Winona Ryder Quotations

You go through spells where you feel that maybe you're too sensitive for this world. I certainly felt that.

Weird people follow you in the streets, you can't sit alone in a restaurant or a cafe and read a book in peace, and I think everybody values those moments of being alone.

When you finally accept that it's OK not to have answers and it's OK not to be perfect, you realize that feeling confused is a normal part of what it is to be a human being.

Break-ups are hard for anybody, but it's particularly tough when it's being documented and you see the person's picture everywhere. Most people don't have that added problem when they break up with someone.

People think that they just want movies like Pretty Woman, when really they - at least the ones that I know personally - have been waiting for something that doesn't completely insult them.

I've learned that it's OK to be flawed.

Remember, I'm the kind of kid who used to get stuffed into a locker by school bullies. I've never felt like I'm a big star at any level of my life.

That's an aspect of this business which can be very frustrating and aggravating. Most of what is written about you is wrong and so much of what does get printed is often about personal things that you don't want to have other people read about.

My father is an atheist. My mother is Buddhist. They encouraged my siblings and me to take the best part of other religions to make our own belief system.

It's equally as important to me to be a good friend and a good sister and a good daughter. I'm very close with my family and friends.

I think I'm learning to be bolder in my career choices and be more confident in my personal life. I haven't always felt very secure as an individual, but now I feel I certain confidence and sense of self that gets me through the day a lot better than before.

Life's short, so if you're going to spend months doing something, it's gotta be pretty special... But I'm very happy to enter my Baby Jane years, and hopefully segue into the Ruth Gordon years.

I am not a person who can really sit around and think about regrets because with every bad experience that you have, there is weirdly something good that comes from it.

I feel like I had to learn how to take care of myself and find out what made me happy aside from just making films.

You try to get out there and live. I've always had good friends who've been very supportive and help make me feel good and grounded because I've never felt attached to the film industry.

I'm not into older guys. To tell you the truth, Richard Gere is not the sexiest man alive, in my book.

You can't pay enough money to... cure that feeling of being broken and confused.

For a long time, I was almost ashamed of being an actress. I felt like it was a shallow occupation. People would be watching my every move.

I don't believe I am influencing anybody but myself.

I love photography and first editions. I have that in my genes. My father was an archivist.

There was a time when I was 19 when I really, really, really thought I was going crazy. I was exhausted and going through a terrible depression.

I love books and going to bookstores. My favorite sound is the sound of the needle hitting the record.

The older you get, the more yourself you can be and the less worried you are about what other people think.

I have this sense that I didn't really start growing up until my twenties.

I would love to someday do a play. I did one when I was very young in San Francisco, where I grew up. A girl can dream.

I loved movies, but I can't remember ever really wanting to be an actress, and I certainly didn't imagine ever being in a movie. I think I wanted to be a writer.

I was very lucky because Tim Burton really gave me a career. I don't think Hollywood would've known what to do with me. If I hadn't done 'Beetlejuice,' I think I would've just gone back to my school.

I'm quite comfortable looking at myself in movies, probably because I've been doing it for so long, since I was a kid. So I sort of watched myself grow up and go through adolescence, like, basically on camera.

It's also a question of finding good material and interesting roles. I'm not the only actress out there, and good parts just don't fall into your lap that easily. But I like most of the films I've made recently and so I'm pretty positive about the future.

I'm the type who'd rather not work than work on something I'm not into. I've done that a couple of times, and I feel like I can totally see it in my performance.

If I showed you scripts from my first few movies, the descriptions of my characters all said 'the ugly girl'.

It's an indication of how cynical our society has become that any kind of love story with a sad theme is automatically ridiculed as sentimental junk.

I was inspired by lots of people, certainly in acting and in writing and stuff, but I never wanted to be somebody else.

It's part of the celebrity process but my life has never been as interesting or as wild as what's been printed about me.

Googling yourself is maybe one of the worst things you can do. I did it once, and someone had to talk me off a ledge.

I don't hang out with agents and producers and I'm not into the business side at all.

I'm not interested in playing the girl that's just there to make the guy, you know, give him a talking to.

My parents are awesome, but they're pretty left-wing.

Money doesn't matter on a deeply personal level. It doesn't make you feel any happier. But of course I am very aware that I don't have to worry about earning a living or about those very important practical things that most people have to worry about on a very real level.

Even though 'Heathers' didn't make a lot of money, I really was able to transition into a situation where people thought I could play an attractive role because of it.

