Rashida Jones Quotes

My mother and I are more than best friends; we are partners in crime. After she and my father, Quincy Jones, separated when I was 10 years old, my sister, Kidada, who was 12, went to live with our dad, and I stayed with my mother.

The minute you feel like there's nothing left to learn, whether it's with your career or life, you're done.

You can't be an openly gay movie star. You can't be an openly gay pop star, really - minus Ricky Martin.

My parents are the coolest of the cool on every single level, and it's because they have a deep appreciation for every moment of their lives.

You can't really invest in your looks as the only thing because it's a depreciating asset. It's like putting money into a stock that's going down.

I've always dreamt of having some sort of undercover job. I think it's probably the coolest thing in the world, but ultimately a very lonely life.

I love guys and the way they think; they're so straightforward - and women can learn from that.

I think you make mistakes, especially in your twenties, where you date guys you wouldn't even be friends with - ever.

Marriage feels like an industry with catering and really expensive bands.

You can love somebody and it can change your life but it doesn't mean that you're necessarily right to be together forever, but that love will change your life forever. And that's okay.

To me, it's really easy to feel glamorous and beautiful with red lips. It's great because you don't have to do anything else. I don't have to do anything to my face. I can have cleanly washed hair and if I just put on like a matte red lip, it just makes everything seem special.

In elementary and high school, I never considered acting as a profession.

Be friendly to everybody; protect yourself; people sometimes want a piece of you for no good reason; and always do things out of love not fear.

You know, I definitely have an inclination to work in the public sector.

I want a baby and I want a family, for sure.

People are very nice to me, and they've been nice as my career has gotten better and I've gotten more jobs. But the reality is that if I decided tomorrow that I didn't want to act anymore, it's not like people are going to be like, 'Please, come back!'

There's room for everything in everybody.

I am definitively qualitative about work.

Ads featuring real women and real beauty are such a necessary component to offset the potentially dangerous programming out there for little girls.

I feel like until you show every side, you're not doing the gender justice.

I know my mom said as early as she can remember letting me watch TV, my one treat a week when I was like 6 was to stay up and watch 'Saturday Night Live.'

In high school, I was on the youth advisory council for the Mayor's Office of Los Angeles, and that was kind of my first experience in the bureaucratic system. We tried to get things done, and nobody was really interested in getting anything done.

Good rom-coms have some reflection of the way things are, the sign of the times.

Mostly though, college was me trying to look cooler than I was. There were definitely some Carhartt jeans and backward kangol caps in my repertoire.

Once, a friend's mom said to me when I was very young 'You can't really invest in your looks as the only thing because it's a depreciating asset. I think this is trueit's like putting money into a stock that's going down. Put your money, put your effort, invest in your brain and talent which will appreciate and get better as you get older.

I've been really lucky thus far with acting, in that I can do things I believe in and feel good about, and feel good about myself. If for some reason one day that ends, I won't do it anymore. If I feel like I have to compromise myself to continue to be in this industry, I don't want to do that.

I have a lot of girlfriends, but there's something that's so easy for me about hanging out with guys. It's fun, because I feel like they accept me right back, which is really nice.

I had a nickname in junior high, and I'm loathe to say this: 'potato lady.'

I think people kind of come in who they are, and it sort of doesn't even matter who their parents are - it can affect you a little bit, and you can be guided and shaped.

I hate to be a broken record - my parents have a lot to do with that too, because that's how they live their lives.

I don't think any other emotion is the equivalent of laughter. So I do whatever I can to laugh all the time and to hide my pain.

You can never stop discovering music.

In college, I had a lot of friends who were writers and wanted to be writers and I felt intimidated by it. I just didn't know if I had any gift or voice and I had no confidence about it.

I do have designers that I love to wear, like Philip Lim and Marc Jacobs whose stuff I know will look good on my body. But still, I always like to express myself by changing things up.

Auditioning is the worst.

I was like, 'Oh, my God, girls are so pretty and soft. No stubble burn! What am I doing with guys?' [I] haven't dipped back since, but I was very appreciative of the experience.

I pretty much borrow my entire beauty regime from my mom.

I took a Groundlings class in my 20s, and I was terrible. They didn't even pass me to the next level.

As much as my parents are part of Hollywood, I have no recollection of them giving me advice about it.

Timing is everything with relationships.

I'm friends with a lot of my exes, but it took time. We didn't just get into it. I don't think you can be friends until you're cool with them dating someone else. That's when you know.

My activities tend to revolve around crossword puzzles, reading and playing piano and games with my friends.

Well, I'm not a method actress by any stretch of the imagination so the best thing that I can do is be as real as possible and find whatever commonality in that character that I can see myself.

It's downright undignified how many blazers I've bought over the years. And will continue to buy. They immediately give shape and add authority. With the perfect blazer, anything is possible.

I love romantic comedies. I have a deep respect for them. I think they're really difficult to write and write well.

I'm a comedy geek so anything comedy related, whether that's standup shows, improv shows, I'm all over that. That's my favorite way to be entertained always.

Everything French is amazing, especially creme brulee, but then burnt sugar works for me in any capacity.

I definitely work pretty hard to stay present and focused. I've also tried to create a life for myself where I'm surrounded by honest, loyal, and funny people, because I like to laugh.

