Sasha Grey

I'd like to think of myself as somebody who has a voice for liberating female sexuality.

Obviously, I'm still building a name and reputation for myself. The stigmas that come with my past will remain there for quite some time, but I'm not afraid to challenge those things, and I never have been.

I always had all of these childhood fantasies about wanting to invent things, like a spaceship or a time machine. And everyone's imagined what it would be like to go back in time and change things, to see what would happen if you had a different life. 'Back to the Future' fulfills all of those daydreams. It's the perfect movie.

I am an actor. I am an artist. I am a daughter. I am a sister. I am a partner. I have a past that some people may not agree with, but it does not define who I am.

My goal is to be myself, and to challenge stereotypes, and to follow the rules, and break them, and make new rules. It's not about doing something that's already been done. That would be silly.

The day I feel like I'm at an office job is the day I'll quit performing in front of a camera.

I must confess, I'm not the best cook. I make a mean salsa, as I like hot sauce and, you know, tacos, because I'm a California kid, and that's about it.

I wasn't that kid where if you told me 'No,' I was just going to do it anyway.

Reading was very important to me as a kid. It was very inspirational to me. I went to a school where that wasn't encouraged so much, but my parents encouraged that, and it has made me part of who I am.

I've been writing since I was 10 or 11. I started with poetry because that was the easiest thing. It just kind of came naturally. I think at that time West Coast hip hop was huge; all these kids around me were like, 'I want to be a rapper.' But I'm a white girl, not going to be a rapper.

My body is my art, and it's also the tool that I use to make money.

Persistence and determination are incredibly important. But sometimes you need to analyze the situation and understand when you're wrong. You need to be able to cop to being wrong, learn to change, and continue to grow as a human being.