Gaby Hoffmann

Suburbia, to me, was the most fantastical, unusual place. I thought it was Disneyland.

Every once in a while, I would say, 'I don't want to do this anymore,' and I would go back to third grade, and after six months, I'd say, 'OK, I'm bored. Let's go make a movie.'

Her mother, Laurie Simmons, is a contemporary artist, and my stepmother, Cindy Sherman, is a photographer, so they've known each other forever. Lena and I were often at the same dinner parties when we were kids.

We lived in a classless society. We'd spend a summer at Gore Vidal's house in Italy, but we were on and off welfare.

I was never as famous as all these kids. There was no social media. We weren't celebrity-obsessed as a culture. I feel like these kids are under a crazy microscope; they're basically brands. And they eventually implode and act out. They need a break, and they're not getting one.

Our parents all experimented with raising us in a fairly loose, unorthodox way. A huge emphasis was placed on creativity, and our artistic efforts were never dismissed as childish. There was a sense that we - kids and grown-ups - all had the potential to make something of value. Our drawings were not simply destined for the refrigerator.

I just wanted to rollerblade at Union Square.

It was like I lived in a little suburban neighborhood in the middle of New York City because I could run around barefoot or, you know, completely independently from a very young age in the safety of this building where I knew everybody and where I had friends on every floor, and I knew the bellmen in the lobby.

My mom could be pretty strict.

I think mental illness is a slippery slope to talk about these days because people are overly diagnosed, overly prescribed, overly everything.

There's a lot of improv in 'Girls'.

I'm not on social media; I don't watch TV. I'm really out of it.

Anything that needs to be accessed is within me. Even if it's in a circumstance that seems outrageous, I can still just go back to the basic human experience and it's all there.

I just try to show up and be relaxed and present and honest. And that's my only trick. And sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Honestly, sometimes it really doesn't work.

If you're working opposite an actor who can act, then all you have to do is listen and respond.

I met Jill Soloway at Sundance a couple years ago. I was there for 'Crystal Fairy', and she was there for 'Afternoon Delight'. She reached out and wanted to get together.

Playing dysfunctional characters or crazy characters is only fun if they're well written. So I have been lucky enough to be asked to play crazy people who are very well written.

It's so nice that there's all this new space for new, good content. It's good news for us actors, since nobody makes real independent films anymore.

I wanted to live in the suburbs and have a white picket fence and my own bedroom. And a staircase - I thought having a staircase meant that you were a normal family. I thought somehow if you could transplant us to the suburbs, we would become a normal family. But in retrospect, I'm so grateful I grew up in the Chelsea.

I had a world of people who were raising me; it was like a little village.

I really enjoy taking care of people, and I was really ready to have a kid, so I didn't have to sacrifice anything that I didn't want to give up.

I think it's great anytime somebody can be in control of their own distribution.

I'm basically useless in interviews because I don't remember anything. But I find it very peaceful, actually, because I have a sort of busy mind. I'm like, 'This is great!'

Oh, I'm pregnant on 'Girls.'

I just wrapped a new show for Amazon called 'Transparent.'

I made a lot of movies that people loved when I was a kid, but I didn't have any real relationship to them.

I didn't even realize that I was interested in film until I was in college, and since then, I've had a very uncertain and sort of lost decade.

'Crystal Fairy' was one of the first movies I did after I recommitted to the idea of acting.

My mother is the sort of a person who has no boundaries and no filter. She also has a big ego, but it's a very unique one. And I grew up with lots of artists in an environment where conformity and the norm were totally not what anybody was after.

It was sort of a solution to financial problems when I was a little kid. I just kept doing it because it's fun to be on movie sets.

Television has filled the space for actors that really want to make good work and not just make a lot of money and be famous for making a lot of money and being famous.

I think anyone who behaves boorishly but without a good sense of humor is not as fun to watch.

My senior thesis was a documentary. By the time I graduated from college, I thought I was going to make films, and my interest in acting was there but kind of confused.

My mom grew up in a strict Catholic family and moved to New York and became part of the Warhol factory.

I went to school to study literature and writing, even though I didn't end up really doing that in the end. I thought I would be a teacher, but I didn't really think about it in any practical way.

When I was a kid, I wasn't making my choices based on anything other than 'Did I want to work that day?' or 'Did being in school sound more fun?' And I don't remember ever reading a script and thinking, 'Is this going to be a fun part to play?'

Too bad, whenever adults tell kids to enjoy their childhoods, kids are like, 'You don't understand anything,' and everyone is right.

I thought of myself as an adult trapped in a kid's body. Had I known what adulthood was like, I would have embraced childhood a little more.

My mother certainly never altered the topics of her conversation based on children being present.

I was raised in a way where there was no distinction between kids and adults.

Nudity has never been a big deal to me. I sort of grew up with a lot of it in my family.

It's hard to live in a blind and aimless - or dishonest, rather - narrative when somebody in your family is going farther toward - or at least think they are and say they are - their true self.

History is weirdly dismissed as not having anything to do with the present moment.

You can do your job and be yourself and be comfortable all at the same time!

I thought I was a sexy symbol!

I know that in my own personal life, the people who I have dated who are funny can get away with a lot more than the people who aren't.

We all got driven out of Manhattan. It was a very conducive place for artists when I was growing up, and now it's definitely not. The city has been completely taken over by the rich.

I had so many faux-parents.

I've always looked the same, and every 10 years, I'm a little bit in fashion.

It's very odd that we have such an easy relationship to violence in this country, and we're still shocked by the female figure.