Claire Danes Quotes

"I live in an adult World, but I`m a kid. I love the work. But I no longer have a group of friends to hang out with regularly."

"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."

"I`ll never wear a thong again. I`m a Speedo gal" - on her shocking swimsuit scene in To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday (1996).

"Usually, my social life and my sanity and my health are the things that are sacrificed" -on her non-stop work schedule.

Filming SHOPGIRL: We shot during business hours. It`s so unfortunate I couldn`t really shop and act--my two favourite things were colliding.

Rachel McAdams is a really amazing actor. Lovely.

Robert DeNiro`s just so charismatic and so formidable as an actor. I mean the dude knows how to fill a scene.

Charlie Cox... I love Charlie," gushes Danes, putting that to rest. "We got to be really good friends, which was merciful because we were attached to each other for many months. He`s such a beautiful actor, he`s incredibly open and truthful and funny and intuitive

On Michelle Pfeiffer: "I`d worked with Michelle when I was a kid (on To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday) so we already kind of had a sense of each other," Danes says. "But she`s obviously alarmingly beautiful. Disarmingly beautiful. And really funny in this. And actually gives a really subversive performance which I don`t know if people will expect. And she`s really very focused - I think maybe a little perfectionistic."

I would like to have a family, but I`m trying not to make any plans, because when I do, everything goes wrong

"I was a very confident child. I knew I wanted to be an actress from the age of 5. Madonna was my original muse -- around 5, I saw her perform on TV, and I realized that performing could be one`s vocation. Then, at 7 or 8, I realized that most actors don`t make a lot of money, and I amended my plan. But at 9, I seized my destiny. I made a formal announcement to my parents that I had to be true to my art. Money or no money, acting is my calling."

on Stage Beauty: "I was intimidated. There was the accent, the period of the film, and I had to act badly. I kept laughing during those scenes because I was god-awful. I`ve worked so hard to be good, and now I had to work even harder to be bad."

on Arnold Schwarzenegger: "My line about Arnold is that he doesn`t get in his own way. He is not apologetic about achieving his goals. And when you have that attitude, it`s amazing what one can accomplish. He wanted to give me relationship advice. I was having trouble with a female friend, and he said, be really forthright and do not accommodate her needs excessively. I took his advice and we`re not friends anymore. So there you go."

"I was told that my going to college wouldn`t be good for my career. I think that`s nonsense. It`s good to empower yourself by cutting yourself off from this business every once in a while."

"It`s unbelievable how much money you can make in this business. It`s scary!"

"I used to be obsessed with Footloose, I watched it more than 20 times. I still copy Chris Penn`s style of dancing."

"Physical appearance is a huge part of our existance, but people go crazy. You can`t totally deny or ignore it, but you can`t turn it into a measure of your self-worth."

"I want to do everything I`m doing - that`s my problem. I`m convinced I can do it all. And I sort of am, but by the skin of my teeth. Not much is premeditated, let me tell you."

on Terminator 3: "I screamed excessively in this movie. I have a great scream now as a result. I really honed it."

on Meryl Streep: "My hero. I got sick halfway through shooting The Hours. I was having to ignore my fever in order to focus. But I was already delirious being in her company."

on Halloween: "I like looking just insane on Halloween, unlike most girls who take it as an occasion to look like slutty versions of something."

on Julia Stiles: "I`ve known Julia for many years. We went to the same elementary school, the same dance class, the same gymnastics class. She`s a downtown New York kid like me. I like her a lot."

on PR: "I`ve learned to say no by now."

on doing SNL in 1997: "I had a blast that whole week. I had no idea what was going on half of the time. I was not braced for the mania that I entered into. It was the first time I ever had to be funny, and I relished it."

on fashion: "Miu Miu gave me a lot of free clothes because I had worn them while promoting Romeo + Juliet."

"Oh, my God! Baby Claire! The first thing I did was cry because I forgot to thank my parents. I was never that unattractive. Really."

on Romeo + Juliet: "Hmmm... seems like another lifetime now."

on doing the catwalk in 1995: "I was 15 and had never been to a fashion show. The first thing I did was smile and wave at the other model. I learned very quickly when I got backstage that that was not expected of me. So the next time I went out I looked introspective and bored and angry - just the way models are supposed to look."

on Little Women: "This was a special experience. I was having trouble with a scene when my character sees the piano that the family has bought for her. I was in our hotel room, preparing to shoot the scene. I turned to my dad and said, `Why is she so affected by this moment?` He said very simply to me, `She recognizes that she is loved.`"

on Jared Leto: "I`ll always have real affections for him. He was quite fraternal with me. I don`t think he is with most young girls he works with, but he was with me."

"Graduation day was one of the few days I actually showed up at school."

"I feel a little ridiculous. I mean, why am I getting so much attention? What do I do that`s so special? Yeah, I act, but so what?"

on her favourite role: "I always wanted to play Joan of Arc, but I guess I`m too old now."

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

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

Fame doesn`t end loneliness.

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

I never thought of myself as a child actor. I knew I was a kid, but they weren`t related. There was nothing I could do about being a kid, and meanwhile I was an actress, and I had something to say in my acting.

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.

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.

I really liked Yale, although it was extremely intimidating. When I visited the campus, I was hiding behind trees, I felt so unworthy.

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.

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 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 think that everybody wants to create, to do something that feels genuine and kinetic and spontaneous. I think actors want to surprise themselves. When it`s really good, you kind of transcend yourself, and that happens infrequently. Very, very rarely. You might get one or two of those moments on a film, say, and sometimes they don`t even use the takes where that happens. And I`m not really that moralistic about how you get there.

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 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.

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

I had an unwavering focus. 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. It was all rather amazing when I think about it now.

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

I know, it`s true. I`ve played these tortured teenagers. I can`t wait to shed that image.

I was intimidated. There was the accent, the period of the film, and I had to act badly. I kept laughing during those scenes because I was god-awful. I`ve worked so hard to be good, and now I had to work even harder to be bad (On Stage Beauty (2004)).

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.

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.

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 would like to have a family, but I`m trying not to make any plans, because when I do, everything goes wrong. (On having children, December 21, 2005)

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 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.

I think 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.

The point of acting is to share, to connect. That`s why I act. Acting is the greatest answer to my loneliness that I have found.

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.

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.

(On co-star Kate Beckinsale on hoping to become friends) "That was wrong. We didn`t. She`s complicated. She`s prickly".

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 think anybody who knows how to make a good movie knows that it`s a collaborative undertaking. To deny that is really dangerous.

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.

My line about Arnold is that he doesn`t get in his own way. He is not apologetic about achieving his goals. And when you have that attitude, it`s amazing what one can accomplish. He wanted to give me relationship advice. I was having trouble with a female friend, and he said, be really forthright and do not accommodate her needs excessively. I took his advice and we`re not friends anymore. So there you go.

(on education vs. career) "I was told that my going to college wouldn`t be good for my career. I think that`s nonsense. It`s good to empower yourself by cutting yourself off from this business every once in a while."

I feel like I`m turning into more of a woman - I`m getting ready to leave home, go to college, be independent. It`s an exhilarating time.

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.

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