Top 40 Mara Wilson Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “If I were really really ridiculously wealthy, I wouldn’t buy a mansion, just tiny apartments in every city I love.”

— Mara Wilson

2. “If I ever have children of my own, they will read Matilda. They will watch the movie. And you can bet they will see Matilda: The Musical.”

— Mara Wilson

3. “I don’t have any plans to pursue film acting. It’s not my thing anymore, if it ever was. Yes, I do still act sometimes. But when I do, it’s with people I know and trust, people who respect me as a person and appreciate what I have to offer.”

— Mara Wilson

4. “That’s my suggestion for kids who want to act, by the way: Make sure it’s really your choice, get out of it when it stops being fun, and get an education.”

— Mara Wilson

5. “Actually, I do like pink clothes, but it’s not because I’m girly, it’s because I’m the reincarnation of Oscar Wilde.”

— Mara Wilson

6. “I don’t know if I’m always going to be acting. Maybe when I grow up, I will be a scriptwriter. I already have a few scripts in my head.”

— Mara Wilson

7. “I think if I could do it over again – as much as I loved meeting the people I did on the films after ‘Matilda’ – I wish that I had stopped after ‘Matilda.’ I wish that I had just focused on my own life for a while.”

— Mara Wilson

8. “My mother died when I was young, and I was filming all the time. I was all over the place. Acting was the one constant.”

— Mara Wilson

9. “People who meet me as an adult are often surprised that I’m alive and have never been in prison or rehab. Sometimes they’re disappointed I’m not cooler.”

— Mara Wilson

10. “I consider my relationship with acting in Hollywood as sort of a mutual breakup. Through puberty, Hollywood didn’t really want me anymore, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t really want you, either.’”

— Mara Wilson

11. “Very sad, very upset, very glad I did not have to hear about this though Twitter. Probably going to be taking some time off it for a while.”

— Mara Wilson

12. “The harshest criticism, I noticed, often seemed to come from other women. I didn’t want to be that kind of woman, I decided; it wasn’t right to hurt others in a way I’d been hurt. From then on, I vowed, I would never say anything negative about a woman’s appearance. It had nothing to do with them as a person, and it wasn’t something they could easily change. If I didn’t want looks to matter, I would have to stop talking and acting like they did.”

— Mara Wilson

13. “The best times I had on film sets were the times the director let me express myself, but those were rare.”

— Mara Wilson

14. “I generally assumed a guy was gay until proven straight, taken until proven single, and not interested until he’d put his tongue in my mouth.”

— Mara Wilson

15. “No, you will never see me on ‘Dancing With the Stars.’ Sorry.”

— Mara Wilson

16. “Danny DeVito later told me that he knew he wanted me for ‘Matilda’ the second I walked in the door. I’m not sure if this is true, or if he was just being nice, but I was thrilled when I got it.”

— Mara Wilson

17. “I’m pretty cautious and not very athletic, so I’ve only had really dumb injuries, like sprained ankles and allergic reactions. I did have to go to the hospital after slicing my finger while trying to cut a Kaiser roll in half.”

— Mara Wilson

18. “I’d rather be known for my accomplishments, and for things that I really do take pride in, rather than known for this doll-like image I had when I was a child.”

— Mara Wilson

19. “I think I might like to try film again just as an experiment, but I know that I could never do the mainstream thing again.”

— Mara Wilson

20. “I had people in ‘Entertainment Weekly’ talking about how they wanted to throttle me because they thought I was too disgustingly cute, as if that were my fault, you know, as if that was my fault, not the fault of directors and producers and such.”

— Mara Wilson

21. “From then on, I vowed, I would never say anything negative about a woman’s appearance. it had nothing to do with them as a person and it wasn’t something they could easily change. If I didn’t want looks to matter, I would have to stop talking and acting as if they did.”

— Mara Wilson

22. “I used to feel compelled to respond. Once I contacted the author of a list of “Ugliest Former Child Actors” to ask her why, as a woman, she was punishing other women for the way they looked. She wrote back immediately to apologise. “I write stupid things on the internet to pay the bills,” she said. “I can’t afford integrity.”

