Quotes from 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.

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

You have to pick your battles on set.

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.

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.

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.

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

I love Berlin.

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

I think 'Breaking Bad' is incredible.

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

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 just want to be a sane person. I wanna be a person who has a life and who acts.

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

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.

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

I try to eat sensibly. I cheat, but for the most part, I eat in a clean way.

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

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

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

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.

I have plenty of vanity in my life. I want to look pretty in the world. But it can be this bottomless pit.

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