I'm LUCKY. My PARENTS are, LIKE, super hippies. They were just happy I was going to school and I wasn't GETTING in trouble.

You can FIGURE out who you were by which MOVIES you LOVED when.

The IDEA that TALENT is DIRECTLY proportional to your trophy cabinet is one I OPPOSE.

I think people sometimes have a HARD time placing me because I don't fit into a BOX. When they ask what I do at a cocktail party, I either say I'm a Renaissance woman or I'm a high-level madam. Lately I've been more comfortable SAYING I'm an artist, because that can COVER a lot of different things.

Eleanor Oliphant isn't me or anyone I KNOW. Of course I've felt LONELINESS - EVERYBODY does - but Eleanor and her experiences are fictional.

I was in Minnesota, where I was BORN, and I did PRINT ads and commercials. And that was always cool 'cause when you're little, you can only WORK two HOURS a day, and it CHANGES.

How could I have been a wife, a MOTHER and a SINGER? Who takes care of the piccolini when you go around the WORLD? Your children would not CALL you 'Mama,' but 'Renata.'

Creativity is much better when it's free. SOMEONE can take it and sell it if that's what it needs, and from that standpoint, you have to have a LABEL. If you COULD make your MUSIC and just give it away and somehow make a living - that would be the BEST scenario.

I feel like I grew up being babysat by a TELEVISION, and all I ever wanted to do was be in movies, direct movies, MAKE movies, but it took me a really long time to be honest with myself about it because my BACKGROUND is that my FAMILY was very poor.

I am immensely PROUD of my IRISH ROOTS.