Zooey Quotes & Sayings

Being an actress can be a little like being a girl in the '50s: You're stuck waiting by the phone, hoping that the boy you like will call. — Zooey Deschanel

I feel like I can't fully understand what's happening now until I really understand what's happened before. But you do get sort of bogged down a little bit when you're trying to study so many years' worth of music. It can be a little bit overwhelming. — Zooey Deschanel

Everyone needs a theme song! It should make you feel like a million dollars. — Zooey Deschanel

I'm a big fan of the '80s fantasy genre that I grew up watching, movies like "Krull" and "Clash of the Titans" and "Time Bandits" and all that stuff. — Zooey Deschanel

You do not need to look or be anorexic to be successful in Hollywood. The range of what's acceptable is a lot larger than what people believe. — Zooey Deschanel

I can't even remember the first time I started singing. — Zooey Deschanel

California is a great big nation of one They never knew what they wanted 'til it was already gone — Zooey Deschanel

Everyone has the heartbreak that shapes them in a way that they could never go back to the innocence that they had before. — Zooey Deschanel

Not that there is anything wrong with confessional songwriting, there are plenty of people that do that I admire. I think it is great, it just isn't how I do things. — Zooey Deschanel

When I got a little bit older I wanted to play piano - that's all I wanted to do. I remember learning how to play a blues progression on the xylophone in music class and thinking "This is the greatest thing I've ever learned." — Zooey Deschanel

I did not have a date to the prom. I went to my junior prom alone, and my senior prom, I was doing my first movie. I went in a limousine with, like, a bunch of people to my junior prom. It was a group date. — Zooey Deschanel

Romantic comedies are usually about when love works. — Zooey Deschanel

That is so personal, and it's my pet peeve when people press you on it. And it's always women who get asked! Is anybody saying that to George Clooney? — Zooey Deschanel

When I was 13, I wasn't the coolest kid in my class, and that inner dork is a wonderful thing to have. — Zooey Deschanel

Not a lot of contemporary fiction is written about brothers and sisters. Salinger's Franny and Zooey was an inspiration for me. In Franny and Zooey, the sister gets in trouble and the brother comes to help her out. But I wanted to make sure that in my novel the sister had more to do than lie around on a sofa muttering, which is what Franny does for two-thirds of Salinger's novel. — K.M. Soehnlein

Change is hard, I should know. I should know. — Zooey Deschanel

I think there's a certain space people have decided I occupy - the funny-sidekick thing. — Zooey Deschanel

I love downtown L.A .and I relish any opportunity to spend time there. — Zooey Deschanel

The red-carpet thing of premieres and parties is probably my least favourite part of my job. — Zooey Deschanel

Know what suits you. Now I understand proportion and recognise the shapes that look good on my figure. — Zooey Deschanel

I've been watching a lot of Joni Mitchell YouTube clips and I can't believe her transformation from this folk singer in Canada. — Zooey Deschanel

I accidentally entered a youth pageant when I was 14. That's like a beauty pageant, but without the beauty. It was terrible. — Zooey Deschanel

I'm a very positive person. I get excited easily, and I like to jump around. — Zooey Deschanel

I think making a movie or a record, the best things happen by accident - and those end up being the magic. Every time I've followed my gut it's been better than when I've tried to do what I was supposed to do. — Zooey Deschanel

For those of you who thought you'd be forgotten, The friends you've made will try their best, to make it so. Think of all the beauty that you left behind you. You can take it if you want it, and then let it go. — Zooey Deschanel

Everyone romanticizes somebody. — Zooey Deschanel

The moment you sense someone is making something because they think people are gonna buy it or like it, it's just so phony! The public has a nose for phony like nobody else. — Zooey Deschanel

I think I'm a fun flatmate. I'm always cheerful. I go on tour with my band so it's 12 people on one bus and I feel like I'm the one who's happy in the morning. I'm not a chaotic person, but I might slack off on doing the dishes from time to time. — Zooey Deschanel

