The difference between me and American-born actors is that I came here with the expectation of not being treated fairly.

I never went on an audition – when they were really looking at everybody.

As an actress I find the most enjoyable part of acting is really just to please the director. I just want to please my director.

If you know how to do a job very well, you keep doing it.

I would never offer advice without the person asking for it. I, in general, don’t believe in giving advice, actually, as a human being I don’t.

How I was raised is what I am today.

Beauty is the result of having been through an experience all the way through to the end – therefore it has a poignancy. Beauty that is singular always comes from following an experience to the point where you can go no further.

Since age 14, I know what actors fear, what they like; I know how to get things out of them and I listen to them better, since I’ve been there.

My fairy-tale life ended the moment I wanted to apply for a passport.

There are a lot of stereotypes to be broken which I think a lot of us are doing. What I do is, as soon as people try to pin me down to one kind of part, I’ll play a very different kind of role, so it explodes that stereotype.

All Asian parents are into your children having a respectable, decent stable job. Acting was unimaginable to my parents.

I don’t find intimate scenes more difficult than other scenes.

Acting for me is not a bad habit like smoking that I must make an effort to quit. I love acting; I love directing.

For the past few years, I was the more visible Asian performer, and I think it gave young girls a kind of role model showing it’s possible to actually reach success doing movies.

All teenagers have this desire to somehow run away.

I take class. I’m always ballet ready. I’m ready to go – got my tights and my shoes.

When you feel so strongly about something and other people feel equally strongly, you have to feel stronger about it in order to succeed.

How do you explain certain physical qualities that somehow sell on screen? You’re born with it… Certain people are just more watchable, and I was more watchable, but I don’t think I understood acting or drama very well when I was a kid.

I danced in a Lifetime film. We shot in Canada and I got to work with a lot of the dancers who do So You Think You Can Dance, Canada.