Evangeline Lilly quotes:

Even if you're unhappy, just pretend that you're happy. Eventually, your smile will be contagious to yourself. I had to learn that. I used to think, 'I'm being fake,' but you know what? Better to be fake and happy than real and miserable.

I was a massive Tolkien fan. 'The Hobbit' was... my favorite book as a little girl, and the Silvan Elves were my favorite characters in the book.

My favorite parts about 'The Battle of Five Armies' were the moments where you could clearly see that we were looking at New Zealand. That it wasn't done in post, it wasn't CGI, it was the beautiful, incredible creation of Mother Nature in all of her splendor.

When I got old enough to date, I realized that Valentine's Day is just a commercial marketing scam to make men feel bad. So I let my boyfriends off the hook.

Wonder Woman was my favorite superhero as a little girl. I still have a huge girl crush on Wonder Woman; I think she's amazing.

I'm from Canada, and New Zealand feels like you took all the best bits of Canada and squished them onto a tiny island like Hawaii. I was absolutely blown away by the beauty of the South Island.

I'm a very stubborn woman and I'm from a very stubborn family of headstrong women. I have sisters, so the women rule the coop in my house.

If I were to live in Africa, serving the poor, the number-one thing I'd miss wouldn't be running water or electricity - it would be style... being able to get dressed up and feel beautiful.

I'm a good Canadian girl. I miss all that good stuff. I miss tobogganing and I miss snowboarding, but I've also learned to surf and I've become a water baby which I used to be relatively terrified of the water and I kayak all the time now and I'm able to run year round on the beach which you can't obviously do in Canada.

In your 20s you can be pretty, but you don't accomplish real beauty until you find wisdom and depth.

I have battled clinical depression and have come out of the other side. I've been free of it for many years now. Finding the place in my own mind and heart to win that battle without using medication, finding the place within myself where I could be alive again, that was one of the biggest challenges I've faced.

I hated being a flight attendant. I did it for a month and then quit.

Your mind and soul are the kings of your physique way more than any exercise you do.

That's what happens in Hollywood. People are like, 'I want to hate you, because everyone else seems to love you.' But the reality is this: I'm a simple person who's not interested in attention and who just wants to go about her business.

The Hobbit' didn't include female characters at all and was a very linear story, a book for children, really.

We decided to have the baby at home because we wanted it to be a natural birth, and it turns out that it was 30 hours of natural. Eight hours of pushing - that's the part that men don't understand. Women go, 'Oh, dear, oh, dear God, eight hours of pushing?' And the men are like, 'Okay, eight hours of pushing.'

I am five foot six, I am built of muscle and bone, and that is not very good for fashion, but it's who I am. Women who look good in fashion are six foot tall, don't have an ounce of muscle, and their legs are the size of my arm.

When I hear the words 'Women should be barefoot and pregnant and in the kitchen,' I think, 'What. A. Dream.' There are no negative connotations to it.

I think that being isolated from the Hollywood world of premieres and red carpet events was probably good for me because I could ease into those at will and by my own choice. But in other aspects, when it comes to fanfare, Hawaii is nuts and in L.A. they're all so jaded. They don't care.

I got the script for 'Real Steel.' I started reading and saw that it was about robot boxing, and I was immediately turned off. It's not my thing. But I continued on, and by the time I got to the end of the script, I had chicken skin and tears in my eyes. I thought, 'Man, we don't make movies like this anymore.'

People were fed up with reality shows about midgets getting married and weird Jerry Springer talk shows. There had been a real dry spell of intelligent family-oriented viewing: the type of program that Mom, Dad and the kids can all watch together. With 'Lost,' there are just so many characters for people to invest in.

I just like short hair on women; I think it's cool.

Around the time I graduated from high school, I decided better to underachieve and have friendship than to overachieve and be alone.

My son is wonderful. He is amazing.

The difference in my body from pre-pregnancy to post-baby was night and day. I didn't have the strength, I didn't have the flexibility, I didn't have the stamina, I didn't have the mobility. I felt like I was handicapped.

For a human audience, seeing things that are slightly more otherworldly and beyond human power is always really fun and exciting to watch.

I see kids and young adults walking the streets of L.A. with this enormous sense of entitlement, who seem to think that if they are basically good people and pay their bills, then the world will be good back to them. And I think life isn't always like that.

I was brought up in a household where I was not allowed to take the Lord's name in vain.

As a filmmaker, you have to understand the essence of the book and tell the story you want to see on the screen, and hopefully please yourself - because you can't possibly please everyone.

I seem to be landing really great locations on a lot of my work. I hope that continues, knock on wood.

I was a good student, I was good at soccer, I was vice president of the student council, I was a pretty girl.

Walking is a very underestimated exercise in North America. It's all run hard, lift weights and push your body, but walking is wonderful for elongating the body and posture.

If you are not a clearly defined human being, it is very hard to define your image... What I've realized in my own journey in fashion is that I'm not that defined.