It's strange because a lot of people are like, 'You can't change human nature-people are inherently negative.' I don't think that's true. If you expect the best from people, they'll step up. — Zooey Deschanel

I really like the collaboration of doing movies and television. But I like the sort of solitary work of doing music. — Zooey Deschanel

I feel there are tone singers, and there are more vocal gymnastics singers. And I think that's amazing when people can do that, but I think there's room for the tone singers. And there aren't a lot of them. — Zooey Deschanel

I still have in me the same awareness when I was 12 and chubby and a girl was spitting in my face. I'm the same person. — Zooey Deschanel

I like old movies, screwball comedies, vintage clothes, and basically I'm an old-fashioned gal. — Zooey Deschanel

O-o-old habits die hard when you got, when you got a sentimental heart
Piece of the puzzle, you're my missing part
Oh what can you do with a sentimental heart? — Zooey Deschanel

There are a lot of actors who will sit here and talk to you about characters - 'He does this, and she's a really interesting character because she does this.' I'm not like that at all. I'm not an actory actor. — Zooey Deschanel

I always choose roles that are, you know, hopefully different from the last role. I don't wanna do the same thing over and over again because that's, well, first of all that's no fun. — Zooey Deschanel

When you have endless time, you take all day to go to the grocery store. But, if you have to be at work for 14 hours a day, you manage your time better. I know I do. — Zooey Deschanel

Zooey said ... It would be very nice to come home and be in the wrong house. To eat dinner with the wrong people by mistake, sleep in the wrong bed by mistake, and kiss everybody good-bye in the morning thinking they were your own family. — J.D. Salinger

Humor is a part of spirituality. — Zooey Deschanel

I'm wary about this thing about being in the generation of social networking where people are like, 'I am my musical taste.' I am not just a collection of music. Or a collection of movies. I think that's a thing that people romanticize: 'Oh my God, she likes this band so she is a dream.' — Zooey Deschanel

Classic Christmas cookies are really time-consuming. Instead, make a bar you can bake in a pan and just cut up, like a brownie or a blondie or a shortbread, which still has that Christmas vibe. — Zooey Deschanel

I like a lot of old films, I like a lot old music, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that I like the idea of knowing what happens before, so that I can understand it. — Zooey Deschanel

If I could give my teenaged self any advice, it would be 'Calm down!' — Zooey Deschanel

Don't allow the coldness and fear of others to tarnish your perfectly vulnerable beating heart. — Zooey Deschanel

'It Girl' is supposed to be something that only lasts a certain amount of time. They keep calling me an 'It Girl,' and at this point it makes me laugh, because I've done that so many times: 'You're it;' 'You're not it.' What is 'it?' — Zooey Deschanel

I just feel like growing up in Los Angeles, you learn, 'Well you're never gonna be the prettiest girl in the room, so just don't even try.' I mean, I care about being pretty, but it's not my most valued thing. — Zooey Deschanel

I like to learn things slow I like learning alot I like to get it all again and in the end You know you get what you got — Zooey Deschanel

For example, when Seymour told one of the twins or Zooey or Franny or even Mme. Boo Boo (who was only two years younger than myself, and often entirely the Lady), to take off his or her galoshes on coming into the apartment, each and all of them knew he mostly meant that the floor would get tracked up if they didn't and that Bessie would have to get out the mop. When I told them to take off their galoshes, they knew I mostly meant that people who didn't were slobs. It was bound to make no small difference in the way they kidded or ragged us separately. — J.D. Salinger

It can make you a little crazy when you are too connected to a product. — Zooey Deschanel

For me, writing is 75 percent procrastinating and 25 percent actually sitting down and working. — Zooey Deschanel

If he didn't have a cigar to hold on to, his feet would leave the ground. We'd never see out Zooey again. — J.D. Salinger

I mean, the idea that it might help somebody out or help somebody make the decision to become a stewardess or otherwise ... No, that's one of the nice things about making music or making movies, is that art does have the power to affect people. I feel really privileged to be a part of that. — Zooey Deschanel

