Rose McGowan Quotations

I came out of the womb waving red lipstick.

I have great luck. I'm used to people dying and going away. Not used to it exactly - but I expect it. Like, whenever people go off on a trip, I save their phone messages because I think they might die.

I did a cover for 'Rolling Stone' the other day and it was a kind of crazy lack of outfit. I thought, 'Oh, Lord. I'm never going to be Jane Austen in a film now!' 'Cause that's what I'd really like to do.

It wasn't that I was shy to go out with him, I just didn't want people with preconceived notions to assume anything about why we were together. I was pretty careful for a while.

Because I do so many action-oriented films, I started working with stunt people doing fight training, then I found it to be just great exercise. Also I like to be fit, so I've continued on with fight training. Right before I got to do 'Conan,' I was fighting off four guys. Its great fun. And strange.

Poe was such a tragic and brilliant figure; he's somebody whom I've been somewhat obsessed with my whole life. I first read 'The Tell-Tale Heart' at age four.

Quentin Tarantino is controlled insanity, I would say. He's very loud and fun. I don't think there's anybody on the planet like him that I have ever met.

I think gay marriage should be the national law.

I have a lot of brothers and sisters, and each movie has helped pay for tuition. And then I was like, I only have one left in college, so why am I doing this? But now I want to go back to Italy and live on a farm in Tuscany.

There was a story that I was in a shoe shop and that I threw a pair of flip flops at the wall, shouting, 'I can't believe how overpriced these are!' I thought, 'Gosh, if I'm gonna take a big stand on something I would hope it would be for more than flip flops!'

I like strong, strong women who don't go down without a fight. I like iconic roles. They don't come around very often, so I have to wait for them. Obviously I'm not the typical blonde who stands by the side, while the man has all the fun.

I love the absurd - kind of absurdist comedy, absurd things in life.

At 13, when I was a runaway, I was taken in by the most amazing drag queens in Portland, Ore. We didn't always know where our next meal was coming from, but there was so much camaraderie and love. Not to mention, those girls could paint a face, and I learned how because of them.

I think I ran so hard and so fast, in a lot of ways, from my life and I kind of took a fall. It was like - what do they call it? - post-traumatic stress syndrome.

I realized a career is built as much on what you don't do as what you do do.

I've had, like, four long-term boyfriends. I tend to be in relationships for long periods of time.

I went to regular schools and I was home schooled a lot but I don't have any history in schools. Like, I literally don't exist. I didn't even get a birth certificate until the mid-80s. I always feel like I could be, like, 10 years younger, or maybe I'm 70!

I'm not really one of those people who goes and writes some big back story and agonizes over characters. I think you kind of can get it. For me personally, it's just kind of more instinctive. But I don't have kind of an acting background. I fell into it accidentally.

There have been a lot of murders and suicides in my family; it's like the primary cause of death. I wonder if there's a certain energy that attracts that.

I was up watching Meet Joe Black at four AM. I was hoping Brad Pitt would die, and he was still alive at seven forty in the morning! I actually felt sorry for once, for critics.

I like people who are fit. I figure if I work out, you can at least return the favor. Would I go out with a meathead? No.

I never started out trying to be an actor. That was not my passion, this was not my thing.

I would like Obama to be tougher on going up against the Republicans, I don't think he should try to be so moderate.

I've seen many actors go awry by making the wrong choices early on.

I was with somebody else at the time, who I left - one, because I didn't really want to be with that person, and two, because I felt I'd had so much tragedy I needed to go off, go crazy, and maybe live on the outside for a while.

I'm not attracted to dangerous men. I'm attracted, apparently, to height. One ex was 6'6; the one before was 6'4, then 6'3. I like freakishly tall people.

Life gets better when you embrace your geekiness

I was supposed to be the belle of the ball, but I only lasted a day there and then, on January 29, my best friend committed suicide.

I am going to be pretty kick ass by the time I'm thirty, and I can't wait!!