— Mara Wilson

23. “Considering all the legal hassle child stars can be, I won’t be surprised when they are phased out by CGI children voiced by adult actors.”

— Mara Wilson

24. “Something strange is happening to me: I find myself becoming lighter and less cynical. People use sarcasm and I don’t immediately pick up on it, because I don’t use it anymore. When people do, it’s as if I’m hearing a language I spoke fluently in my childhood, but have since lost. And I just find Woody Allen creepy.”

— Mara Wilson

25. “But there is a place where people like me live and love while fretting constantly about their own mortality and the fate of the universe. I know who I am now: I am a New Yorker.”

— Mara Wilson

26. “Feminism has been slandered as a way to give ugly women greater prominence in society. And, in a way, it is. Feminism is for ugly women. For beautiful women. For all women. Women of all colors, ages, and shapes. It’s about giving people an equal chance regardless of their gender. Judging them for what they do and not for what they are.”

— Mara Wilson

27. “People may have to die, but morbidity will live forever.”

— Mara Wilson

28. “A lot of men wonder what a woman wants. The answer is power. There are many ways to get it, but the easiest way is to tear other girls down. Any girl can play that game, but there’s no way to win, except not to play at all.”

— Mara Wilson

29. “I still get recognized. It’s flattering, but it can be uncomfortable. Maybe because it only seems to happen when I’m looking and feeling crappy.”

— Mara Wilson

30. “The idea of living forever makes me uncomfortable, and at this point I’ve lived long enough and seen enough Twilight Zone episodes to know that there’s always a catch.”

— Mara Wilson

31. “In the book, you lost your powers. In the movie, you chose not to use them as much. I guess I did a little of both.”

— Mara Wilson

32. “I didn’t want to be a former child actor for the rest of my life, although in some ways I suppose I am. I am going to be that.”

— Mara Wilson

33. “The celebrity aspect is nothing short of ridiculous, and auditioning is brutal and dehumanizing. Every time I see a pretty young girl on the subway reading sides for an audition, my only thought is, ‘Man, am I glad I’m not doing that anymore.’ I never feel nostalgia, just relief.”

— Mara Wilson

34. “If I were to talk to Lindsay Lohan, I’d encourage her to get the hell out of acting and into something soothing. Take up botany or something.”

— Mara Wilson

35. “The defining characteristic of a hipster – the thing everyone agreed on, and most hated about them – wasn’t so much their taste, but their contempt and condescension toward those less cool than themselves.”

— Mara Wilson

36. “There is a surprising amount of overlap between the storytelling and burlesque communities, maybe because they both, in a way, involve getting naked. People who choose to be vulnerable are rare. People who manage to do it well are even more so.”

— Mara Wilson

37. “I love violent Shakespeare. It is to me what steak is to some people: the bloodier the better.”

— Mara Wilson

38. “Film can be exciting, but more often, it’s tedious.”

— Mara Wilson

39. “Depriving myself of joys is one of the great joys of my subconscious.”

— Mara Wilson

40. “I can’t take much pride in my childhood acting. It feels like it happened in another lifetime, and even then, it felt like a hobby.”

— Mara Wilson

41. “I remember feeling enormous pressure because I didn’t want to be Shirley Temple. Shirley Temple was Shirley Temple, and I didn’t ever feel like I could live up to that.”

— Mara Wilson

42. “If there’s been a narrative theme in my life, it has been a need to find a narrative in everything.”

— Mara Wilson

43. “I spent a lot of time feeling scandalized, and I loved it. There is nothing more fun than being young and judgmental.”

— Mara Wilson

44. “Most people have embarrassing videos of themselves as children. Few have theirs copyrighted by Twentieth Century Fox.”

— Mara Wilson

45. “The ones who scared me, who still scare me, are the girls who see all other girls as competition, who see themselves as the persecuted ones, the ones whom the pretty and popular girls hate. When you believe you’re persecuted, you will believe anything you do is justified.”

— Mara Wilson