Lisa Cholodenko Quotes

Most of my ambitions were seeded at St. John's. My time there was some of the best time I have spent on Earth thus far.

I went to Goucher College in Maryland for the best possible reasons - to learn - but then I dropped out at 19 for the best possible reasons - to become a writer.

College isn't in everyone's hearts. I am living proof, though, that school doesn't mess up your plans. It gives you more experiences to write about.

It was easy for me to leave acting for school, because I wasn't really in it as an adolescent for fulfilling reasons.

It was only in the early 1990s - during my student years as an aspiring scientist at Delhi University - that I discovered the world of cinema.

In college, you're kind of designing who you want to be. And I wanted to be a big reader.

I went straight from high school to 'Gossip Girl,' and both were very structured, scheduled environments, so I never had freedom to explore and carve my own path.

When I went to college, I wasn't interested in fashion anymore - I was interested in art.

And I discovered after a couple years that I really didn't miss making movies.

My mother gave me a push. If I hadn't had her, maybe I wouldn't have had the push. If I hadn't gone to military school, maybe I wouldn't have decided to get with the program. Maybe I'd be running a bulldozer, rather than going on and doing something more.

I had no idea when I went to college what I'd be doing. I took organic chemistry and did terribly, but I was good in English and art. I took many courses and participated in as many activities as I could. I learned a lot about every single thing.

I can't say that dropping out of school at 16 to join the Marines was my best idea. On the other hand, maybe it was. Who knows?

I didn't even realize that I was interested in film until I was in college, and since then, I've had a very uncertain and sort of lost decade.

I always thought I was going to end up teaching ninth grade, specifically, because I had a lot of really formative influences, I think, at that fork in the road, where a lot of crucial decisions are made by young folks.

I got a sociology degree and then had an opportunity to go to graduate school. But I said no, because I wanted to give songwriting a shot.

After graduating from high school, I worked at an advertising agency as a designer. After I left, I spent a year doing nothing in particular. At age 23, I drew my first comic.

I was in my 30s when I finally went to film school. It was kind of always going to happen, but I did try to keep it suppressed for awhile.

My life could have easily gone another way. But I had this one teacher who gave me direction and got me into performing. She got me into touring with an educational play called 'The Inner Circle' along with Pedro Zamora from MTV's 'The Real World.'

The best decision I ever made was to drop out of school.

My career direction has probably been guided as much by curiosity and my personality as by my early influences.

I wanted to be a teacher because that is all I knew. It was a great course on primary school education, in which I could specialise in music, but I ended up dropping out after I was honest with myself about what I really wanted to do with my life.

[The whole first year at university] was a great time for me and great time of awakening.

I wanted to transfer to an art school, and ended up going to the University of Southern California. They had a cinematography school, and I said "Well, that's sort of like photography, maybe that will be interesting." And once I started in that department, I found what it was that I loved and was good at.

I had a great time at Michigan State, but no four years will compare to Saginaw High.

I knew that I wanted to be an actor; I just did not know when and where. I was open to experimenting.