Lena Dunham
I love directing scenes that I'm not in because suddenly I really feel like a filmmaker which is a different thing.
I'd love to write something for a male protagonist. That's sort of the next frontier for me. I think it'd be really amazing to write the kind of parts that I love for women but for a guy.
My mom knows pretty well how I see her.
I'm ridiculous in my oversharing; my mom and sister are very open but a little more judicious than me... and my father is a decidedly private person.
The joke I always make about myself is that I'm self-involved, but I'm not vain.
I'm always having to be told to brush my hair.
I am not a particularly political person, but, as a Tribeca resident, the commodification of September 11th is offensive to me.
Let's call a spade a spade - a lot of times when you are a vegetarian it is a just not very effective eating disorder.
There's always an article coming out, saying, 'The new thing is funny women!'
There is something vulnerable about showing your tattoos to people, even while it gives you a feeling that you are wearing a sleeve when you are naked.
I can play very annoying girl, very lost girl and then all the things in the spectrum between.
I just hope that I continue to keep a line between my private life and who I play, even if they are closely intertwined, and so I'm careful. I don't even know where my line is, but I know I have a line.
My uncle's a lawyer and I remember going to see him in court and thinking, 'That's cool, too bad I could never be a lawyer.'
I thought I wanted to be a journalist or a novelist.
You're raised to think being a mother is an inevitable step in your development but you start to ask yourself questions, because not every woman does want to have children.
There are so many reactions to art that make sense to me - but 'ick' means something.
I refresh Twitter as thoughtlessly as some twirl their hair.
I went to an amazing school in Brooklyn called St. Anne's that's a really kind of creative hot bed.
It's very easy for me to say what success is. I think success is connecting with an audience who understands you and having a dialogue with them. I think success is continuing to push yourself forward creatively and not sort of becoming a caricature of yourself.
I'm glad if my work can make a difference.
I kind of look like every other girl, walking around.
It's funny, I never considered that people are going to see me on the show and maybe stop me on the subway.
I think if you feel like you were born to write, then you probably were.
If you're writing, you're starting in private. It can really be this amazing, private, freeing experience. Forget that it's for other people - that comes in later.
I find it really awkward to do a scene where I'm supposed to seem like I'm in love.
I spent all my time on my movies worried that people were eating and that the schedule was being kept, so to have experts in those areas giving me the brain space as a writer and director is huge.
I never sort of thought of myself as a comedy writer, by nature.
I never thought of myself as like, a funny person.
I was raised on the Internet.
I don't really read reviews... That's not where my attention goes.
I felt highly anxious in a way that I didn't think other children were.
I've had moments of deep self-involvement that didn't come from a place of loving myself but quite the opposite.
When I write I'm never really thinking about themes or the universal.
I learned that people are much more game to mock their own personas than you would think.
When it's low-budget, and you have one other person on the set, you have to make rules.
I have an agent now.
I felt like my parents were always involved with abstraction, and I wanted to do something very specific.
Girls are trained to say, ‘I wrote this, but it’s probably really stupid.’ Well, no, you wouldn’t write a novel if you thought it was really stupid. Men are much more comfortable going, ‘I wrote this book because I have a unique perspective that the world needs to hear.’ Girls are taught from the age of seven that if you get a compliment, you don’t go, ‘Thank you’, you go, ‘No, you’re insane.Collection: Girl
Part of being a feminist is giving other women the freedom to make choices you might not necessarily make yourself.Collection: Giving
Don't wait around for someone else to tell your story. Do it yourself by whatever means necessary.Collection: Mean
You can't force other people to like you and you just kind of have to ride the wave. I think I could have saved myself a lot of sleepless nights with that advice.Collection: Night
I can never be who I was. I can simply watch her with sympathy, understanding, and some measure of awe. There she goes, backpack on, headed for the subway or the airport. She did her best with her eyeliner. She learned a new word she wants to try out on you. She is ambling along. She is looking for it.Collection: Airports
Women saying "I'm not a feminist" is my greatest pet peeve. Do you believe that women should be paid the same for doing the same jobs? Do you believe that women should be allowed to leave the house? Do you think that women and men both deserve equal rights? Great, then you're a feminist.Collection: Jobs
Enjoy going through life as yourself.Collection: Enjoy
Now if you went to someone's house to look for them, you would be a psychopath.Collection: House
I consider being female such a unique gift, such a sacred joy, in ways that run so deep I can't articulate them. It's a special kind of privilege to be born into the body you wanted, to embrace the essence of your gender even as you recognize what you are up against. Even as you seek to redefine it.Collection: Running
But ambition is a funny thing: it creeps in when you least expect it and keeps you moving, even when you think you want to stay put.Collection: Moving
Let's be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week that is devoted exclusively to reading.Collection: Reading
Artists themselves are neurotic and fearful people, and you can look at their work and figure out what they're scared of.Collection: Artist