If you go back to, say, the Brothers Grimm or Roald Dahl, you see so much darkness in children's material.

If I went for too long without writing, I would start to feel like something inside me was dying.

I'm very proud of being a woman, and as a woman, I don't even like the word 'feminism' because when I hear that word, I associate it with women trying to pretend to be men, and I'm not interested in trying to pretend to be a man. I don't want to embrace manhood; I want to embrace my womanhood.

Acting is something I appreciate, and I think it's been an amazing experience. But I'm not passionate about acting the way you probably should be to call yourself an actor.

My family didn't have a lot of money, and I'm grateful for that. Money is the longest route to happiness.

I do love 'Star Wars,' although I'm not one of those crazy fans who knows everything about everyone.

When I was a little girl, I dreamed of being an elf.

If Americans could choose, would they choose to work on the infrastructure for cancer-causing oil power or would they choose to work on the infrastructure for health-reviving wind power?

Every woman is after a kind of classy image.

I never developed hard cartilage in my ears because I played with them since I was a baby. I can fold my ear entirely inside out, and I can put the whole thing inside itself.

My heart is in helping people and in the less materialistic side of things, but there's the side of me that's more polished.

Real Steel' was this lovely little piece where I held a cup of coffee and talked to Hugh Jackman for three weeks. And that sounded kind of nice.

Life is all about embracing each moment that is given to you.

To put it simply - you know, a lot of people believe that the benefit of this job is fame and fortune. I believe that you pay for the fortune through the fame. I don't buy into the notion that being famous is somehow a good thing, or an exciting thing, or a wonderful thing.

I think women in Hollywood who don't do Botox and plastic surgery are revered. I revere them... My plan is to never go there. I'm too vain to get plastic surgery because I don't like how it looks, and I want to look my best.

If you're going to tell stories about life, you have to include a woman in your story.

My partner doesn't read. He's not illiterate - he just chooses not to read - and I love reading. I'm obsessed with reading.

I am an opportunist. When opportunities come, and I see them serving my grander goals in life, I take them.

I think I can allow myself one child - and from then on, I think I would have to adopt. It makes sense not to add to the population problem.

I spent a lot of time in the clouds. Becoming a mother has really helped me put my feet on the ground and given me a very powerful sense of self and a powerful sense of priority in life.

One of the things that I miss about Canada is that even the strangers, you have an immediate rapport, there's just an understanding that we're all good people, let's be nice to each other. And Kiwis have that. I find the Kiwis have that.

There's nothing more frustrating than when fans use a nickname. That's like people you don't know using names from people that you're intimate with. Like if my mom has a nickname and a fan finds it out and starts using it, that's creepy.

A creative project is a moving target. You never end up where you start.

I love getting older! I really believe that a woman doesn't reach her peak until her 40s.

It would be amazing to play Sylvia Plath. She was so dark, and what came out of her writing was troubled and fierce. The dimensions, levels, layers and levels would be incredible to take on.

In every one of the 'Squickerwonker' books, we will explore a new Squickerwonker character and their vice and how their vice generally leads to their undoing.

I love to dance. Don't get me started, because you will never get me to stop.

There are jobs to be created on both sides of the climate argument. Whether we are investing in oil or sun, coal or wind, gas or algae, the economy will be stimulated by the investment. The economy, unlike each of us, is not swayed by ideology.

Even if you're unhappy, just pretend that you're happy. Eventually, your smile will be contagious to yourself. I had to learn that, I used to think, I'm being fake, but you know what? Better to be fake and happy than real and miserable.

I cried myself to sleep wishing I was ugly because men leered and disrespected me, because they assumed things about my mental capacity or my physical willingness based on the way I look.

I cried myself to sleep wishing I was ugly because men leered and disrespected me.

I don't want everyone to think of me as just 'that kid who called Jesse Jackson a communist in middle school.' That's why I decided to become a famous actress.

One of the great pleasures of working in Middle Earth is you get to be another being.

I have these huge, pointed ears. They're like three times the size of Orlando Bloom's ears. And I think he has ear envy, I love my ears.

When I got the job on 'Lost,' I was a broke university student living in the crappiest part of town, with a duct-taped back window on a broken-down car. I existed on peanut butter and tea.

I'm very picky when it comes to men. I come across a man who I'm really attracted to about once every five years.

As a filmmaker, you have to understand the essence of the book and tell the story you want to see on the screen, and hopefully please yourself - because you cant possibly please everyone.

I had my baby outside in a thunderstorm. It was really romantic.

I used to watch actors and say, 'You poor suckers, that job looks miserable.'

I think I'm not always what I seem. Most people, when they get to know me, say, 'You know, when I first met you...' People initially think I'm a snob because I'm intensely private.

It's a surprisingly sacrificial job being an actor.

The people on my mum's side of the family are atheist intellectuals who are ueber-proper. My dad's side of the family are missionaries who are more comfortable sitting around in sweatpants than they are in a five-star restaurant. But those two influences converged in my life.

