I am not ashamed of anything - not my past, not my affairs, not my body, and most definitely not my desire.

Our society loves raw character; we love raw women. We don't love our mother because she is hot and sexy: we love our mother because she is our mother. We love our granny because she is our granny. We value her. We don't remember anyone's face from our childhood; we love our granny's face.

No one can guarantee success of a film.

I don't think there is anything unusual about my struggle. It's a very typical struggle where you meet bad people, and then you meet good people, and then you finally have a breakthrough.

What people see is just your career graph and the films you do. But that's a very small aspect of my life.

I'm my own hero on the sets; why should I work with other heroes? The Khans did not want to work with me when I started. Why should I work with them now?

In Bollywood, if you work with a superstar, even if you are a newcomer, you become a superstar. That didn't happen with me.

Even when I was rebelling against my father, the point was to follow my own intuition and instinct.

Many people are insecure of many people.

There have been interviews with people saying they are jealous of Kangana. There are so many people who are jealous of my success.

Sucking up to a director means you are unsure of your talents. I'm not.

It's very hard for me to find any sort of shame or blame in my life. I'm not made that way.

I followed my instincts; I followed my intuition, and it paid off.

If a woman is super-successful, she is called a psychopath.

Hits and flops are overrated.

For me, to be in a place where I'm on the 'favourite' list of top directors I like, that's being number one. There is no other definition to me. It's not money; it's not how many songs you're seen in or how many clothes you're changing in the film.

I always wanted to be the person to whom people looked forward to give opportunities. As opposed to always being the person who wants to work with others and who is always the backup: where it's like, 'If nothing works out then OK, let's get this person.'

I think there are things that you look for when you're younger, and you think they are going to make you happier or make you feel complete. That's not going to happen, and it's really about living the moments. Eventually, you reach a point when you're at ease with your life and don't have any unrealistic expectations.

I was very insecure at the beginning of my career. I didn't value my talent. I would have probably skipped signing up for movies that I didn't want to do if I had understood that I had been accepted and people liked my work.

I don't know why everyone feels the pressure to look young. Personally, I hate it. I don't want to inject Botox and look young forever. It's living in denial and anything that has an undercurrent of this philosophy is bad for your growth.

If you work with big stars, then they become the lead actors. It's not that I don't want to do films with big stars, but I would rather do the films where I get the title roles.

Before I turned vegetarian, I used to often cook seafood or my favourite breakfast of eggs and bacon. Now, I love making pulao or rice with lots of spices and vegetables.

For my life, I need to make my own choices.

When I left my home to become an actress, my father didn't give me a single penny. I struggled a lot, and they had no idea what I went through. My grandfather even asked me to drop my surname when he learnt I was joining films.