Zoe Kazan Quotes

Powerful Zoe Kazan for Daily Growth

About Zoe Kazan

Zoe Kazan, an accomplished playwright, actress, and screenwriter, was born on September 9, 1983, in Los Angeles, California. She is the granddaughter of film director Elia Kazan and acting coach Barbara Loden. Raised in a creative environment, Kazan's love for storytelling was nurtured from an early age. Kazan attended Yale University, where she earned a B.A. in English. During her time at Yale, she began writing plays, and her work was produced by the university's theater department. Her first full-length play, "The Humans," premiered off-Broadway in 2013 to critical acclaim. The play won the Obie Award for Best New American Play and was later adapted into a film in which Kazan also starred. In addition to her work on stage, Kazan has made significant contributions to cinema as a screenwriter. She wrote the screenplays for "Ruby Sparks" (2012), for which she received a Writers Guild of America Award nomination, and "The Big Sick" (2017), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Kazan's influences span from the works of her grandfather to modern playwrights such as Annie Baker. Her work often explores themes of family, relationships, and the human condition, reflecting a deep empathy for her characters. Kazan continues to write, act, and create in various mediums, making significant contributions to contemporary American theater and cinema.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"I think it's important to remember that we have the power to choose our own lives."

This quote emphasizes personal agency, the idea that each individual has the power to make choices about their own life. It suggests that one should take control of their destiny rather than being passive or allowing circumstances to dictate their path. The sentiment underscores the importance of self-empowerment and personal responsibility in shaping our lives.

"I want to make movies and write stories that are meaningful and beautiful."

This quote by Zoe Kazan reflects her creative pursuit in the realm of filmmaking and storytelling, desiring to create work that carries depth and aesthetic appeal. It implies a commitment to using artistic expression as a vehicle for conveying significant themes and emotions, ultimately aiming to touch the hearts and minds of audiences with meaningful stories that are also aesthetically beautiful.

"The secret to a good relationship is to never stop loving each other."

This quote by Zoe Kazan emphasizes the importance of continuous love in maintaining a healthy and fulfilling relationship. It suggests that the key to a strong bond between two people lies not only in initial passion, but also in the ongoing effort to show love and affection towards each other over time. In essence, it's about fostering a deep and lasting connection through mutual love and respect.

"We all carry around a million versions of ourselves, like pockets full of people."

This quote by Zoe Kazan suggests that within each individual, there exists a multitude of potential selves, much like having multiple people in our metaphorical pockets. Each "version" could represent different aspects of our character, decisions we might have made, paths not taken, or even the people we aspire to be. The quote encourages us to explore and embrace these diverse facets of ourselves, acknowledging the complexity and richness inherent in human identity.

"Sometimes we have to let things get worse before they can get better."

This quote suggests that accepting the worsening state of a situation or challenge may be necessary for it to ultimately improve. It implies that sometimes, growth, change, and transformation only occur when one is pushed beyond their comfort zone, or when circumstances force us to adapt and learn. However, this doesn't mean we should willingly seek hardship; rather, it encourages patience and perseverance, acknowledging that the path towards betterment may not always be straightforward.

When my first play was produced, I had this sudden feeling that I feel powerful. Like, the next time I go into an audition room, and it's me and the same eight girls as always, I will have this thing that no one can take away from me. They can see us all as interchangeable. But I am not interchangeable.

- Zoe Kazan

Play, Next, Away, Next Time

I hate going to bed. I read scripts, clean, listen to the radio - I've fallen asleep to 'This American Life' more times than I can count!

- Zoe Kazan

Bed, Going, Read, Scripts

I think film writing, you're thinking in pictures, and stage writing, you're thinking in dialogue. In film writing, it's also, you only get so many words, so everything has to earn its place in a really economical way. I think for stage writing, you have more leeway.

- Zoe Kazan

Thinking, Pictures, I Think, Leeway

I grew up speaking Spanish. The woman who helped raise me was only Spanish-speaking, so it was one of my primary languages as a kid. And I lived in Spain for a while.

- Zoe Kazan

Woman, Spain, Spanish, Primary

Anytime that I've felt uninspired, I don't force myself to sit down and write. I only do it when I feel the impulse.

- Zoe Kazan

Myself, Felt, Anytime, Impulse

It was very hard for me to come back to a place of feeling normal about food and about my body. And then, when I came to the other side of it, it felt like something was gone. An exorcism. I still experience the same chemical swings and moods and pain, but I'm much better at dealing with it than I was at 18.

- Zoe Kazan

Other, Very, About, Exorcism

I love bad movies, whereas going to the theater for me is a painful experience. I think it's really hard to sit and watch actors do something live and have it not go well.

- Zoe Kazan

Love, Think, I Think, Whereas

I want to derive pleasure from this planet and put pleasure back into it.

- Zoe Kazan

Want, Pleasure, Planet, Derive

And then the really awful thing is that at the end of the day after crying and experiencing things, then you look at what you've written and you're like, 'Hmm, there's half a page that's good here.' Then you throw out everything else.

