"A Christian high school is just like any other high school in the sense of the politics and all of these levels of who's cool and what to wear." - Jena Malone
"A lot of the powerful religious leaders, from Jesus to Buddha to Tibetan monks, they're really talking about the same things: love and acceptable, and the value of friendship, and respecting yourself so you can respect others." - Jena Malone
"Adolescence isn't just about prom or wearing sparkly dresses." - Jena Malone
"Advice is such a tricky thing when you're young." - Jena Malone
"And even outside the acting world, people still don't really listen to kids, and I think kids have some of the best ideas. Young kids are untouched, and unstressed." - Jena Malone
"And I love writing; I've been writing ever since I was seven." - Jena Malone
"And so it started there, but I don't think I was consciously making choices until I was independently making my own choices and no one else was involved." - Jena Malone
"As long as there's truth and it's a script that I respond to and that's beautiful and that's wonderful." - Jena Malone
"Belief is such a powerful thing - but because it is, it can also be very destructive and it's very easily manipulated." - Jena Malone
"But I've really learned you don't have to fit in. No matter where you go, you're always going to be you and if they don't like you for who you are, then what's the point of being someone else?" - Jena Malone
"But there is not a wide variety of roles to pick from as a young woman, and these sort of small, complicated things fall through cracks." - Jena Malone
"Film is a very powerful medium and I know I was affected by films and magazines and all of that when I was 13 years old." - Jena Malone
"Financially I had come to a sink or swim situation. I ran into some strange tax problems, and the only way out of them was to get to my trust fund." - Jena Malone
"For a child actor, it's a matter of listening, reacting, and being able to put yourself in a new place without being scared." - Jena Malone
"For me it's about truth, it sounds really gross and cheesy, but if it's an honest depiction of youth then I'm stoked about it." - Jena Malone
"For my personal health, I need some physical separation. I want a home where I can be creatively inspired." - Jena Malone
"I didn't really have a clear answer in regards to the juvenile detention systems, and also in regards to a lot of these acts that have been committed in the media involving school shootings and young people committing heinous acts that you can't really comprehend." - Jena Malone
"I feel like a lot of the drama we deal with in high school, in those environments, is self-created." - Jena Malone
"I had a pretty strong idea of what I wanted. I wanted to find fun, interesting stories that affected me." - Jena Malone
"I have a wonderful house in Lake Tahoe, a supportive family and a boyfriend I love, all of which keeps me real." - Jena Malone
"I just hate going and seeing movies where I'm just like I don't even know these people and they're actually my age and I should relate to them, but I just don't." - Jena Malone
"I love talking about movies that mean something to me." - Jena Malone
"I make sure that I read things that I'm not right for and things I guess I would typically read for." - Jena Malone
"I really admire Claire Danes. She's so amazing, and all the choices she's made for her career are good. I hope to work with her soon." - Jena Malone
"I tell my agent that I want to read everything." - Jena Malone
"I think everyone should follow their instincts, and go with what they feel, and follow their heart." - Jena Malone
"I think it would be really hard to be an agent, because you have to manage someone else's career, and pick what you think would be good, but you never really know what they would think." - Jena Malone
"I think it's a valuable exchange for the atheist and also the Christian." - Jena Malone
"I think it's an individual thing. Your mountains are my molehills." - Jena Malone
"I think particularly in a younger actor in this business it's incredible to see someone who steps beyond themselves to look at the big picture." - Jena Malone
"I think sleep's really important. I value it as much as waking up and having a full day." - Jena Malone
"I think the more you know about what's being put out there, the easier it is to find the projects you really love." - Jena Malone
"I think the script definitely comes first and it's not even necessarily about the role, because it can be one scene in a really incredible script that's funny, but it's not the most incredible scene." - Jena Malone
"I think we have more of a limited perspective when we're young." - Jena Malone
"I think what Kevin Spacey brought to the film was a certain amount of respect, just because he's always making really classy decisions." - Jena Malone
"I think you have a certain amount of apprehension because every director works differently and you don't know if a new director is going to be really strange." - Jena Malone
"I try to pretend I'm in that dark theater and when I'm scripts, I try to be that audience member and try to see what's new and what needs to be told, whether that's acting or taking photos and showing people." - Jena Malone
"I used to want to be a children's writer, because I would have all these great ideas when I was little, and I'd write them and draw them, and turn them into class." - Jena Malone
"I was really excited to see these important questions being asked in a film that was made for young people." - Jena Malone
"I've always found that the loopholes have carried me through so I try not to strategize." - Jena Malone
"I've made a lot of movies where I'm the only kid, or there are just two other kids, and you're working with adults in a very adult world." - Jena Malone
"If we could all just laugh at ourselves, in hard times or good times, it would be an incredible world." - Jena Malone
"In L.A., if you're an actor, your personal and professional lives are too intertwined." - Jena Malone
"It doesn't have to be weighty, dramatic, and hard to understand. I think you can find humor and truth to it and that's the beauty of life." - Jena Malone
"It feels so false to be putting on a lot of makeup and wearing crazy clothes in this heightened form of sexuality and femininity." - Jena Malone
"It sucks when there's interference of that vision, particularly when you're Richard Kelly and you have this clear and precise vision as to the movie you want to make." - Jena Malone
"It's always been a struggle to be able to find the most truthful and honest depictions of young people." - Jena Malone
"It's not necessarily about what you relate to - I think the hardest thing to do is actually to play yourself, because you have to be so raw and honest." - Jena Malone
"It's so hard to really get big studios to actually know you're a kid, and to be treated the same way." - Jena Malone
"It's very easy to make certain decisions that affect your life that you have no perspective on." - Jena Malone
"No matter who the characters are, you can strip them down and find small universal truths." - Jena Malone
"People have their own strategies in this business. Everyone implicates their own rules." - Jena Malone
"So when you can sort of endorse the infinite goof within, it's a beautiful thing!" - Jena Malone
"Some locations are so terrible, you can't even breathe, and you still have to act." - Jena Malone
"Some of the most incredible experiences I've had are with first time directors and writers, people who have actually written scripts and don't have the regular chains of Hollywood tying them down." - Jena Malone
"That's one of the strongest things you can say for a script is when you read it and you have an idea for it, you know what it's about, but there are a lot of questions that the script leaves in your head." - Jena Malone
"The great thing about homeschool is you can learn what you really need to learn, and you can take things that you're interested in." - Jena Malone
"The reason I started homeschool is I was so bored in school. I'd be helping the teacher, like the teacher's assistant and helping other kids." - Jena Malone
"The topic of homosexuality is something I've grown up with and been aware of. I've always had a hard time expressing to my peers what it was like, that it was just something they needed to understand." - Jena Malone
"There is a point in every young person's life when you realize that the youth that you've progressed through and graduate to some sort of adulthood is equally as messed up as where you're going." - Jena Malone
"There's so much more (to say) about being young and being a woman, but I feel like not a lot of those stories are being told, so you have to grab onto what ever small truths you can find and present it in the most honest way you can." - Jena Malone
"Unfortunately, I didn't have your typical high school experience." - Jena Malone
"We are all searching for some form of family or foundation - for a place we can feel safe and secure." - Jena Malone
"When I'm not working, I definitely I like waking up at noon." - Jena Malone
"You know, it's different when you see different actors and see how they work; some are great workers, really hard workers, and some are never there to give off-camera stuff, even though they're great actors." - Jena Malone
"You learn so much on the set, and that's one of the things I love about it." - Jena Malone
