Claire Danes Quotes

As a young performer, I didn't know that you can have a great time playing someone in terrible crisis. The more you know it's not real, the deeper you can go into it. And the easier it is to let it go when it's done.

On a film you can really get away with learning the scene the night before and that's often just not possible with TV, so you have to be a little bit more prepared a little bit more in advance.

I think people who make movies and have invested a lot of money in them get frightened that if they challenge an audience they are going to repel them. And I think the opposite; it's really true.

So much of my job is about finding another job, and that's really boring.

Fame doesn't end loneliness.

People in the CIA, they marry each other. They're like actors! We have to travel without much warning to far-flung places, and it's very hard to communicate what our experiences are like to those in the outside world.

It's been a huge joy, this experience of being a mom ... I don't know how to articulate it yet, because it is so fresh.

Steve Martin is one of my favorite performers, writers, artists of all time.

Most people assume that autistic people are not capable of empathy.

I would rather not work than be a neurotic mess.

I used to talk about my personal life all the time. It's the most fun thing to talk about, the people in my life are hurt.

If I hadn't been an actress, I was thinking seriously about going into psychology. It's just really what I'm interested in: the human psyche and how we process information.

Anybody who knows how to make a good movie, knows that it's a collaborative undertaking. To deny that its really dangerous.

You know, let a few years go by until I hit my midlife crisis. Then that can be documented on film.

Growing up in New York with artist parents - a very liberal environment, where we were always encouraged to challenge the status quo - I think for a long time I confused jingoism with patriotism. And that is a mistake.

Well, it's true that you often kind of forget to see the person you're most intimate with, but occasionally I'll come to and sort of think, 'Oh my God! You're really, really good-looking! I'm embarrassed now! It's nice to occasionally have that flash.

Oliver Stone's strategy is to unnerve the actors so as to make them alert and alive.

I became very successful at a young age ... I had lots of opportunities and lots of power and had no idea how to focus it.

You are the most brave intrepid person I have ever known, and you have dedicated your life to helping those who are misunderstood and underrepresented.

I can get a dance party started pretty much anywhere and anytime.

Money or no money, acting is my calling

When I was a kid, I was one of those really obnoxious 'oooh oooh' girls, with my hand up in the air constantly. I've learned over the years that that's not so attractive, so I've censored that.

There was a solid year and a half, perhaps two years, after making 'Temple Grandin,' when I didn't do anything. I just didn't have much patience for roles that were silly, or light, or inconsequential.

Growing up, I wanted desperately to please, to be a good girl.

By the time I went to Yale, I'd been acting for a long time and I was really tired of it. I was restless - and a little bored - and I was really eager to investigate different parts of myself.

I finally realized that yeah I did want to be an actor and it wasn't out of habit, but I needed to grow up for myself and then kind of re-enter the industry with a sound understanding of what my sensibilities and my values are as a relatively formed human being.

I was very driven to act from a very young age, and my parents were not only tolerant of that drive but also encouraging.

I don't think I have ever been as inspired by any character that I have played. I was deeply moved by Temple's courage and her resourcefulness.. She is really pioneering in both the world of autism and animal rights. She has encouraged an incredibly positive change in the world.

I'm human. I think people see me as sweeter and softer than I do.

I like reading novels because it provides insight into human behavior. I am really interested in feelings and think they are what define us as a species. When you really get it right in acting, it's an act of empathy. You feel less distant from others, and that is really exciting.

You have to stay hydrated when you have crying scenes.

With acting there are a lot more choices, With this, I either stick it or I don't. There's something really unforgiving about that.

I am not a genius. But I am nerdy.

In New York City, everybody goes into therapy.

I've always very earnestly tried to do my best, so I just have to trust that and forgive myself for being fallible.

Acting is the greatest answer to my loneliness that I have found.

But I don't know if people are meant to be together. You have to have a lot in common, choose well and be really fortunate. It's not like you're sprinkled with fairy dust. You have to believe that love will be there when you need it.

I think 'Breaking Bad' is incredible.

My character was kidnapped by the Terminator and I was kidnapped by the Terminator production.

I care about being formally physically attractive in my life, and I think that I am quite vain about my performance. I'm just not vain about how I look while I give the performance.

College was just so essential for my sense of self and my development.

I have this book club, and we don't read one book; we offer up a few suggestions and create a library over time.

I discovered Christopher Isherwood in college. His writing style is so direct, warm, and inclusive.

Hatred can become like food, it gives you this energy that you can, like, live off ...

Every time I make a movie, I'm prepared for it to become influential and career-defining - but I have no control over these things.

I started working when I was very young. I got an agent when I was 12, and fortunately was employed consistently from that point on. So I didn't really go to a conventional high school. I was tutored on sets and things.

I don't want to be coy. It's so important for me to be as genuine as possible, so I don't want to stop when it comes to rendering sex the way that most people have it, which is unclothed.

In a way, that's really reassuring. I'm not just a very limited person to not have figured it out at this point. But it's also intimidating. Well, how long is it going to take before you can have a good time?

You have to pick your battles on set.