- Zoe Kazan

Here, Half, Awful, Everything Else

The causes for my eating disorder ran along the usual lines: depression, an inability to express my rage, a desire to exert control, a desire to feel less, a desire to have my body express the things my voice could not. That, and I had gotten in the habit of believing it was better to take up less space.

- Zoe Kazan

Voice, Feel, Gotten, Ran

I love to walk around New York. Honestly, that's like the best thing, to walk over to Park Slope and go visit my friend Betty and take her dog out in the park or go walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. I really dig being outside and getting to see everybody in the street.

- Zoe Kazan

Love, Everybody, Betty, Slope

I don't like pretentious films or pretentious people.

- Zoe Kazan

People, Like, Films, Pretentious

When 'Ruby Sparks' came out, I had to do so many interviews where I had to explain the film and my politics. And I think there was a willful misunderstanding by some people. They thought the movie was trying to perpetrate the thing the movie was deconstructing.

- Zoe Kazan

Politics, Some, Explain, Ruby

I think action should be revealed through character, so if you have a plot problem, it's probably a character problem.

- Zoe Kazan

Think, Through, I Think, Revealed

Nothing's going to come to you by sitting around and waiting for it.

- Zoe Kazan

Waiting, Nothing, Going, Sitting

I always wrote. My parents are writers. It just seemed like something people did.

- Zoe Kazan

Always, Like, Seemed, Something People

I remember being two, maybe, and hearing my mum's typewriter in the other room and sticking my hands under the door and screaming, 'Mum! Mum!' I was so angry she wouldn't come out. I got used to it quickly.

- Zoe Kazan

Door, I Remember, Other, Screaming

I do feel like I have the superpower of not caring about my body as an actor.

- Zoe Kazan

Caring, Actor, Like, Superpower

And when I get bored, it's like the worst parts of me come out. I really veer to self-destructive tendencies quickly.

- Zoe Kazan

Like, Self-Destructive, Bored

I'm used to very low-budget situations. In 'The Exploding Girl,' we were literally changing in Starbucks because we didn't have trailers.

- Zoe Kazan

Starbucks, Very, Exploding, Trailers

Maybe this is a way of gaslighting myself, but I think of it this way: In certain circles, my grandpa was considered to be one of the seminal directors of the 20th century. I'm never going to be that. So I might as well do whatever I want.

- Zoe Kazan

Maybe, I Think, Considered, 20th Century

When I'm writing, I look like a fool because the parts are moving through me and I'm crying and laughing and making faces.

- Zoe Kazan

Through, Making, Like, Laughing

I think movies have much more magic than the theater. Theater can be a magical experience, but movies thrust their subjectivity on you in a more profound way.

- Zoe Kazan

Magic, Think, I Think, Thrust

I encourage everyone to read James Baldwin and Malcom X and Aldous Huxley. To read Primo Levi. To read 'Silent Spring.' To read Toni Morrison. To read Zora Neale Hurston.

- Zoe Kazan

Silent, Everyone, Read, Huxley

I think most actors jump at the chance to do something where the camera's on them all the time.

- Zoe Kazan

Chance, Think, I Think, Camera

But my family's really close and I was interested in what Mommy and Daddy did for a living. So when Mommy and Daddy had a script that wasn't totally age inappropriate, they would let me read it. And we would talk about it.

- Zoe Kazan

Living, Mommy, Read, Daddy

When I look back, I can say that the summer when I was 19 was a formative time for me. But at the time I just thought I was making tofu every night for dinner and going to work.

- Zoe Kazan

Thought, Making, Going, Every Night

My hero is Michelle Williams, who I grew close to when we did 'Meek's Cutoff.' She's an extraordinary actor and mom.

- Zoe Kazan

Hero, Mom, Michelle, Meek

Turning 30 changed me in ways I didn't expect. For the very first time, I felt like my life is valuable. Not my life because I'm putting something good into the world or I'm well-respected in my field, but my life as a human being on this planet for a limited amount of time.

- Zoe Kazan

My Life, Very, Putting, Something Good

There's something really earnest inside me all the time. It's not a cool or fun way to be. Sometimes I would like to experience being someone who's not wired the way I'm wired.

- Zoe Kazan

Cool, Like, Wired, Earnest

I never wanted to be a playwright.

- Zoe Kazan

Never, Wanted, Playwright

I read a lot of plays as a kid, but I didn't see that many plays, so I feel better-versed in film history and film structure. I just think it's easier to think in pictures.

- Zoe Kazan

Think, Read, Plays, Structure

That moment in 'Broadcast News' where Holly Hunter is told how great it is to be the smartest person in the room, and she cries and says it's awful - I definitely have moments like that sometimes, moments when introspection and drive can be lonely-making. And it doesn't help that I have a partner who is very work-oriented.

