Nef: "In an ideal world, I wouldn't have to change my body. I wouldn't have to do all this stuff. I wouldn't have to be pretty or 'feminine,' and people would respect that."

Nef: "If we didn't desensitize ourselves in some way, every day would feel like its own tragedy."

Nef: "I'm fun, ruthless, articulate, impatient, maybe a little cavalier. I'm a woman and a feminist. I'm transgender. I'm an actress, a reluctant writer, occasionally a potato-shaped model."

Nef: "I'm a different girl almost every time I look in the mirror."

Nef: "Being a woman is an option, being trans is an option, and they're options that appeal to me. We need to listen to people - not labels, not semantics."

Nef: "If you don't know somebody, whether you're inquiring into their sex or their gender, it's invasive."

Nef: "I don't want the same trans story to be told over and over again. I don't want people to get stuck on this very western idea of what it means to be transgender."

Nef: "What we really need to look at is gender fluidity and the idea that gender can be customized however you want."

Nef: "I feel like the most fascinating parts of a trans life take place after the decision to transition. They take place when you're in this new body, in this new life, and you start realizing things."

Nef: "People feel emboldened to say things on the Internet they wouldn't in person."

Nef: "I think that you need to balance a critique of feminine, patriarchal beauty ideals while simultaneously understanding how they can make you safe, and they can make you feel safe, and they can open up certain doors for you that would have been closed."

Nef: "If anyone says that American socialism isn't possible, point them toward the bowling shoe."

Nef: "If I ever called myself an activist, I regret it, and I was cornered into it by an industry who couldn't justify me taking up space without saying that I had some kind of radical political agenda because they saw my participation as a radical political thing. Which it was not."

Nef: "If my body can fall into the background for just a second, maybe people will start listening to what I have to say."

Nef: "I feel like my transition, in a broader sense, began the second I left home and came to New York. Because all of a sudden, I opened myself up to options about how to be."

Nef: "Visibility is not, in itself, always a good thing, but when it is in the hands of those who need positive visibility, it can be."

Nef: "I'm not so fascinated by these ingenue roles. I tend to gravitate towards women in plays or shows or films that are more chaotic or have something dire going on."

Nef: "I identify with Sad Girls."

Nef: "I used to think I was a gay man with this idea of a muse in my head, like a woman that I thought was inspirational or aspirational. But the woman was actually me."

Nef: "My identity will always inform my experience and shape my perception. But I am an unremarkable person."

Nef: "When I don't wear makeup, it's not because I'm lazy, but it's me making this radical bid for the feminization of my body and being confident in that."

Nef: "Sexuality is who you want to be with. Gender identity is who you want to be in the world."

Nef: "I keep a very cold apartment - I tend to crank my AC just about as low as it can go. I sleep with a big, warm comforter, even during the summer, and just burrow underneath it."

Nef: "If anyone says that American socialism isn't possible, point them toward the bowling shoe."

Nef: "I feel like so much of mainstream feminism springs from the second wave, which was essentially a discourse spearheaded by white, cisgender, upper middle class women. I feel - especially as I'm trying to negotiate this new female space with the feminism that's available to me - there are a lot of places where I'm disenfranchised."

Nef: "For me, Instagram had become a place where I could image myself the way I found myself."

Nef: "I don't feel comfortable with the idea that my only gateway into doing what I love to do is auditioning for other people to give me the green light and say that I'm allowed to do it, or that I'm allowed to play this role, or that I'm allowed to be in this movie. I would feel much more comfortable making those opportunities for myself."

Nef: "Trans folks are going to rise up for their moments and their money!"

Nef: "People make fun of me because I've been known to eat lunch things for breakfast. I'll eat a good salad. I'll maybe have some tempeh or kale in there. I try to make breakfast a lavish meal because, one, my body tells me to, and, two, that's what carries me through the day."

Nef: "Whatever surgery someone wants to get is none of your business."

Nef: "There's something very noble about the bowling shoe. It has very little pretense, and it's kind of naughty. You have to share them with a bunch of other people, which is so kinky in a way that I like. What other shoes would you actively share with other people?"

Nef: "What's infuriating is when cis people think celebrating me is celebrating transness."

Nef: "When you're a teenager, everything is amplified because everything is a first. The first time you feel othered, the first time you feel rejected, the first time you fall in love... it's the first time, so it's so vivid, and everything feels like the whole world almost, because it is your whole world; your world is small when you're a teenager."

Nef: "Being a woman means that my male privilege seeped out of my body."

Nef: "I travel a lot, so I don't have a morning routine because where I wake up tends to be inconsistent. But I'm always really, really hungry when I wake up, so breakfast is important."

Nef: "I think that often my work is obscured by my gender identity."

Nef: "I prefer men who are queer. Not gay men, but queer men - guys with an open mind. Bisexual men, because they're able to understand the different elements of the body without judging that I don't conform to a certain ideal."

Nef: "Expectations are kind of lethal for art, I think."