I discovered Orson Welles in college; my freshman English professor screened 'Citizen Kane' for us, and I wound up writing a 20-page term paper on it.

We just can't shake monogamy. It definitely demands a kind of rigor and discipline and selflessness. But it's also fun.

Psychology and acting are very closely linked. It's just about studying people and how they work. It can be an incredible discipline and exercise.

I think I would make a lousy stay-at-home mom. It just wouldn't suit me.

I would sign on for projects that were meant to shoot in July, and then they would postponed and they would bleed into the following semester, and then I'd take a semester off, and then the movie would collapse.

I fantasized about being a psychology major when I first started school, and I took a handful of Psych 101 classes.

Television lets audiences deeply connect with characters.

I have to expose myself and then accept the judgment that audiences and critics will have. And that's okay. I appreciate the elliptical nature of it. Sometimes people are more in the mood to be nice to me than others, and that's great.

I have to say that my dad's face is very malleable. He's barely got any cartilage in his face. I think I maybe inherited that Play-Doh-like physicality from him.

I actually think in some ways that it might be more challenging to be bipolar because it's so mercurial - it's so ever-changing. You can't get any traction. You can't build on a system. Whereas, somebody who has Asperger's, which is certainly a much more forgiving expression of autism, can create models for coping and build on them over time.

I don't know any celebrated people that register in a big way who aren't unique.

I'm so impressed by Jennifer Lawrence and Carey Mulligan. They have this exquisite taste. They are very gifted in their ability to make great choices.

I'm just always learning lines. I've learned to flag the really crucial scenes, and I start figuring them out and committing them to memory as soon as I get them.

I particularly love Israel. I've had fantastic experiences there.

If you do something that you're not genuinely passionate about, it is a little soul-crushing. Just not worth it.

I have a huge, active imagination, and I think I'm really scared of being alone; because if I'm left to my own devices, I'll just turn into a madwoman.

Yeah, there was the Flora Plum thing, where I trained for about a month and I had taken a semester off for that, and two weeks prior to filming, the financing collapsed.

I'm exceptionally open with my own parents, and they're exceptionally open with me.

Tel Aviv is the most party time place in the world.

I really have never been concerned about being beautiful on-screen. That's just not my jam.

I got an agent when I was 12, and I started working in more amateur productions well before that. But even as a kid, I never felt like a kid actor, you know? I always took myself kind of absurdly seriously.

I was a very confident child. I knew I wanted to be an actress from the age of 5.

People with bipolar disorder have difficulty with boundaries.

My skin is a bit sensitive, so Cetaphil is my standby. I also use toner and a light layer of moisturizer - I use a lot of Kiehl's and other natural brands.

You don't realize how useful a therapist is until you see yourself on e and discover you have more problems than you ever dreamed of.

What I needed was a connection to life that was real and lasting.

I took three years off. I differentiated myself from the industry. Found my identity - sort of ... I haven't graduated yet. I'm not legitimately educated yet, but maybe one day.

My husband and I have watched a lot of Hitchcock movies in bulk, and there's a lot to be gained from that, from focusing strictly on an artists canon.

I'm only realizing now that I was a child actress because I always took myself so seriously.

When I was 18 I went to college for two years and didn't work for a year which was essential for me, because my identity had been so influenced by my being an actor and I think I just needed to discover what it was to be myself, divorced from all that responsibility.

I've never dated (casually). Ever. It's kind of weird. I did have a boyfriend in junior high who was a kleptomaniac. We'd leave stores and he'd come out with something for me.

I should be so lucky to be a misfit. I aspire to be a misfit.

My parents never condescended to me. As a child, I always sat at the head of our dinner table. I was always given a lot of responsibility.

I'm just a big old nerd.

It's very difficult to judge yourself. Extreme self-doubt is only attractive when it's fictionalized. Which is why people love the movies. They are so reassuring.

Voice over can be tricky. It can be dangerous because it's over-used or inappropriately used.

The first time I realised I was patriotic was after September 11th.

However, I'm at a very comfortable place in my career and celebrity, in that I don't have to audition as extensively as I used to for roles but yet I'm not immediately recognizable.

Relationships are a constant negotiation and balance.

I would not say that secret-keeping is one of my finer skills, actually.

Maybe philosophy - I love talking about ideas. Or maybe art history. I was thinking about psychology, then I got really afraid because everybody says it's terribly boring.

I guess I stopped acting when I was 18 and didn't pick it up again until I was 21. That wasn't the plan, though. When I first started at Yale, the plan was to do a movie each summer.

I played a girl. There's really nothing controversial about her. She's just fine. She has to be fine in order to make Sarah Jessica's character pop, I say I just play a white girl in that movie.

Narciso Rodriguez was my first fashion big brother. He made my wedding dress, which was wonderful.

I am a feminist. And I'm so glad that Lena Dunham exists, because she is one too, and she's quite vocal about it. Yes, women have more freedom and more influence than ever, but it's hardly equal. It's just not.

If I took my characters home with me, half of my life would be a misery, I think. No, I tend to compartmentalize work from my life. I'm not terribly method.