I feel people have tried to stamp out what is special about me. Why should I downplay myself to make someone else more comfortable?

Whatever's going to be is what's going to be,

We continue to get treated like the ugly stepchild of the network. Anyway, I'm proud of what we accomplished.

Why can't I get a guy? Only Alyssa gets a boyfriend,

They're definitely having their moment now because they know how to work the system, and I know I have to be that way, too, in order to succeed. But it's never been more frustrating for me.

It's not only reduced a lot of the ups and downs that come with this lifestyle, but it's instilled a really strong work ethic in me.

I really prize my freedom more than work. I prize just being human and doing other things.

There are some movies that I absolutely hate but someone else loves - people love things for different reasons.

My whole family is very art-based. My sister runs a gallery, my other sister works for PACE in New York, my other sister is a sculptor. I'd say the ending one is me because that's the artist and the artist feels a lot.

One of my goals is to create more art to put out there in the world.

I was never nervous directing. Not once. I'm more nervous acting. I'm far more nervous on set, before I say my lines, than I ever have been, as a director.

There are moments when you act that you actually disappear from your body, and that's amazing. That's better than any drug, I would imagine. People take drugs to disappear from themself, and that's what it feels like when you hit that moment.

I love shooting guns. I would never shoot an animal or hunt, but I probably would be a very good hit woman. It's hand-in-glove for me.

It's interesting when you go out into the world and see which of your roles have affected people.

I just felt like, "Why would you discuss my body as if it's an object?" People will come up and say things like, "Are your breasts real?" I mean, people will come up and discuss my body as if I'm not human.

When I get my feelings hurt, or when things scare me, or freak out my sensibilities, or when my feathers get ruffled, it takes me aback, of course, but then I think, I'm grateful that I have a mind that can want more for people and want more for the planet. It's not that hard. It's really quite simple.

It's funny, honestly, by rights, with a lot of the stuff that's happened to me I should be running down the street with my hair on fire, but instead I want to shape things, and I want to shake things up. There's nothing wrong with being an agitator.

If somebody said something racist around me, or you, or most people, you would correct it, you would stop it, but when they say things about women, so frequently no one says anything. That has to change.

People get so burned out on hearing about sexism, but you know what? I would love to burn out on it. I would love to never talk about that again, but until we're all equal I shall have to fight, and remain fighting.

I was a boy in the ads I did as a child. My sister was the girl, and I was the boy. I had short hair and I was in overalls and I was giving flowers to my sister Daisy, who fit their model of what a girl was supposed to look like.

I kind of grew breasts overnight and then the world got really loud.

Some people do have a very innate sexuality to them. I may or may not have it, but it makes people see you in a certain light that has nothing to do with me.

I moved from Italy to Oregon in the '80s - sort of like moving to the middle of a "Duck Dynasty" episode, which was massive culture shock to say the least.

I went from being just a kid to all of a sudden not being able to walk a block without a man waggling his tongue through his fingers, which is disgusting. I mean, I was 13 and suddenly I'm trying to see myself through the eyes of men, trying to figure out why I'm getting this reaction from them versus just being able to walk through the world whole.

With fame, all of a sudden you're seeing yourself through the eyes of a world of men, and that's . . . Look, it's very weird to have part and parcel of a job to feel like you're a lure for men to come into the theater. Some people do have a very innate sexuality to them. I may or may not have it, but it makes people see you in a certain light that has nothing to do with me.

Every woman knows that any man engaging in street harassment can switch to anger very quickly and that anger goes to rage and their rage is their masculinity being threatened. We're scared for good reason.

I'd never even seen orange cheese. I mean, who decided to make that orange? And so there was something different about me that they wanted to crush. I don't think it had anything to do with my physicality, but every single day in school it was, "You're the ugliest thing I've ever seen."

I was 13. And on my own for about 10 months, but those were long months. My stepdad wanted me out of his hair and tried to put me in a home, a hospital kind of place for kids with drug problems, which I absolutely did not belong in. So I left that place and struck out on my own .

