Mara Wilson Quotes

Puberty was definitely difficult for me.

You always worry that everybody is secretly talking about you behind your back, everybody is secretly making fun of your voice, your figure, the way that you are during puberty, but it turned out, in real life, everybody was. On movie sets, they were all talking about these things, because they had to.

I remember my friends and I looking forward to puberty because it seemed exciting at first.

Very sad, very upset, very glad I did not have to hear about this though Twitter. Probably going to be taking some time off it for a while.

Considering all the legal hassle child stars can be, I won't be surprised when they are phased out by CGI children voiced by adult actors.

Actually, I do like pink clothes, but it's not because I'm girly, it's because I'm the reincarnation of Oscar Wilde.

I felt like I had to be conscious of myself as a girl for the first time.

I had to be more feminine. I had to look a certain way. And it's something that you want to suffer in silence, but I would go onto movie sets and they would bring out bras that were basically binders, because there were continuity problems between months.

I remember reading To Kill A Mockingbird when I was 12.

What I liked about it is that it was all seen through a child's eyes. It was Harper Lee going back and writing it from the way a child would see those things.

I'm pretty cautious and not very athletic, so I've only had really dumb injuries, like sprained ankles and allergic reactions. I did have to go to the hospital after slicing my finger while trying to cut a Kaiser roll in half.

I didn't want to whisper and giggle about [puberty] anymore.

I felt incredibly self-conscious. I felt like I was losing myself, and I was losing who I was. And that really scared me.

The celebrity aspect is nothing short of ridiculous, and auditioning is brutal and dehumanizing. Every time I see a pretty young girl on the subway reading sides for an audition, my only thought is, 'Man, am I glad I'm not doing that anymore.' I never feel nostalgia, just relief.

It is strange to have everybody in the world still think of you as a child.

I didn't want to be a former child actor for the rest of my life, although in some ways I suppose I am. I am going to be that.

I've been accused of being pretentious and insufferable, and I don't really know what I can say about that. I never got good grades in school, but I did read the dictionary for fun. That was just the kind of stuff that I liked to do. I can't apologize for that.

I didn't trust adults because I thought they were all kind of corrupted.

I thought children were pure and innocent, and that was inherently better. I guess I was a philosophical child.

I knew I didn't want to put anything down in writing about the first time that I had sex. I knew that I didn't want to do that.

I was never a prodigy. I was never a child genius.

I'm originally from southern California, so I, like, say 'like', like, a lot.

I've been trying to scrub any traces of Valley Girl from my speech since I moved to New York, but it's, like, totally way harder than anyone thinks, you know?

People want to bring kids to their level, and they want to make it seem like kids have this thing. It's seen as funny to them.

Puberty was definitely difficult for me.

I remember my friends and I looking forward to puberty because it seemed exciting at first. You read Judy Blume and you think, "This is kind of cool." But when it actually started happening to me, I was terrified.

David Sedaris wrote in one of his books that people like to make children into little grown-ups, which to him is about as funny as a dog in sunglasses.

When my oldest brother started acting.

From there, I wanted to act myself. That's the long story short.

No, you will never see me on 'Dancing With the Stars.' Sorry.

Danny DeVito later told me that he knew he wanted me for 'Matilda' the second I walked in the door. I'm not sure if this is true, or if he was just being nice, but I was thrilled when I got it.

If you can affect someone when they're young, you are in their heart forever.

People view child actors the same way that girls treat their Barbie dolls.

I thought children were pure and innocent, and that was inherently better.

There were things that I knew that I was going to keep to myself.

Sure, I love to read, and I love to learn, but I was always nerdy that way.

I think if I could do it over again - as much as I loved meeting the people I did on the films after 'Matilda' - I wish that I had stopped after 'Matilda.' I wish that I had just focused on my own life for a while.

The best times I had on film sets were the times the director let me express myself, but those were rare.

People who meet me as an adult are often surprised that I'm alive and have never been in prison or rehab. Sometimes they're disappointed I'm not cooler.

I didn't trust adults because I thought they were all kind of corrupted.

I've never considered myself cool, and I don't think I ever will be.

Honestly, it's better that way. It's much less pressure.

I'm surprised by how much I remember [on childhood on film].

I think it's just because I had these interesting moments. Of course, you never know when they're interesting moments, but there was a lot of stuff that I remember and have attached significance to later. I remember enough. I remember highlights.

People seem to forget what it was like to be a child.

I think it's partly because they want to forget, because it usually wasn't as good as you thought it was, and so you want to skip over those things, and not have to relate to that anymore.

I thought I started acting at 5 or 6, it was really when they were interviewing real families for a toothpaste commercial. They interviewed our family.

I'd rather be known for my accomplishments, and for things that I really do take pride in, rather than known for this doll-like image I had when I was a child.

I'm surprised by how much I remember.

Nobody cares about that. I do have guys every now and then who say - it's always guys by the way, it's never women - who say, "You were my childhood crush, can we date?" And I'm like, "There's something kind of creepy about that. Do you hear yourself?"

I was such a nerd. It just wasn't something I would have wanted. And I didn't want to act like an adult.

Do people think I'm cool because I was in a movie when I was a child? No.

Well, maybe a little bit more than they used to. There's definitely a nostalgia factor.

For me [being a kid actor], it's a bit like when you see your mom's friends, and they're like, "I remember when you were this big. You'll always be that cute little kid to me." It's like that times a thousand. Well, times a couple thousand.

When you're an actor, your body isn't your own.

Your body is part of a tool that you use. Everybody else there is using you as a tool, so they have access to those things, too.

I had people in 'Entertainment Weekly' talking about how they wanted to throttle me because they thought I was too disgustingly cute, as if that were my fault, you know, as if that was my fault, not the fault of directors and producers and such.

I had so many adults around me reminding me that I was a kid.

I also had a lot of adults saying things to me like, "When I was your age..." and sort of idealizing it. I didn't like that they idealized it.

A lot of child actors think they need to re-invent themselves, especially young women. Usually what they do is they adopt a sort of overt sexuality. It's fine if they want to do that, but a lot of times I think they feel obliged to do that, and that is something that I don't think anybody should feel obliged to express.

I'm in my late 20s, and people are coming around to it again.

I think they're realizing how much this stuff affects them. I think all the time about how much Judy Blume affected me, or Beverly Cleary. And I think that now some people are starting to come around and get more of an appreciation for [my stuff].

I was very aware of being younger than everybody on set.