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.
Most people assume that autistic people are not capable of empathy.
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.
I can get a dance party started pretty much anywhere and anytime.
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.
You have to pick your battles on set.
You have to stay hydrated when you have crying scenes.
I think I would make a lousy stay-at-home mom. It just wouldn't suit me.
I do know how to fire a machine gun, so be warned! I'm trained!
I am not a genius. But I am nerdy.
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.
We just can't shake monogamy. It definitely demands a kind of rigor and discipline and selflessness. But it's also fun.
I actually haven't been approached a whole lot for television, believe it or not.
People with bipolar disorder have difficulty with boundaries.
Counterterrorism isn't really about the nunchakus, the guns and gadgets. It's about psychology.
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.
I got an agent when I was 12, and I started working in more amateur productions well before that. But even as a kid, I never felt like a kid actor, you know? I always took myself kind of absurdly seriously.
I'm exceptionally open with my own parents, and they're exceptionally open with me.
If you do something that you're not genuinely passionate about, it is a little soul-crushing. Just not worth it.
Actors want to surprise themselves. When it's really good, you kind of transcend yourself, and that happens infrequently. Very, very rarely.
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.
I was very driven to act from a very young age, and my parents were not only tolerant of that drive but also encouraging.
In New York City, everybody goes into therapy.
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.
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.
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.
I particularly love Israel. I've had fantastic experiences there.
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.
I would rather not work than be a neurotic mess.
I fantasized about being a psychology major when I first started school, and I took a handful of Psych 101 classes.
College was just so essential for my sense of self and my development.
I have to expose myself and then accept the judgment that audiences and critics will have. And that's okay. I appreciate the elliptical nature of it. Sometimes people are more in the mood to be nice to me than others, and that's great.
Oliver Stone's strategy is to unnerve the actors so as to make them alert and alive.
Acting is a humiliating job, from start to finish.
I discovered Christopher Isherwood in college. His writing style is so direct, warm, and inclusive.
I could truly have gone through life thinking that women were these venomous creatures. Turns out, they're not.
I like marriage. I feel very secure. It helps when you are in love with the person you are married to.
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.
I was a very confident child. I knew I wanted to be an actress from the age of 5.
I'm just always learning lines. I've learned to flag the really crucial scenes, and I start figuring them out and committing them to memory as soon as I get them.
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.
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.
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.
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've always had a really active imagination. Lots of kids have imaginary friends. Mine just took on a rather demonic form.
I don't know any celebrated people that register in a big way who aren't unique.
I was a serious kid to an absurd degree. I was overwhelmed with responsibility. You know, trying to play grown up. I overdid it.
I'm just a big old nerd.
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.