret Life' because I witnessed those similar struggles.

We're all just trying to fit in and find ourselves, particularly when we're growing up.

Books for teens are amazing and compelling, I think, because they're generally set in a time in people's lives when they are uncertain about who they are and who they love and what the right thing is to do.

I don't have a problem being labeled a sex symbol, though I personally don't feel very sexy about myself.

I've read a lot of different versions of myself - and all of them are true because it's all opinion, and they're as accurate as it can ever be. But I don't think that I've been deft at hiding parts of my personality.

I hate it when people call me a teen queen.