There's no sense that you can knock on your neighbor's door or be part of a local community group, and that's part of your responsibility as a human being.

A question I get asked a lot is 'What is it like to play the straight guy all the time?' And I'm totally okay with it.

I have friends who have no choice; they came from whatever town, they didn't have anybody in entertainment and they just knew they wanted to act and they did it.

Men do weird things when they experience fear. It's like a fight-or-flight thing.

I totally believe in romance and love and all that.

People are not enjoying life because they're trying to be something or brand themselves.

When a thing you love faces adversity, you start to feel more protective of it. Also, you take an inventory all the time. You ask yourself, "Is this worth all my fighting?"

I think that women are powerful and they're multifaceted and they're survivors; they don't have to depend on a man to do the things they needed them to do, whether it was hunting or lifting heavy things, so what's a man's place now? Who knows!

I don't like expectations.

In early high school years, I was pretty chubby, and I spent a lot of time on my computer, before it was cool to have a computer - because there was a time that was true. So that's where I developed my personality.

Women tend to double-speak - I'm definitely guilty of that.

You know, I grew up on romantic comedies, and it's hard to find a new way to tell that story.

People still go to Comic-Con because they love comics.

Sometimes I look at where we've come to, and how much technology and advancement there is, and I can't believe that we're not this perfectly balanced, beautiful, peaceful society. I'm shocked that we're so deeply polarized, that there are people who want progress and they feel guilty for wanting progress, because it somehow seems un-American, because being American means staying ignorant and going backward.

My dad always tell me to make decisions from love and not from fear.

I have six brothers and sisters. We all look totally different: blonde hair, curly hair, green eyes, dark eyes, dark skin, light skin. It's just how it is.

When people don't know what you are, you get your heart broken daily.

I think every girl has that a guy she has trouble letting go of.

Music breaks my heart constantly.

My first love, I'll never forget, and it's such a big part of who I am, and in so many ways, we could never be together, but that doesn't mean that it's not forever. Because it is forever.

I'm terrified of performing live.

I'm a sponge. I'm obsessed with comedy. I'm obsessed with the idea that you can make somebody laugh, and I love to be around people who can make other people laugh.

I probably wouldn't be acting if I didn't grow up in Hollywood.

I really like the relaxed glamour of the '70s.

My pet peeve and my goal in life is to somehow get an adjective for 'integrity' in the dictionary. 'Truthful' doesn't really cover it, or 'genuine.' It should be like 'integritus.'

I am generally cast as the dependable, affable, loving, friend-wife-girlfriend.

There's people who watch shows while they're preparing their dinners, and they don't want to focus, and they don't want to be challenged, and whatever. And then there's people who want to really sit down and get into a character in a world, and feel like they're expanding, or they have complex relationships, or whatever.

For the most part, it is really nice when people come up to me, because I do think that people who are awkward relate to me, and that's really nice. It's generally good.

I have a father who came from nothing and conquered the world. The last thing I'm going to do is sit here and spend his money and try to look pretty. That's not interesting to me at all.

I'm generally a pretty friendly person.

Well, dating has become a sport and not about finding the person you love.

There've been times when I have existential conversations with myself, and I've thought about leaving and trying to apply my education better. But ultimately it doesn't really matter. Learning how to write, learning how to write papers and structure, that's been very helpful for writing.

I can be pretty persuasive if I believe in something strongly enough.

In my twenties I would be skeptical of a bad haircut, but once you turn thirty it's more about whether he a nice person and does he open the door for me. Once you turn thirty-five, it's more about would he make a good father. And even if you're just liking somebody and digging on someone, I think you can't help but think in those terms.

If I can surround myself with hilarious people every day, I will always want to go to work.

For the most part, having more money and more fame make your life harder. It just does. I've seen it happen with people. You know, it's so hard to stay normal. It's so hard to stay happy. It's hard to remember why you were doing what you did in the first place.

I think it's a relatable concept - when you have a long-term relationship or marriage, and you want to try to be friends with that person, because you kind of grew up with that person and they know you better than anyone, and how it's just impossible to make that transition seamlessly.

In 2002 Mom and I got a chance to act together in a play called 'Pitching to the Star,' with her brother, Robert Lipton. The three of us on the same stage - that was such a special experience for me.

There was a time when I let go of the reins and thought, What's meant to happen will happen. That's probably one of my biggest faults as a person, and something that I've had to work really hard on: believing in this idea that the universe will decide for me. The universe is not going to decide in your favor.

Sure, being good at your job is really important, but in acting, so much of the decision's already made the minute you walk in the room because they're like, 'His hair's good or she's got the right skin color' or whatever. It's so random, but it's so physically oriented.

I would [call myself a feminist], yes, I believe in the unadulterated advancement of women. And we have so far to go still.

I have a lot of skepticism about marriage and monogamy.

I'm lucky because I have so many clashing cultural, racial things going on: black, Jewish, Irish, Portuguese, Cherokee. I can float and be part of any community I want.

There's a sense of entitlement and isolationism that I think is really dangerous, and the way globalization and technology have been used isn't really for the best.

I love being part of an ensemble.

I find it scary to sing - scarier than acting actually.