I think one of the things that is easy to have happened in a superhero story is that the female character, whether she be a heroine or not, can often be the wart on the man.

I think doing a female Elf in the Woodland realm was a bit safer, because we haven't met one of those yet.

I don't like the idea of playing a one-dimensional character who is just fearless, strong, and killer and has instincts and just thrives in dangerous circumstances - that's really boring to me, and I don't think it represents what most women feel inside.

Why are we here?' 'What is our purpose? 'Is there an afterlife?' 'Is there a God?' 'Is it all about science?' Those are big questions, and usually, TV is a little scared to go there.

I do feel like I'm at ease in my own skin when I find an androgynous balance.

I'm the kind of person who, if I were living in another time, if I had to pick any time, I would probably be a pioneer. I just love the simplicity of what it means to work hard with your hands - to eat and survive.

I've been astounded to discover how good to their teams and crew that Marvel are. They're so collaborative, so smart with their stories. They have rich, dynamic characters which are so much fun to play.

Every other 16-year-old girl wanted to look at bridal magazines; I could not have been more bored with the notion.

I'm good at looking good with weapons and stunts. But if you put a bull's eye in front of me and asked me to hit it, I'd say the chances of me hitting it are about one in a million!

Believe me, there is nothing more rewarding than making Peter Jackson chuckle.

I lived in grass huts in a jungle in the Philippines for three weeks with tribal people.

I would love to pretend I don't diet, but I work very hard. I stay active and eat very healthy. Anybody who says otherwise is either unhealthy or lying! I will admit that I'm addicted to sugar - licorice, Jujubees and jelly candies. And I actually love bran muffins!

'Real Steel' was this lovely little piece where I held a cup of coffee and talked to Hugh Jackman for three weeks. And that sounded kind of nice.

I'm a bit of a pick-pocket on-set. If something is small enough to go in my pocket, and it will be neat memorabilia, it's gone.

After about five hours of pushing, my midwife and my birthing assistant said, 'You know, we have a few suggestions.' And I was like, 'Really? After five hours of pushing you have a few suggestions? You couldn't have told me five minutes in?'

There are so many roles on TV that I don't covet. I see them, and I'm glad I don't have to play them.

It is a very frustrating thing to be the face of a creative project and yet essentially have zero creative control over that project. Essentially, you're a pawn in the system.

I have an American son and an American partner, so marriage might logistically make sense at one point. My partner is a stay-at-home father, so if he wants to be on my health plan, or tax wise, or maybe on paper we want to have our I's dotted and our T's crossed, but emotionally, neither of us really feels the need for it.

I am a classy dame.

I'm a bit delusional, but every time I do a job, I think I'm retired.

I used to cry myself to sleep wishing I was ugly because of the way men leered at and disrespected me.

On 'Ant-Man', I took a rubber stamp from the office of Hank Pym, who's played by Michael Douglas.

When I act, I come away drained. When I write, I come away energized.

I consider acting a day job - it's not my dream; it's not my be-all, end-all.

Diets are a fool's errand.

I've not worked with Martin Freeman. I've hung out with him, but I've not worked with him.

I didn't grow up in a home that glorified Hollywood. We didn't watch TV. We didn't have a lot of magazines around.

We're not going to protect the Earth the way we need to protect it if we don't stop making so many babies.

I'm a pretty skeptical person, and I'm a realistic person.

Saying 'no' is not hard for me; it's scarier for me to say 'yes.' I'm actually more afraid of commitment than of saying 'no.'

If you can't sit in a cafe quietly and be ignored, how can you observe human nature and write a story?

What I wanted originally was six kids.

There are so many reasons why, for me, writing is superior to acting. One of them is anonymity. Writers can live relatively normal lives.

I dance around my living room to cheesy '80s aerobics music until I'm sweating really hard!

The reality is when you open a door, there is no sense in closing it - so I would never say, 'I'll never act again.' But it's definitely not my priority.

It's not your circumstances that make or break your day. It's your attitude!

Writing is my number one passion. I've written two novels. I've written a screenplay. I also write short stories and poetry.

I love being outside - that's where I'm the happiest.

If your home is peaceful, then you're going to go out in your day peacefully.

I'm very proud of being a woman, and as a woman, I don't even like the word feminism because when I hear that word, I associate it with women trying to pretend to be men, and I'm not interested in trying to pretend to be a man. I don't want to embrace manhood, I want to embrace my womanhood.

Every night I bring home flowers and burn candles. And I have a real sense that home is what starts everything inside of you.

When I pick a role, one of the things that I aspire to is that somebody's parent will come up to me after the film has come out and say, "My daughter idealizes that character. You're her hero." That's what I aim for. We're in the business of making heroes.

To impress me, a guy has to be completely unaffected by my presence. If he wants to talk to me, talk to me; if he doesn't, don't.

There is a little bit of evil in all of us, and it's very easy to draw that out.

When I was young I was soft spoken and a little bit timid and passive. My dream then was to be a ballerina or a figure skater - something very delicate.