CLAIRE DANES

Narciso Rodriguez was my first fashion big brother. He made my wedding dress, which was wonderful.

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

Actors want to surprise themselves. When it's really good, you kind of transcend yourself, and that happens infrequently. Very, very rarely.

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

I hadn't been free from adult responsibilities since I was 12, and I needed to experience that. I really needed to just be a kid again.

I am not a genius. But I am nerdy.

I'm just a big old nerd.

You know, let a few years go by until I hit my midlife crisis. Then that can be documented on film.

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.

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.

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

It's funny with jeans now, because if they don't feel like a pair of sweatpants, I don't have patience for them anymore! I think I'm becoming increasingly lazy.

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 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.

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

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.

Growing up in New York City, I was always encouraged to question authority, and I think I confused patriotism with jingoism.

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

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Relationships are a constant negotiation and balance.