I've loved making movies. I feel like I've been so lucky because I've gotten to be in movies that are some of my favorites, regardless of my being in them - like 'Heathers.'

My dad took me to all the best rock and punk shows when I was growing up and music has always been a part of my life. So I'm very interested in the music scene and I suppose that's why I've ended up going out with musicians. Dave Pirner is still one of my best friends.

What's awful about being famous and being an actress is when people come up to you and touch you. That's scary, and they just seem to think it's okay to do it, like you're public property.

I was regarded as the school freak which further reinforced a lot of inhibitions and doubts I had about myself. I was a shy, frightened teenager for a long time.

I was very depressed after breaking off my engagement with Johnny ten years ago. I was embarrassingly dramatic at the time, but you have to remember I was only 19 years old.

It's just people should realize that the celebrity aspect of being an actor is very rarely enjoyable for people like me who would always rather go unnoticed and disappear into the crowd.

I don't use the Internet, but apparently you can find out everything on it.

I love westerns. John Ford is one of the 10 best directors.

I think it's important to have as much as a normal life and take the time to get perspective because it only helps your work in the long run.

But I've always felt a need to have a life which is completely separate - at least as far as possible - from the kind of illusory lifestyle that comes with being a celebrity.

I think I really scored with my parents. All of my friends pretty much came from broken homes, and my parents are still together, but not only that, they're still in love and still write together.

It's really good to be able to think about past loves without having a pit in my stomach, or cringing or feeling heart-broken, or like they hate you. Don't you think?

Only in Hollywood could that happen -- it really was hysterical. But she is more interesting now than she was before.

I got a call from Al. He's an insomniac. We talk in the middle of the night, ... I don't sleep, he doesn't sleep. So it is very normal that we call each other at two in the morning. I just love him so much.

to continue to do what you've been doing.

He said, 'I'm just grateful for the work'. I thought he would be cynical like me, but he had this immense gratitude.

I welcome turning 30 because I like approaching the beginning of something instead of the end. I'm at a really good place and feel grounded.

So remaking a movie like Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is a really positive statement and I'm so happy I made it in light of what happened after we made it.

Back then, you used to lock people up and throw away the key if they just felt sensitive, or if they rebelled in any way.

a bottle of aspirin with a bottle of vodka.

It's not just about a girl (referring to Jo's character) who wants to be a writer. It's about falling in love and getting your heart broken and breaking other people's heart. It touches just about everything.

I wanted to take care of him, have him move in, but he said he was heading back south. I fell in love with him. And I've been in love with him ever since.

I love good family films. I think in the context of Sept. 11 it's important that these kinds of movies are made and reach an audience.

I really hope people go back and watch his movies. He was such a fantastic actor. He's not just Sean's little brother. He was Chris Penn.

I really hope people go back and watch his movies, because he was such a fantastic actor, and he is going to be so missed. And he was also an amazing person, and hilarious and really, just really a great guy.

I checked myself in because I was just so exhausted, ... and I was working so much and I think anyone would back me up in saying 19 is just a really tough year.

I approached work very seriously. I never went out. I couldn't fathom people who could go out to clubs... But I definitely went through a time where I was just terrified and exhausted and I didn't really understand. Hollywood... It just got to be too much for me.

There's a scene [in the 1990 film Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael] in my bedroom where I start eating Almond Roca. I was so young. It was before I knew the tricks of moviemaking, and I didn't know you shoot a lot of different angles. I gobbled them and didn't realize I had to keep doing it. So I had to eat 64 Almond Roca that day. I got so sick. In the beginning you're like, 'Ooh, that looks good.' But hours later, no.

I feel my best when I'm happy.

Most actors don't know what they're going to do next, so you get into this thing where you have to force yourself to have another life outside of acting. And then, as soon as you start something in this sort of normal life that you're trying to live, you get a job. So you have this constant struggle because you want to be able to commit to things and to finish things in your life, but then you also want to be able to act.

You've got to grow up sometime.

Well, yeah! Now they're considered golden oldies, which is awesome. I was watching Little Women recently, and I didn't want to get up for fear of missing something. And Heathers is like my own Rocky Horror Picture Show; I recite the lines when it's on. It may seem odd, but I think it's because they're really good movies.

I was never strategic really, but back when I was starting out no one cared. In the acting community, box office didn't matter. I really think it was a mistake when they started paying people like $20 million to do a movie because now it's all people think about. Is she worth it? Is he worth it?

