Claire Danes Quotes

I was an assistant director for a year, and I realized, 'God, this is a lot of hard work. This is going to take time. So what's the shortcut? What's the better option?' Then thankfully, someone said, 'Why don't you become an actor?'

When I left Oxford, I knew I wanted to act, but I was unsure how to go about it.

I would advise anyone seriously interested in acting to study, train, and work as much as possible... You will know soon enough if it's the right avenue for you.

I hadn't really thought about doing any acting at all post-'Center Stage.'

I started acting, when I was 15, in commercials and guest roles. I was definitely a working actor, so I was thankful for that. But I never had to work at a store, although I would have liked to.

I took acting classes in college, and once I graduated, I decided to give acting a shot when I couldn't really think of anything else to do. It took me a couple of years to get an agent, and my first big break was The Fanelli Boys, which was a sitcom on NBC. Then I did a few television movies.

A lot of people didn't realize that I acted before I did anything else.

I was a kid who went to film school and fell into acting.

I never really considered acting as a career until I moved to New York.

I didn't start out to be a movie star. I started out to be an actor.

I'm from Denver, and there is really nothing acting-wise to do there except for theater. I did everything I could get my hands on until I was able to make it to L.A.

When I got 'Family Ties', I wasn't even thinking about being an actress. I thought I might become a window dresser.

Incidentally, I'm still looking for acting work, my first love.

When I first moved out to Los Angeles I was thinking, you know, I wanted to be an actor but I didn't really know what acting was about. I thought if I could be a model, or even do commercials and stuff like that for the rest of my life, I'd be happy.

Becoming an actress takes a lot longer than being a star. I don't want to be a star. I want to be an actress. I want to build a career.

I was always interested in films and thought that was the path I should go down, but I didn't start pursuing acting until I was 17.

I've always wanted to be an actor, but I didn't know how to become one.

I had no idea how to make it as an actor. But I knew I wanted to.

I came to L.A. to work and become a better actress, not to be a star.

I wanted to be the best actor possible. I worked very hard at the craft of it.

I had my heart set on becoming an English teacher, but stumbled into acting after meeting a theatrical agent in my dad's restaurant in San Diego.

When I started acting, I didn't think of it as a career. I always thought Hollywood was this magical world where a fairy came down and said, 'Come live with the Munchkins; you are now one of us.' I didn't understand the concept of it as a career. I thought I would save up enough money to go to college.

When I was seven, I had been very vocal about wanting to be an actor. And my mom decided that we would try it out for a couple weeks and come to L.A. from Sacramento.

There's this assumption that as an actor, Hollywood is always the end point, but I never thought along those lines.

I used to be a model, but acting was never on my mind.