Acting is the greatest answer to my loneliness that I have found.
Claire Danes
Some of my happiest moments have been dancing.
Claire Danes
Growing up, I wanted desperately to please, to be a good girl.
Claire Danes
Once you get over that peak of puberty, you hit a nice stride.
Claire Danes
I’m happier in my thirties. I feel clearer about who I am and less apologetic about it, and more accepting of my limitations and also more aware of the ways in which I’m capable.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
I really have never been concerned about being beautiful on-screen. That’s just not my jam.
Claire Danes
My goal is always to do something that feels just beyond my reach, and ‘Homeland’ continues to do that. Every season, they find new ways to scare me. The show is like a diamond that fell from the sky. I’ll always feel slightly bludgeoned by it, but in the best way possible.
Claire Danes
Most people assume that autistic people are not capable of empathy.
Claire Danes
Relationships are a constant negotiation and balance.
Claire Danes
Relationships are a constant negotiation and balance.
Claire Danes
If you do something that you’re not genuinely passionate about, it is a little soul-crushing. Just not worth it.
Claire Danes
Fame doesn’t end loneliness.
Claire Danes
I do know how to fire a machine gun, so be warned! I’m trained!
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
People confuse fame with validation or love. But fame is not the reward. The reward is getting fulfillment out of doing the thing you love.
Claire Danes
Oh, I’m full of fear. I care about things; therefore, I have fears. I like to think that I’m brave, which is different. Brave means you’re able to admit that you care. If you care, you are vulnerable.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
The first time I realised I was patriotic was after September 11th.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
You have to stay hydrated when you have crying scenes.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
I’ve always had a really active imagination. Lots of kids have imaginary friends. Mine just took on a rather demonic form.
Claire Danes
Growing up in New York City, I was always encouraged to question authority, and I think I confused patriotism with jingoism.
Claire Danes
My first offer was when I was 12, and it was for a soap opera. And I turned it down because I knew that I was an unformed actor, and I didn’t want to develop bad habits.
Claire Danes
People talk about ‘date night,’ and it is true: Sometimes you have to apply yourself, or at least apply lipstick to yourself. You kind of have to dress up, just because. You know, wear heels to your own dinner table.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
I have plenty of vanity in my life. I want to look pretty in the world. But it can be this bottomless pit.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
I really liked Yale, although it was extremely intimidating. When I visited the campus, I was hiding behind trees, I felt so unworthy.
Claire Danes
Counterterrorism isn’t really about the nunchakus, the guns and gadgets. It’s about psychology.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
I like marriage. I feel very secure. It helps when you are in love with the person you are married to.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
I was a pretty nerdy kid. I was pretty nerdy. I’m still kind of nerdy. I have all of the worst qualities of being a nerd – all of the affect and none of the smarts. I’m a useless nerd! That’s pretty bad.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
You know, let a few years go by until I hit my midlife crisis. Then that can be documented on film.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
What I needed was a connection to life that was real and lasting.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
My character was kidnapped by the Terminator and I was kidnapped by the Terminator production.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
I’m only realizing now that I was a child actress because I always took myself so seriously.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
I know, it’s true. I’ve played these tortured teenagers. I can’t wait to shed that image.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
I think it’s important to never play ‘crazy’ – you have to know what kind of crazy you’re playing.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
Steve Martin is one of my favorite performers, writers, artists of all time.
Claire Danes
I like reading novels because it provides insight into human behavior.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
Any story is better with a little love in it, right?
Claire Danes
I think ‘Breaking Bad’ is incredible.
Claire Danes
Voice over can be tricky. It can be dangerous because it’s over-used or inappropriately used.
Claire Danes
I should be so lucky to be a misfit. I aspire to be a misfit.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
I can get a dance party started pretty much anywhere and anytime.
Claire Danes
You have to pick your battles on set.
Claire Danes
I think I would make a lousy stay-at-home mom. It just wouldn’t suit me.
Claire Danes
I am not a genius. But I am nerdy.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes
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.
Claire Danes