I don't think there are that many awesome roles out there, whether we're talking about movies or TV. — Zooey Deschanel

I somehow see what's beautiful in things that are ephemeral, I'm my only friend of mine and love is just a peace of time in the world — Zooey Deschanel

'Pastoralia' by George Saunders is one of my favorite novels. — Zooey Deschanel

For those of us who try to keep remembering, Try to do our better than our best. Think of all the children in the drifts of snow. Winners never quit, but winters never rest. — Zooey Deschanel

I love telling stories. I think of myself as a storyteller, and I don't feel bound by being just a singer or an actress. First, I'm a storyteller, and history is stories - the most compelling stories. There is a lot you can find out about yourself through knowing about history. I have always been attracted to things that are old. I have just always found such things interesting and compelling. — Zooey Deschanel

I wasn't really the most charming person, socially - it took me a long time to develop my people skills - but the one place I was always comfortable was onstage, acting or singing. — Zooey Deschanel

I hate camping, but I love summer camp. — Zooey Deschanel

When I exercise, I like to take lots of different classes because I want to really apply myself and feel like I'm learning a new skill. Not that I ever want to have to demonstrate any of those skills! — Zooey Deschanel

I have Pro Tools on my computer, and I make CDs all the time. — Zooey Deschanel

The Internet's like one big bathroom wall with a lot of people who anonymously can say really mean things. It's fine, I believe in freedom of speech and I think people should think what they want, but I don't care to hear it. — Zooey Deschanel

I remember having this friend in school who said she didn't like the Beach Boys. And in that moment I knew we couldn't be friends anymore. — Zooey Deschanel

It's very much a piece of myself when I write a song. I don't mean to say it's very personal, like the lyrics mean something personal to me. When I write a song, that's my taste in music - my taste in chord progressions and melodies. — Zooey Deschanel

Yeah, well, we were looking for something sort of anonymous. It suggests what it is, but I like that it's modest. I feel like that's an underrated virtue. It's modest and it's kind of anonymous, which I liked, because it reminds me of my own ideas about why music should be played, which is not to be a star. That was never my intention. — Zooey Deschanel

Being tender and open is beautiful. As a woman, I feel continually shhh'ed. Too sensitive. Too mushy. Too wishy washy. Blah blah. Don't let someone steal your tenderness. Don't allow the coldness and fear of others to tarnish your perfectly vulnerable beating heart. Nothing is more powerful than allowing yourself to truly be affected by things. — Zooey Deschanel

I think it's better to have your personal life and your work life separate. That way they don't corrupt each other, so to speak. — Zooey Deschanel

I'm not playing a comedy. I want to be playing the truth of the moment, and then have the comedy come out. — Zooey Deschanel

If you're in the public eye and you have young girls who look up to what you do, they're going to look to you for certain cues, so you have to take that as a responsibility, whether you think you deserve it or not. — Zooey Deschanel

Bessie: 'Why don't you get married?'
Zooey: 'I like riding in trains too much. You never get to sit next to the window anymore when you're married. — J.D. Salinger

It's wonderful to be appreciated for being quirky, and to see Zooey Deschanel and the quirky, indie film types get mainstream play is amazing for women, because women are much more complicated than what we've see on TV in the past. — Mayim Bialik

Nothing could be as hard as middle school. — Zooey Deschanel

I like romantic comedy as a genre, but I think it can get stuck in its ways. — Zooey Deschanel

That people equate being girlie with being nonthreatening ... I mean, I can't think of a more blatant example of playing into exactly the thing that we're trying to fight against. I can't be girlie? I think the fact that people are associating being girlie with weakness, that needs to be examined. I don't think that it undermines my power at all. — Zooey Deschanel

Proving people wrong is probably my favorite thing to do. — Zooey Deschanel

I think that the mistakes that anyone can make going on dates is probably not being themselves because you can only trick people for so long. — Zooey Deschanel

