Top 232 Quotes & Sayings by Winona Ryder - Page 3

I would never give advice, because I would feel very presumptuous.

I want to be a good friend, a good sister, a good person and a good actress.

Honestly, if it wasn't for 'Beetlejuice,' where would I be? That movie was a big thing for me.

When I think about the stuff I've turned down or the stuff I wasn't interested in, I don't have any regrets. Yes, there were some movies that went on to be really popular. But now, how do they really fit into things?

The description of my character in the first few movies I did was always 'nerdy,' but I liked that; it was way more interesting.

I remember a lot of conversations where I was constantly hearing, 'You've gotta do this movie so you can do that movie. You've gotta make a big movie so you can make a small movie.' But I can't act like that.

The 1980s was the era of the blonde cheerleader.

I want to be a good person, and a person that people enjoy working with, 'cause I certainly enjoy working with other people.

I remember realizing, when I did Little Women [1994], that that was the only time girls that age were being written about. It was always boys - from David Copperfield to Lord of the Flies to Holden Caulfield. There were never young women going through adolescence or teen years; there were only little girls.

Suddenly you're the mom, or you go from ... You're not an ingénue, you don't want to play an ingénue, but it's like that line in The First Wives Club [1996]: "There are only three ages for women in Hollywood: babe, district attorney, and Driving Miss Daisy."

My father believes that Western religions are death cults, which I agree with.

I was mid-sentence when the casting director said, "Listen, kid. You should not be an actress. You are not pretty enough. You should go back to wherever you came from and you should go to school. You don't have it." She was very blunt - I honestly think that she thought she was doing me a favor.

When I met Johnny, I was pure virgin. He changed that. He was my first everything. My first real kiss. My first real boyfriend. My first fiancé. The first guy I had sex with. So he'll always be in my heart. Forever. Kind of funny that word.

I remember the whole thing with the word ambition. I was messed up for a while because I associated it with certain people who just want to be famous. I think, for a while, it was kind of a dirty word for women.

I write pretty much every day, but I don't have any desire to publish anything.

I love Texas. Even if I am a little bit famous or a little bit popular... You go to places where you're not and just live like everybody else lives. I'm not crazy about this country in terms of the shape it's in, but I do think there are lots of great pieces to go to. I think I should take advantage of it while this country still exists.

I'm a really private person. I just love my work. I feel like celebrity has changed so much, in this culture. Ever since they started with those reality shows and people that aren't actors but they're really famous, it's gotten very different from when I started out. So, the idea of ever becoming more than what I had is not really what I want.

No one is banging my door down to be a superhero. I don't know how good I would be. I have low bone density, so I don't know if anyone really wants to put me in a cape and chuck me out a window. But a lot of my friends, who are great actors and who come from film, are doing TV because that's where the opportunities are. For us, it does feel like it's similar to making the movies that we used to make.

Dear Diary: My teen angst bullshit now has a body count.

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'm 44 years old. So, it's really great to watch younger generations getting their opportunities, and being there to support them in that.

The actors that I do know are people who I think have souls, you know?

In high school, I dressed up as every James Bond girl. I was a teenage Pussy Galore.

I think it's really important to have a life and have interests outside of this [movie] business, and not rely on this business to validate you as a human being. If you do that, you're really in a dangerous spot.

I often get offered things that are so similar to things that I have done, and life is too short. When you make a film or a show, as you get older, that's a lot of time to be doing something that you're not absolutely invested in or in love with.

I thought it was a cool parallel. Being replaced by the young thing. I know that definitely happens in Hollywood. It's harder to find good roles, and suddenly there's new girls. I'm at that age I've been warned my whole life about.

Most of my wardrobe is vintage, and I've worn dresses to the Oscars that I got for $10.

A woman who wears high heels is very different, I think, than a woman who wears sandals.

Scapegoating will go on forever. We need someone to blame - illegal immigrants, single moms, people in prison. We need someone to victimize.

I don't want to preach, and I don't want to tell people what to do.

Crazy isn't being broken, or swallowing a dark secret. It's you or me, amplified.

You do a movie if it's good and if you want to do it. It doesn't matter if it's small or big or expensive or cheap. If you want to say the words, you're gonna say them. You can't strategize.

You're lucky if you're in three great movies, or even one great movie. I've been so lucky. But if you rely on the business to dictate whether you're happy, it gets really complicated. You just can't do that. There have been times in my life that I've done that, and I've found it depressing.

I'd always find the positive in someone.

As an actress, you go where the stories are. I don't really care where it's seen, at this point. I just want to tell good stories and do good roles that I haven't done before.

I love my job. But all the stuff that comes with it, the thought of being propelled into the limelight again is not something I sit around and fantasize about, certainly. I'd much rather just do my work, and then go home and read my books and watch movies.

Society makes suicide so romantic. I mean, you watch these TV movies about teen suicide and you want to jump in front of a bus. Because your biggest fantasy is your own funeral. No one will admit to it, but it's true.

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 was exhausted and going through a terrible depression.

One thing you have to have when you act is energy.

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!"

I think it's really important to have a life outside of this [movie] business and just be the best person you can be.

All we want is to be treated like human beings, and not to be patronized, or experimented on like guinea pigs.

I, myself, am strange and unusual.

You have good days and bad days, and depression's something that, you know, is always with you.

I was raised to believe that religion is a beautiful thing, but it's fiction.

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 was not the first choice for Veronica in Heathers. I auditioned and they were like, "Oh, thanks." And I went to the Beverly Center to Macy's and had them do a makeover on me. I went back because I kind of knew that they thought I wasn't pretty enough. They were trying to get Jennifer Connelly.

If something brilliant comes along but I really feel like it's too old for me - that I'm not gonna have the experience it takes - I'm not gonna do it. Even if it's "a big mistake for my career".

As an actress, you want to try new things. You don't want to repeat yourself. That becomes more important to you, as you get older.

Actors do these really gross, gun-'em-down movies, and I always wonder why. They're not good movies. And it's like, "Why are you doing them? Aren't you rich enough?"

How I was raised was, there were no rules - nothing like that. If I wanted to take a drug because I was in school and everybody was doing it, I could go to my parents and say, "I really want to try this." And they'd say, "If you do this, O.K., but this is what can happen to you..." They'd say, "Don't get it in the streets, because it could be really bad and make you freak out. Don't take it in a crowded place, because you'll panic."

Looking back - I did have a lot of success and a lot of great opportunities earlier in my career.

I'm too young to play lawyers. But I've been really lucky because I never got labeled. I never did the John Hughes thing. I did adult movies. I'm not bragging or anything, but I think that I've chosen really good roles. I've played different people and showed that I have a little bit of range.

You know you're getting older when they're making TV shows, sequels or plays for things that you did. It's very flattering and very humbling, indeed.

I've learned that it's OK to be flawed, that life can be messy, that some days you glide and some days you fall, but most important, that there are no secret answers out there.

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.

A lot of the old movie theaters are closing down now, which is really sad. It's still in the back of my mind.

I remember when I first started being in magazines, I had pretty thin skin. I was this nerd that read books and stayed home and didn't go out.

I'm very attached to movie theaters and I love going to them. Nothing will ever replace that. It's very romantic and beautiful. I used to want to live inside of one, with a bathtub, a bike and a bed, and just watch movies.