What I like about the film [Juno] is that it tackles an issue that we often treat as this really heavy, dark event and we look at it with a different perspective. She`s extremely independent. She finds adoptive parents before she even tells her parents. I just think it`s nice to not dwell in darkness.

I don`t really want to do the Hollywood thing. I think you ought to try to say something with your movies.

The thing I like about acting is being able to lose yourself completely in someone else. I`m not that comfortable when I get recognized.

Judging people you don`t know for things you don`t understand is just really stupid.

I don`t care if people like my character. I just want them to think about the movie`s message.

When I was 12, I realized I was very uncomfortable having my parents on set. So I told them that, and they understood.

I come in at night and expect to see some transparent slut at the top of the stairs. [On her 19th century Halifax home, a former brothel]

For the role in An American Crime, when I played someone who was starved and tortured, I lost a lot of weight, and my body and my mind were drained. After that people told me, You really need to do a comedy. And I said I am -- I`m playing a 16-year-old who gets pregnant!

The quality most important to me, in the films I make, is honesty.

You can choose who you want to be the hero [in Hard Candy], but you`ll be second-guessing yourself -- there`s just no right answer. Our society is obsessed with finding good and finding evil, but I think we`re all capable of anything.

As a girl, you`re supposed to love Sleeping Beauty. I mean, who wants to love Sleeping Beauty when you can be Aladdin?

I loved that this girl was mature in some ways, and naive in other ways. Juno is different from what we normally see in films about teenagers -- but at the same time she has a lot in common with most of the people I knew in high school. There are a lot of really intelligent teenage girls and boys who are unique and don`t just listen to and dress like Britney Spears, and who don`t just want to fuck the hot guy.

When I feel strongly about something, I`m not so quiet.

It`s much simpler to be tortured on camera or to be filmed losing your mind. Whereas a script that has characters who are honest, witty and genuine... is often much harder to act.

It was an intense movie and the response was polarized -- which was great, because it stuck in people`s minds. That film has helped me immensely. [On Hard Candy.]

I`m a tomboy from Nova Scotia.

I`m a total shrimp, which makes me look younger. I`ll be able to stay in that area longer, which is good, because there`s more competition in your 20s. [on her slight frame]