Claire Danes's Quotes

People confuse fame with validation or love. But fame is not the reward. The reward is getting fulfilment out of doing the thing you love.

People with bipolar disorder have difficulty with boundaries.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

You have to pick your battles on set.

You have to stay hydrated when you have crying scenes.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 have this home in New York, I have a long-term relationship with my boyfriend, who's from Australia, and I had this business that I had maintain. Even though I wasn't actively shooting, there's a lot of peripheral work.

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 think because I am as earnest as I am, people were accepting of my evolving into a certified, legitimate, and grown up and I did take three years off.

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.

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.

I used to have nightmares when I was a little kid that I woke up prematurely and opened all the Christmas presents. And then I would be so relieved when I woke up and I realized that I hadn't done it.

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'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.

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.

It just seems like the most successful, iconic love stories are not so easy or escapist. I think the ones that stay with us and resonate are full of conflict, discord and misunderstandings 'cause that's what makes drama happen or tension even if it's a comedy.

It's funny with jeans now, because if they don't feel like a pair of sweatpants, I don't have patience for them anymore! I think I'm becoming increasingly lazy.

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.

My go-to gifts are scarves from my friend Matin Maulawizada's nonprofit organization, Afghan Hands, which supports disenfranchised women in Afghanistan. In exchange for their beautiful embroidery, the women are given financial aid and classes in math and literacy. The scarves are all stunning and one of a kind.

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.

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.

The big question is always, 'Eyes or lips?' I tend to go with the eyes because I've got a lot more material to work with now - and it saves me from reapplying lipstick! I'm a pretty low-maintenance person and it's too excessive to exaggerate both the eyes and lips.

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.

There's certainly something very uncomfortable about the voyeurism involved in being in the press, being an actor, where people have a seemingly insatiable curiosity about, you.

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.

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.

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.

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

I get a little jealous of these actor boys. They walk into a club, and in two seconds flat there are swarms of girls who are wanting so badly to touch them or just say hello. That's not the case with me, or any other girl I know.

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.

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.

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

Fame doesn't end loneliness.

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.

Acting is a humiliating job, from start to finish.

Actors want to surprise themselves. When it's really good, you kind of transcend yourself, and that happens infrequently. Very, very rarely.

Any story is better with a little love in it, right?

Autism does exist on a spectrum, and there are so many manifestations of it, so many kinds of expressions of it. And every case is particular.

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

Counterterrorism isn't really about the nunchakus, the guns and gadgets. It's about psychology.

Every three seconds in the developing world, a child dies needlessly due to lack of basic health care and other things we all take for granted.

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 actually haven't been approached a whole lot for television, believe it or not.

I am not a genius. But I am nerdy.

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

I could truly have gone through life thinking that women were these venomous creatures. Turns out, they're not.

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

I do know how to fire a machine gun, so be warned! I'm trained!

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

I hadn't been free from adult responsibilities since I was 12, and I needed to experience that. I really needed to just be a kid again.

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 know, it's true. I've played these tortured teenagers. I can't wait to shed that image.