Top 100 Claire Danes Quotes
#1. At every stage in life you think about death. But teenagers especially are sort of invincible. They're not supposed to be thinking about dying yet, or else they'd be too afraid to live.
Claire Danes
#2. 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
#3. I'm only realizing now that I was a child actress because I always took myself so seriously.
Claire Danes
#4. Narciso Rodriguez was my first fashion big brother. He made my wedding dress, which was wonderful.
Claire Danes
#5. 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
#7. Steve Martin is one of my favorite performers, writers, artists of all time.
Claire Danes
#8. 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.
Claire Danes
#9. 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.
Claire Danes
#10. I would rather not work than be a neurotic mess.
Claire Danes
#11. 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.
Claire Danes
#12. Relationships are a constant negotiation and balance.
Claire Danes
#13. I like marriage. I feel very secure. It helps when you are in love with the person you are married to.
Claire Danes
#14. 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
#15. I should be so lucky to be a misfit. I aspire to be a misfit.
Claire Danes
#16. 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
#17. College was just so essential for my sense of self and my development.
Claire Danes
#18. So much of my job is about finding another job, and that's really boring.
Claire Danes
#19. 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
#20. 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.
Claire Danes
#21. I discovered Christopher Isherwood in college. His writing style is so direct, warm, and inclusive.
Claire Danes
#22. In New York City, everybody goes into therapy.
Claire Danes
#23. 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
#24. I've always very earnestly tried to do my best, so I just have to trust that and forgive myself for being fallible.
Claire Danes
#25. 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.
Claire Danes
#26. Anybody who knows how to make a good movie, knows that it's a collaborative undertaking. To deny that its really dangerous.
Claire Danes
#27. It's my job to find the cornel of truth and then exaggerate, exaggerate, exaggerate until it's of an appropriate scale.
Claire Danes
#28. 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
#29. 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
#30. If you do something that you're not genuinely passionate about, it is a little soul-crushing. Just not worth it.
Claire Danes
#31. 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
#32. 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.
Claire Danes
#33. 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.
Claire Danes
#34. 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
#36. Find as many opportunities as you can and clock as many hours as you can.
Claire Danes
#37. You know, let a few years go by until I hit my midlife crisis. Then that can be documented on film.
Claire Danes
#38. Acting is the greatest answer to my loneliness that I have found.
Claire Danes
#39. 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
#40. 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.
Claire Danes
#41. 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.
Claire Danes
#42. 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
#43. I could truly have gone through life thinking that women were these venomous creatures. Turns out, they're not.
Claire Danes
#44. 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.
Claire Danes
#45. I was a very confident child. I knew I wanted to be an actress from the age of 5.
Claire Danes
#46. 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
#47. 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.
Claire Danes
#48. 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.
Claire Danes
#49. I'm exceptionally open with my own parents, and they're exceptionally open with me.
Claire Danes
#50. Once you get over that peak of puberty, you hit a nice stride.
Claire Danes
#51. I'm human. I think people see me as sweeter and softer than I do.
Claire Danes
#52. 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
#53. 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.
Claire Danes
#55. Growing up, I wanted desperately to please, to be a good girl.
Claire Danes
#56. 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?
Claire Danes
#57. 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
#59. 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.
Claire Danes
#60. 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
#61. 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
#62. You have to stay hydrated when you have crying scenes.
Claire Danes
#63. I was very driven to act from a very young age, and my parents were not only tolerant of that drive but also encouraging.
Claire Danes
#64. I particularly love Israel. I've had fantastic experiences there.
Claire Danes
#65. 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.
Claire Danes
#66. Television lets audiences deeply connect with characters.
Claire Danes
#67. 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.
Claire Danes
#68. 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.
Claire Danes
#69. 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
#70. 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.
Claire Danes
#71. 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
#72. I think the voice over actually enhances the various moments instead of compensating for something that's lacking. Voice over can be tricky. It can be dangerous because its over used or inappropriately used. I think in this case it informs the story.
Claire Danes
#73. Most people assume that autistic people are not capable of empathy.
Claire Danes
#74. Oliver Stone's strategy is to unnerve the actors so as to make them alert and alive.
Claire Danes
#75. 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
#76. 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
#77. 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
#78. What I needed was a connection to life that was real and lasting.
Claire Danes
#79. I really have never been concerned about being beautiful on-screen. That's just not my jam.
Claire Danes
#80. Any story is better with a little love in it, right?
Claire Danes
#81. I would not say that secret-keeping is one of my finer skills, actually.
Claire Danes
#82. 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.
Claire Danes
#83. 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
#84. Voice over can be tricky. It can be dangerous because it's over-used or inappropriately used.
Claire Danes
#85. I actually haven't been approached a whole lot for television, believe it or not.
Claire Danes
#86. I love love and falling in love, but it can get pretty flat real fast.
Claire Danes
#87. I can get a dance party started pretty much anywhere and anytime.
Claire Danes
#88. 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
#89. Counterterrorism isn't really about the nunchakus, the guns and gadgets. It's about psychology.
Claire Danes
#90. I was a serious kid to an absurd degree. I was overwhelmed with responsibility. You know, trying to play grown up. I overdid it.
Claire Danes
#91. I think I would make a lousy stay-at-home mom. It just wouldn't suit me.
Claire Danes
#93. 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.
Claire Danes
#94. 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
#95. When somebody's ego is in service of really brilliant, innovative work, it's hard to, cause I'm such an asshole, it's hard to criticize their failures as a human sometimes.
Claire Danes
#96. I do know how to fire a machine gun, so be warned! I'm trained!
Claire Danes
#97. Hatred can become like food, it gives you this energy that you can, like, live off ...
Claire Danes
#98. 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
#99. I think it's important to never play 'crazy' - you have to know what kind of crazy you're playing.
Claire Danes
#100. I know, it's true. I've played these tortured teenagers. I can't wait to shed that image.
Claire Danes
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