- Zoe Kazan

Sometimes, Very, Broadcast, Smartest

I find playwriting to be incredibly difficult compared to screenwriting. Part of it is that I grew up watching movies and not watching plays.

- Zoe Kazan

Difficult, Part, Plays, Screenwriting

I have mad luck. I'm super-good at games like backgammon or anything that requires rolling dice.

- Zoe Kazan

Luck, Mad, Rolling, Requires

Every role requires its own set of tools, and I think, because of that, it is very hard to ever feel totally prepared or totally able.

- Zoe Kazan

Think, I Think, Very, Requires

Well, I have a sister that I'm very close with, and that relationship is probably the most intense relationship of my life to date, probably of my life, period.

- Zoe Kazan

My Life, Date, Very, Close

I find playwriting really painful. I love it, or I wouldn't do it, but I don't love the theater as much as I love movies.

- Zoe Kazan

Love, Movies, I Love, Painful

My schedule is completely different doing a play than it is doing a movie, and I actually think it's a much harder schedule because you've got to do it eight times a week and you've got to do it good eight times a week and with different kinds of audiences who are cold or drunk or tired, whatever it is.

- Zoe Kazan

Play, Doing, Week, Harder

You can have a wonderful time doing a movie and believe in it completely, and then you see the final product, and it doesn't look anything like what you thought it was going to.

- Zoe Kazan

Doing, Product, Movie, Wonderful Time

People are always asking me - because of my family - if I ever feel pressure or feel like I have something to live up to. And having that in the back of my head, I've just learned to be really brave even in the face of feeling ill-prepared.

- Zoe Kazan

Asking, Feel, Back, Brave

And I think the female creative urge is intrinsically biologically linked to our ability to give birth to a child, even if we've never... I've never given birth, but I feel like it's part of our psychology.

- Zoe Kazan

Feel, I Think, Part, Linked

I can work a lot faster when I'm writing a screenplay than when I'm writing a play because, if I'm having a problem with a scene or something, I can just be writing it in a way where there's no dialogue, or find a way to make sound do the work that I want to do or a close-up do the work that I need to do.

- Zoe Kazan

Play, Sound, I Can, Screenplay

Historically, art and music and writing and film have been one of the only tools that is effective against tyranny.

- Zoe Kazan

Art, Been, Effective, Historically

I wasn't raised in a family that cared about how you look. The fact that I have made my living in acting, where that matters, that really feels antithetical to me as a person.

- Zoe Kazan

Living, Fact, Feels, Cared

People really do make the assumption that I had some weirdo Hollywood upbringing, but my parents are incredibly down-to-earth people who worked really hard to raise us in a way that was health.

- Zoe Kazan

Health, Some, Hollywood, Upbringing

Sometimes I feel that the people I'm writing are more real to me than the people around me. When you take that imaginative leap, you're living so much in that world.

- Zoe Kazan

Living, Sometimes, More, Leap

I'm a very serious person. Unfortunately, sometimes.

- Zoe Kazan

Sometimes, Person, Very, Unfortunately

If I'm not working, I don't feel complete.

- Zoe Kazan

Working, Feel, Complete

Writing-wise, I like to have a lot of things on the burners at once, because when I hit a wall, I like to move on to the thing I haven't hit a wall on.

- Zoe Kazan

Like, Move, Lot, Wall

I think a famous parent is really different from a famous grandparent. My parents are very successful, but no one knows who they are, and they live a completely grounded, homey life. I'm friends with the Gummer girls, whose mum is Meryl Streep, and that feels from the outside like a different kind of burden.

- Zoe Kazan

Parent, Very, Feels, Homey

If I didn't find art valuable, I would stop doing my work and only work for justice.

- Zoe Kazan

Work, Art, Doing, Valuable

In New York you can just walk out and be among people. You're on the subway among people, you go to cafes, you can talk to people.

- Zoe Kazan

People, New, Go, Subway

I almost never write because I want something from my audience. Almost everything I've ever written, I've written because I feel like I have to write this or I'll die. Like, this has to come out of me.

- Zoe Kazan

Die, Feel, Almost, Almost Everything

I've always really been interested in the Pygmalion myth and both what it has to say about creativity and what it has to say about relationships between men and women.

- Zoe Kazan

Always, Been, About, Myth

I really love people. I love to meet people. I'm curious about people.

- Zoe Kazan

Love, Curious, I Love, Meet

I don't want to do every independent film offered to me.

- Zoe Kazan

Independent, Want, Offered

I don't have a lot of patience for boring arthouse movies.

- Zoe Kazan

Patience, Movies, Lot, Boring

I will be a broken record for justice.

- Zoe Kazan

Justice, Will, Record, Broken

I'm klutzy, and I don't embarrass easily.

- Zoe Kazan

Embarrass, Easily

I grew up in L.A., and I don't think I've seen L.A. onscreen in a way that felt real to me. There are definitely movies, but they are few and far between.

- Zoe Kazan

Think, Real, Felt, Onscreen

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