I think good actors tend to be really funny. — Zooey Deschanel

Yes, exactly. I think that Christmas is always used at any point in the year to cheer us up, like each other up. We would use that to cheer each other up if we were in a sad mood or something, we'd just start talking about Christmas. — Zooey Deschanel

I'm not going to say I'm a big girl. I'm a very small person, but I'm a healthy weight. That might be a little weird for Hollywood. — Zooey Deschanel

I like to make colored xeroxes of things. I clip out pictures of Liza Minelli and her husband from magazines and I fax them to people anonymously. — Zooey Deschanel

In my mind, I always think of myself as an underdog type. — Zooey Deschanel

I don't think I'm very much like anyone else, really. I'm sure there are aspects of other actors that I share, but I don't see anybody else and go, "Damn, they stole my thing." I'm me, and I like that there are people who have an appreciation for that. — Zooey Deschanel

I have scars on my hand from touching certain people. Once, in the park, when Frannie was still in the carriage, I put my hand on the downy pate of her head and left it there too long. Another time, at Loew's Seventy-second Street, with Zooey during a spooky movie. He was about six or seven, and he went under the seat to avoid watching a scary scene. I put my hand on his head. Certain heads, certain colors and textures of human hair leave permanent marks on me. Other things, too. Charlotte once ran away from me, outside the studio, and I grabbed her dress to stop her, to keep her near me. A yellow cotton dress I loved because it was too long for her. I still have a lemon-yellow mark on the palm of my right hand. — J.D. Salinger

Thirty-seven of them will be about shy, reclusive pennsylvania dutch lesbian who wants to write, told first-person by a lecherous hired hand. In dialect. — J.D. Salinger

I'll write and make chords with my voice sometimes if I don't have an instrument even though it takes a million times longer. — Zooey Deschanel

I'm a person who gets better with practice. Getting older is awesome - because you get more practice. — Zooey Deschanel

To be a gluten-free vegan is, like, the most difficult thing you can possibly be. — Zooey Deschanel

Secretly, I think everyone who makes fun of California really does want to be in California. — Zooey Deschanel

I find sadness and strife to be so much more interesting with an upbeat melody. — Zooey Deschanel

Why don't we just sit and stare and do nothing? Nothing at all for a while I like the way you smile I could be your state and I could be your nation It doesn't get better than home, now does it? — Zooey Deschanel

In a matter of only a few seconds, in fact, her eyes appeared to jettison everything that was dark and heavy and to glow with fan-club appreciation. — J.D. Salinger

Girls get competitive, as though there's only one spot in the world for everything _ but that's not true. We need to stick together and see there's more to life than pleasing men. It's important not to cut yourself off from female friendships. I think sometimes girls get scared of other girls, but you need each other. — Zooey Deschanel

I'm always trying to do stuff I haven't done before or challenge myself so I'm not resting on my laurels all of the time because if I just found my little niche and never left it, I'd be pretty boring, I think. — Zooey Deschanel

I never have time to have a dinner. I have to eat while I'm memorizing lines. The only way to maintain energy is to eat all day long. I must eat all day long. — Zooey Deschanel

I would say I know nothing about the music business, in a nice sort of way. I totally forgot I was in that music video. That's so funny. — Zooey Deschanel

We all know guys who've had their hearts broken in real life; we just don't usually see it in the movies. — Zooey Deschanel

Well, my piano's really beautiful. I actually have two pianos. I have a Yamaha upright from the '60s that's blond, wood, and black, and I also have one from the '20s from Chicago - not a well-known brand or anything. — Zooey Deschanel

If I could play the ukulele like Zooey Deschanel, I would find my own personal M. Ward, and we would do a side album; but I don't, you know? — Anna Kendrick

I've always straddled a weird line - there's a lot of mainstream stuff that I love. At the same, I still feel like an outsider. I'm the outsider who's on the inside. — Zooey Deschanel

I have trouble actually describing myself because I'm always suspicious of people who start describing themselves. I'm like, OK, why are you trying to tell me what you are? — Zooey Deschanel