on her favourite role:
"I always wanted to play Joan of Arc, but I guess I'm too old now."

on fame:
"I feel a little ridiculous. I mean, why am I getting so much attention? What do I do that's so special? Yeah, I act, but so what?"

on what to do on a fun evening:
"Pulling your pyjamas on and lying down." (at age 17)

on school:
"Graduation day was one of the few days I actually showed up at school."

on Jared Leto:
"I'll always have real affections for him. He was quite fraternal with me. I don't think he is with most young girls he works with, but he was with me."

on Little Women:
"This was a special experience. I was having trouble with a scene when my character sees the piano that the family has bought for her. I was in our hotel room, preparing to shoot the scene. I turned to my dad and said, 'Why is she so affected by this moment?' He said very simply to me, 'She recognizes that she is loved.'"

on Kirsten Dunst:
"Kirsten was selling lemonade on the studio lot with Eva, who is Susan's daughter. It's odd to think of Kirsten now as this mature bombshell."

on doing the catwalk in 1995:
"I was 15 and had never been to a fashion show. The first thing I did was smile and wave at the other model. I learned very quickly when I got backstage that that was not expected of me. So the next time I went out I looked introspective and bored and angry - just the way models are supposed to look."

on Romeo + Juliet:
"Hmmm... seems like another lifetime now."

on winning the Golden Globe in 1995:
"Oh, my God! Baby Claire! The first thing I did was cry because I forgot to thank my parents. I was never that unattractive. Really."

on fashion:
"Miu Miu gave me a lot of free clothes because I had worn them while promoting Romeo + Juliet."

on doing SNL in 1997:
"I had a blast that whole week. I had no idea what was going on half of the time. I was not braced for the mania that I entered into. It was the first time I ever had to be funny, and I relished it."

on PR:
"I've learned to say no by now."

on Julia Stiles:
"I've known Julia for many years. We went to the same elementary school, the same dance class, the same gymnastics class. She's a downtown New York kid like me. I like her a lot."

on Halloween:
"I like looking just insane on Halloween, unlike most girls who take it as an occasion to look like slutty versions of something."

on Meryl Streep:
"My hero. I got sick halfway through shooting The Hours. I was having to ignore my fever in order to focus. But I was already delirious being in her company."

on Terminator 3:
"I screamed excessively in this movie. I have a great scream now as a result. I really honed it."

on her determination:
"I want to do everything I'm doing - that's my problem. I'm convinced I can do it all. And I sort of am, but by the skin of my teeth. Not much is premeditated, let me tell you."

on looks:
"Physical appearance is a huge part of our existance, but people go crazy. You can't totally deny or ignore it, but you can't turn it into a measure of your self-worth."

on her favourite movie:
"I used to be obsessed with Footloose, I watched it more than 20 times. I still copy Chris Penn's style of dancing."

on the showbusiness:
"It's unbelievable how much money you can make in this business. It's scary!"

on hoping to become friends with Kate Beckinsale:
"That was wrong. We didn't. She's complicated. She's prickly."

on college:
"I was told that my going to college wouldn't be good for my career. I think that's nonsense. It's good to empower yourself by cutting yourself off from this business every once in a while."

on Arnold Schwarzenegger:
"My line about Arnold is that he doesn't get in his own way. He is not apologetic about achieving his goals. And when you have that attitude, it's amazing what one can accomplish. He wanted to give me relationship advice. I was having trouble with a female friend, and he said, be really forthright and do not accommodate her needs excessively. I took his advice and we're not friends anymore. So there you go."

on Stage Beauty:
"I was intimidated. There was the accent, the period of the film, and I had to act badly. I kept laughing during those scenes because I was god-awful. I've worked so hard to be good, and now I had to work even harder to be bad."

on acting as her calling:
"I was a very confident child. I knew I wanted to be an actress from the age of 5. Madonna was my original muse -- around 5, I saw her perform on TV, and I realized that performing could be one's vocation. Then, at 7 or 8, I realized that most actors don't make a lot of money, and I amended my plan. But at 9, I seized my destiny. I made a formal announcement to my parents that I had to be true to my art. Money or no money, acting is my calling."

on wanting to have children:
"I would like to have a family, but I'm trying not to make any plans, because when I do, everything goes wrong."

on Michelle Pfeiffer:
"I'd worked with Michelle when I was a kid [on To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday] so we already kind of had a sense of each other," Danes says. "But she's obviously alarmingly beautiful. Disarmingly beautiful. And really funny in this. And actually gives a really subversive performance which I don't know if people will expect. And she's really very focused - I think maybe a little perfectionistic."
on Charlie Cox:
"I love Charlie," gushes Danes, putting that to rest. "We got to be really good friends, which was merciful because we were attached to each other for many months. He's such a beautiful actor, he's incredibly open and truthful and funny and intuitive."
on Robert DeNiro:
"He's just so charismatic and so formidable as an actor. I mean the dude knows how to fill a scene."

on Rachel McAdams:
"A really amazing actor. Lovely."

on filming Shopgirl:
"We shot during business hours. It's so unfortunate I couldn't really shop and act--my two favourite things were colliding!"