I really lucked out in terms of how my parents encouraged me to develop my own personality so I didn't just feel incredibly insecure and like I didn't fit in.

My parents really instilled this idea in me of being your own person, almost to the extent that I couldn't do wrong. I'd get a bad grade and they'd be like, "No! What you did was great!"

If you're a musician, you can practice your guitar every day and write songs, but when you're an actor, you can't just like burst into a monologue. Your only exercise is when you're in prep or you're working.

The fact that I got into acting at all was kind of fluke-ish. I loved movies, but I can't remember ever really wanting to be an actress, and I certainly didn't imagine ever being in a movie. I think I wanted to be a writer.

If a film is well made, then great, whatever it's about.

My problems seemed so glamorous to other people, and everyone just thought I was so lucky. But then, I was lucky because my family was really there for me. I think I just felt like I really wanted to hold on to who I was as a person, and try to have as much of a normal life as I could.

Bette Davis in All About Eve was huge for me. Her acting was staggering.

I was so spoiled in a way. I worked very hard, but there was just a wealth of great roles.

In the '80s, I loved the movies of the '70s. Also I remember loving Klute [1971]. I loved Jane Fonda. Actually, I auditioned for the last movie she made before she retired for a while, Stanley and Iris [1990], which Martha Plimpton got.

I had this big complex because I didn't go to college. There was a whole era where I got linked to everybody. People that I had never met. I was like, "How? I'm home alone reading chapter 12 of a book."

I watched this documentary on Madonna. I remember I grew up hearing she wanted to rule the world. Actually, she worked really hard - really, really hard.

I got to work with Gena Rowlands when I did Night on Earth, and the movie was just you and someone else in a car, you're just hanging out. There's nobody else, just a walkie-talkie. It was a night shoot, and it was only a week or ten days. But it was incredible just being in her presence.

There's like this great thing that Bette Davis said when someone asked her, "How do you get into Hollywood?" "Take Fountain!"

That first movie I did, Lucas [1986], was probably the closest to me. And Beetlejuice a little bit, in the sense that I did look like that. All they did was like put a little white powder here.

It's weird because I think of movies like Reality Bites or something, where, even though my life was nothing like that, I hadn't done something contemporary for a while, and it's easier. You do try to make something your own.

I remember when I was doing Mermaids [1990], I was 16 and they gave me a B12 shot once. My parents weren't there, and when they did come, they freaked out. They were terrified, because of the Judy Garland stories. I know it's just vitamin B, but it did give you a boost.

Reverend Hale is so interesting because at first he's like, "Oh, she's got the mark." Then by the end he's like, "You're all crazy."

I was very obsessed with Ruth Gordon. I really didn't foresee me having any type of career as a leading lady at all because it was just blonds. I just wasn't the type - I was told that by casting directors. I auditioned for Running on Empty [1988] and The Mosquito Coast [1986], and Martha Plimpton was just killing me.

You look at people like Gena Rowlands, but she had [John] Cassavetes to write these amazing roles for her.

Bette Davis, she was so brilliant and one of my heroes, but she worked a ton, and then she didn't get All About Eve [1950] until the last minute. Claudette Colbert was supposed to be Margo Channing, but then she broke her back and couldn't do it. That allowed Davis to play her age.

Somehow I was invited to visit with Audrey Hepburn. I had this afternoon with her, and she gave me a couple things. She was so gracious and everything you would think that she would be.

I've recommended girls for jobs that I had a different part in, and agents have been like, "No, don't ..."It's so surprising to me.

I think that as actresses - and I've definitely gone through this in a really bizarre way, because I worked so much and was really lucky with the roles that I got when I was younger - I remember hearing the older actors saying, "It gets tough," and thinking, "Really? I can't imagine."

I binge-watched this show Damages. Glenn Close and Rose Byrne are so good. Lily Tomlin is in it. You see all these great actors and the writing is terrific. There are a lot of shows like that. And there are all these conversations right now about roles for women and being paid equally and all of that, but I think what it really is, is opportunity.

It's interesting because First Wives Club was the first movie that made a shitload of money that starred all women over a certain age. That was a milestone that made you think, "Oh, things are going to change."

I remember when I did Little Women, I didn't watch the Katharine Hepburn one over and over, which I thought I would do. Heathers, I was completely obsessed with.

A lot of filmmakers and actors say, "It's so important to bring an authenticity to the role," blah, blah, blah. But then it's interesting because you're also trying to be somebody else, and viewers are going to associate you with that, so I don't think it really has an answer.