Laura Dern

To stay true to your art is such a complicated journey, and Dad clearly has done it.

My dad taught me to never be pigeonholed to really allow yourself to reinvent characters as they reinvent you to be bold and to be willing to play seemingly unlikeable people.

My dad was always interested in characters he didn't understand - he was such a great bad guy in movies. And that is really the thing that calls me to the material often: something I struggle to understand in human behaviour.

I'm moved by people who see the world differently than others. People who see the world with a longing for its poetry often can be broken people.

If you're looking to be loved for a part, it's great and enticing to be adorable in a romantic comedy. But then, as an actor, you get stuck.

I feel so lucky to have a mom who is not only an extraordinary actor but someone who is game enough to not worry about our relationship versus what we play in movies or television.

I knew I wanted to become an actor when I was 7 years old. My dad was working with Alfred Hitchcock, my mom was working with Martin Scorsese - and it was the great summer of my childhood.

I think my mom exposed me to the concept of using your voice for anything you care about.

Going to the Academy Awards is something I remember since I was six, when I went with my mom for the first time, 14 with my dad, you know, and there I am, at 22, 23, whatever I was, sitting next to my mom. You know, and then again, there with my dad. Like, there's a beauty to it, and I care deeply about film history.

Jealousy is a scary thing.

'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' is one of the greatest films of all time.

Me and Woody Harrelson, we're twins. We're the same person. I should only make movies with him.

Diet is weird. It's elusive. I just try to listen to my body.

Whatever character you play, it gives you the chance to expose another side of yourself that maybe you've never felt comfortable with, or never knew about.

I have a very wonderfully, bizarrely amazing relationship with my mother in that we've been through a myriad of emotions because we've acted together and played all these different kinds of mother-daughters.

I grew up with a tribe of amazing women, but certainly my mother and my godmother really modeled women as actors.

People now tell me it's a good thing I stayed away from teen films. Well, it wasn't my choice. I wasn't hired.

What a cool job to be part of - whether it's doing lighting or acting or serving food on set. You're part of telling a story that hopefully has an essential component, and that's super exciting to me.