Mara: "Keeping your private life as private as possible is the smartest thing."

Mara: "All the actors I respect, especially old-Hollywood actors, the reason I think so many of them have had long careers is that there is a sort of mystery about them. You don't know what they do on Friday nights when they go home from work. You have no clue. You have this sort of fantasy about them."

Mara: "I want to do something crazy for a part - something I'd never even consider in real life."

Mara: "It's really nice to be in something that you really love and want to share with people. And then, for it to actually get shown and for people to be able to see it is awesome. It's really exciting."

Mara: "In New York, you can just wake up and everything sorts itself out. I love that, not having a plan."

Mara: "I have so many friends who have no idea what they want to do. They are out of college and working, but not sure they are doing what they want to do, which is normal."

Mara: "I hated school."

Mara: "I've definitely become more aware and conscious of what directors I'm working with because it's so important. The director is really more than half the battle of the film. You really rely on that. That's become really, really important to me, for sure."

Mara: "I wish no teams had cheerleaders. I find it more distracting than anything else."

Mara: "When my agents tell me how much I'm going to be paid for a film, instead of quoting a figure, they'll say: 'You're going to make ten pairs of Christian Louboutins.'"

Mara: "I like traditions, and the national anthem is important."

Mara: "I remember telling the agent, 'I don't want to do anything but Broadway.' She was like, 'That's not really possible because there is not that much Broadway. So I'll send you out on TV and stuff like that.'"

Mara: "I'm an idiot."