Quotes from Claire Danes

Steve Martin is one of my favorite performers, writers, artists of all time.

The first time I realised I was patriotic was after September 11th.

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.

Relationships are a constant negotiation and balance.

I exercise more for mental relaxation than anything else.

Acting is a humiliating job, from start to finish.

I'm very vain about my performance. I want to give as honest a performance as I can. But I'm not so worried about being regarded as beautiful when I'm playing a character.

If you do something that you're not genuinely passionate about, it is a little soul-crushing. Just not worth it.

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

I've always had a really active imagination. Lots of kids have imaginary friends. Mine just took on a rather demonic form.

I discovered Orson Welles in college; my freshman English professor screened 'Citizen Kane' for us, and I wound up writing a 20-page term paper on it.

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.

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.

I discovered Christopher Isherwood in college. His writing style is so direct, warm, and inclusive.

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

I guess I stopped acting when I was 18 and didn't pick it up again until I was 21. That wasn't the plan, though. When I first started at Yale, the plan was to do a movie each summer.

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 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.

I would not say that secret-keeping is one of my finer skills, actually.

I like marriage. I feel very secure. It helps when you are in love with the person you are married to.

I love love and falling in love, but it can get pretty flat real fast.

I particularly love Israel. I've had fantastic experiences there.

It's a very young mistake to assume that life is very serious. I get the joke now.

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.