I think it`s an individual thing. Your mountains are my molehills.

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?

I tell my agent that I want to read everything.

For a child actor, it`s a matter of listening, reacting, and being able to put yourself in a new place without being scared.

No matter who the characters are, you can strip them down and find small universal truths.

Adolescence isn`t just about prom or wearing sparkly dresses.

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.

Belief is such a powerful thing - but because it is, it can also be very destructive and it`s very easily manipulated.

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.

Some locations are so terrible, you can`t even breathe, and you still have to act.

When I`m not working, I definitely I like waking up at noon.

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.

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.

And I love writing; I`ve been writing ever since I was seven.

I think sleep`s really important. I value it as much as waking up and having a full day.

It`s very easy to make certain decisions that affect your life that you have no perspective on.

We are all searching for some form of family or foundation - for a place we can feel safe and secure.

If we could all just laugh at ourselves, in hard times or good times, it would be an incredible world.

In L.A., if you`re an actor, your personal and professional lives are too intertwined.

Advice is such a tricky thing when you`re young.

I love talking about movies that mean something to me.

I have this camera so I just taped myself doing this little piece of voice-over and I sent [director Sean Penn] a DVD. Four days later he called me back and said he usually never hires anyone without meeting them, but could I do it? Literally, I would wash the floor for him. I just respect every part of what he`s done with his career. (On landing her role in Into the Wild.)

What`s the point of doing anything without music?

[In reference to growing up without a father figure but rather with two mothers] I grew up with two moms. They were lovers until I was nine. Then they split up. I was the product of a one-night stand. But I met my father once when I was four. He lives somewhere in Reno. The thing is, I had two loving parents. Love in any shape or form is a beautiful thing. I didn`t grow up missing my father.

[When told by an interviewer that she has a good head on her shoulders for someone who`s grown up in the scary world of Hollywood:] But the scary world is all around us. Whether the walls are Hollywood or the walls are New York or the walls are Afghanistan. It`s just a scary world, you have to know what you want from it, what your intentions are, and know that those things continually change.

I get to play a lot of teenage girls with supposed problems. But I don`t see them as problems - just part of the process of growing up.

I started acting as a child because I loved stories and wanted to be part of them. I thought it would be something I could do for a few years, but it shows no sign of going away.