Heterosexual men terrified me. I found them to be dangerous. Not all of them, of course, but it took me some time to learn to be comfortable.

Why are women still this underclass? If we all banded together...

I live a very international life, but when I come back to Hollywood, a town I love in a lot of ways, I have to wonder, "What decade are you in? Like, seriously, what decade? It's not this one."

This hetero - normative behavior and herd mentality is dangerous. It's okay to be different.

I see so much beauty in people and in the world and when I see ugliness I try to either expose it or fight but also remind myself that it's mostly just people who can't spell who say mean things.

I don't know how exactly but I'm maybe perverse in the sense that I like being disappointed in something on a daily basis. Because it means that I'm still not jaded.

I think of the kids that live on top of garbage dumps, I think of the ways we could reach out to other countries, I think of certainly climate change. There's so much. The nighttime is that time, is it not?

I don't mind being disliked - I will be the one to step up and say what needs to be said if it helps one woman who comes after me.

A guy friend I was speaking to said he was talking to a group of male producersand he was just shocked that they said, "But if we give women directors a job they're going to take jobs away from the men." I almost fell out of my chair. But when I encounter this kind of thing, what I try to do is give a chiropractic adjustment to the mind, quickly.

I always thought I was more satanic than Manson.

While I learned, I hid out largely in the gay community, and overall it kept me very safe.

I am going to be pretty kick a$$ by the time I'm thirty, and I can't wait!!

Since I didn't grow up going to school dances, etc., I didn't have the normal . . . I grew up in a very different way so a lot of the childish concerns or teenage concerns weren't my concerns. My concerns were survival.

The people that are the invisible ones, the marginalized, the quote-unquote weirdos, the people that get things thrown at them, the people that get harassed every day just for existing . . . I just still strongly align with them.

Hetero - normative behavior and herd mentality is dangerous. It's okay to be different. It's okay to stand out for whatever reason. Some people are just born that way and instead of trying to tear them down, learn something new. Be curious and open because maybe that's a pathway out for you, too.

I love Cate Blanchett: she takes risks, but is still refind.

Why should I downplay myself to make someone else more comfortable?

I still say I can do whatever I want as long as I'm not hurting anybody else. I don't understand why more people aren't like that.

Gosh, if I'm gonna take a big stand on something I would hope it would be for more than flip flops!

You have to work to carve out your own little corner, and I'm certainly smacking my head against the wall trying to make a dent. I just hope I don't get brain-damaged before I get there

You have to be at the forefront of culture to create art, which they call "product," and Hollywood is not. It's this very old business model, which I think is dying in a lot of ways.

If one person starts crying, I'll cry. If one person has no money, I'll give them mine. If I had a bicycle growing up, I always felt incredibly guilty when I see someone sitting at the bus stop.

I don't believe in rules. I would be happy to be climbing a pyramid when I'm 70. And I know I will be.

Hollywood is all about making an entrance. I don't want to be a walking advertisement for anyone other than myself.

There's nothing wrong with being an agitator.

A lot of times when you do things where you're killing people, the character is always having an existential crisis about it. It's fun to be no-holds-barred and have no big crisis of conscious.

It's my job to spread deviance to the American youth.

The fear is that talking back, that engaging at all, is to open the door for god-knows-what.

I think if I had lived back in Salem, I would have been burned at the stake

From a really young age, I was into female empowerment and supporting the underdog. Right now, I'm into female vengeance.

I'm a pussycat unless you do something to one of my friends. Then I'll think of unique ways to get back at you. I'm more creative than your average bear.

Short-sightedness is killing us.

I think working with artists is incredibly important for everybody in the world, but also, it is a way of seeing the world differently.

That's my takeaway from 'Scream' - I know I can fit in dog doors. You have to jimmy your body in a certain position and really hope you're not wearing something super fancy.

I literally feel pity for a lot of the stupid idiots that I have to deal with.

The awesome thing about being an artist? You can't be fired from your own mind.