Zosia Mamet quotes:

I went to a strict elementary school with nuns, and uniforms that I'm pretty sure were made out of sandpaper. It was an academic, sports-oriented place. I liked to read, and wanted to act, and didn't try out for volleyball. I was weird. The other girls would dip my hair in ink and stuff.

I think feminism's a bit misinterpreted. It was about casting off all gender roles. There's nothing wrong with a man holding a door open for a girl. But we sort of threw away all the rules, so everybody's confused. And dating becomes a sloppy, uncomfortable, unpleasant thing.

All the characters on 'Girls' are growing and changing, which is how real people behave, especially when we're young, trying to figure out who we are, doing things that are the polar opposite of our characteristics.

I did 'Mad Men' and I still have people come up to me like, 'Are you actually a lesbian?' Really? Just because I play one on TV? People will think what they're gonna think.

People idealize or reminisce about their 20s, but nobody tells you beforehand that it's hard and unglamorous and often very unpleasant.

I am an avid reader! As for writing, I might - someday. But we'll have to wait and see.

The lighthearted moments of 'Girls' are really not speckled throughout and that to me is just super exciting, to be able to delve into the darkness that you are greeted with in your early 20s and the fear and what that makes you do, the places that you can potentially go with that.

I'm a little bit of a weirdo - I'm kind of a loner, I didn't go to college, I spend a lot of my time reading. I've been working since I was 17, so that's sort of been my life.

Give me an 18-hour day on set or in the theater, and I will be the happiest person alive.

But my father was also the one who told me I needed to clean up my mouth or I'd never find a man. What's very important to him is manners. Show up on time. Always send thank-you letters. He is one of the more thoughtful humans I've ever met. He's a great man and a very good dad.

I don't know if I would call myself a religious human.

Success isn't about winning everything; it's about achieving your dream, be that teaching middle school or flying jets. And no matter what we as individual women want, no matter what our goals, we have to support one another.

We kept the old male ideas of success: power and money. We need new ones!

Comedy arises out of necessity, because some things are so dark that you have to laugh about it.

I would have been miserable in college. I always hated school.

I grew up backstage and on movie sets, and I thought they were the most magical places on Earth.

My mom was onstage when she was pregnant with me.

I think any actor in their right mind is afraid of getting pigeonholed.

I have a ship's bed, which totally plays to my obsession of, if I were not an actress, I would be a pirate.

My dad has always been really helpful. He taught me that talent is a bonus, but persistence is what wins out.

I haven't found it to be particularly enjoyable... ninety percent of the time when I go on dates, I'm thinking, 'I could be reading my book instead.'

A lot of people in line at the grocery store think that they know me, but they don't.

For me, it's owning the fact that I have a sensitive disposition along with a rampant imagination that makes up stories and convinces me they're true. I feel things intensely, and that sometimes brings me on wave of profound sorrow.

I am a private human.

I don't watch much television. My old TV agent used to always get mad at me because he'd send me out on auditions and I'd be like, 'What's this show?' and he'd be like, 'It's literally the top show on television.' I wasn't allowed to watch TV as a kid.

I had a very old woman come up to me on the subway and tell me that the faces that I made in the first episode when a guy is going down on me, that she still makes those faces when her husband goes down on her.

I hate that we look at women who choose not to run a country as having given up. I get angry that, when a woman decides to hold off on gunning for a promotion because she wants to have a baby, other women whisper that 'she's throwing away her potential.' That is when we're not supporting our own. Who are we to put such a limited definition on success?

I have a ships bed, which totally plays to my obsession of, if I were not an actress, I would be a pirate.

No matter what we as individual women want, no matter what our goals, we have to support one another.

With 'Girls,' it doesn't really feel like I'm doing TV specifically. It just feels like we're making a really long film.