Quotes from Claire Danes

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Germany's fascinating. It's a really rich landscape to film and dramatise.

I don't want to be an actress. I want to be doing good work that is well written and has good people in it.

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.

In New York City, everybody goes into therapy.

I would be a terrible CIA officer in real life.

Working gives you this new perspective. You don't take everything too seriously, and you realise that if you don't do too well on a history test, it's not the end of the world.

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.

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.

It's OK to want to look and feel your best. It's OK to work at being attractive, whatever that means to you. And it's also OK to not expect to be defined by that. It's OK to be powerful in every way: to be big, to take up space. To breathe and thrive.

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

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.

Some of my happiest moments have been dancing.

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.

When somebody asks me who I'm wearing, I always see myself with a BabyBjoern, carrying a little tiny Karl Lagerfeld, like, 'I'm wearing Chanel.'

Tel Aviv is the most party time place in the world.

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.