I`m only realizing now that I was a child actress because I always took myself so seriously.

I became very successful at a young age... I had lots of opportunities and lots of power and had no idea how to focus it.

I feel like I`m turning into more of a woman - I`m getting ready to leave home, go to college, be independent. It`s an exhilarating time.

(on education vs. career) "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."

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.

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.

I think anybody who knows how to make a good movie knows that it`s a collaborative undertaking. To deny that is really dangerous.

I get a little jealous of these actor boys. They walk into a club, and in two seconds flat there are swarms of girls who are wanting so badly to touch them or just say hello. That`s not the case with me, or any other girl I know.

(On co-star Kate Beckinsale on hoping to become friends) "That was wrong. We didn`t. She`s complicated. She`s prickly".

There`s certainly something very uncomfortable about the voyeurism involved in being in the press, being an actor, where people have a seemingly insatiable curiosity about, you.

I finally realized that yeah I did want to be an actor and it wasn`t out of habit, but I needed to grow up for myself and then kind of re-enter the industry with a sound understanding of what my sensibilities and my values are as a relatively formed human being.

The point of acting is to share, to connect. That`s why I act. Acting is the greatest answer to my loneliness that I have found.

I think people confuse fame with validation or love. But fame is not the reward. The reward is getting fulfilment out of doing the thing you love.

I have a huge, active imagination, and I think I`m really scared of being alone; because if I`m left to my own devices, I`ll just turn into a madwoman.

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 would like to have a family, but I`m trying not to make any plans, because when I do, everything goes wrong. [On having children, December 21, 2005]

Yeah, there was the Flora Plum thing, where I trained for about a month and I had taken a semester off for that, and two weeks prior to filming, the financing collapsed.

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.

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 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 Stage Beauty (2004)].

I know, it`s true. I`ve played these tortured teenagers. I can`t wait to shed that image.

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

I had an unwavering focus. My parents never condescended to me. As a child, I always sat at the head of our dinner table. I was always given a lot of responsibility. It was all rather amazing when I think about it now.

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

I think because I am as earnest as I am, people were accepting of my evolving into a certified, legitimate, and grown up and I did take three years off.

However, I`m at a very comfortable place in my career and celebrity, in that I don`t have to audition as extensively as I used to for roles but yet I`m not immediately recognizable.

I think that everybody wants to create, to do something that feels genuine and kinetic and spontaneous. I think actors want to surprise themselves. When it`s really good, you kind of transcend yourself, and that happens infrequently. Very, very rarely. You might get one or two of those moments on a film, say, and sometimes they don`t even use the takes where that happens. And I`m not really that moralistic about how you get there.

I have this home in New York, I have a long-term relationship with my boyfriend, who`s from Australia, and I had this business that I had maintain. Even though I wasn`t actively shooting, there`s a lot of peripheral work.

Maybe philosophy - I love talking about ideas. Or maybe art history. I was thinking about psychology, then I got really afraid because everybody says it`s terribly boring.

You don`t realize how useful a therapist is until you see yourself on e and discover you have more problems than you ever dreamed of.

I really liked Yale, although it was extremely intimidating. When I visited the campus, I was hiding behind trees, I felt so unworthy.

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 took three years off. I differentiated myself from the industry. Found my identity - sort of... I haven`t graduated yet. I`m not legitimately educated yet, but maybe one day.

I never thought of myself as a child actor. I knew I was a kid, but they weren`t related. There was nothing I could do about being a kid, and meanwhile I was an actress, and I had something to say in my acting.

Growing up, I wanted desperately to please, to be a good girl.

Fame doesn`t end loneliness.

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

My character was kidnapped by the Terminator and I was kidnapped by the Terminator production.

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

"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?"

"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 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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"I used to be obsessed with Footloose, I watched it more than 20 times. I still copy Chris Penn`s style of dancing."

"It`s unbelievable how much money you can make in this business. It`s scary!"

"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."

"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."

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."

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

Robert DeNiro`s just so charismatic and so formidable as an actor. I mean the dude knows how to fill a scene.

Rachel McAdams is a really amazing actor. Lovely.

Filming SHOPGIRL: We shot during business hours. It`s so unfortunate I couldn`t really shop and act--my two favourite things were colliding.

"Usually, my social life and my sanity and my health are the things that are sacrificed" -on her non-stop work schedule.

"I`ll never wear a thong again. I`m a Speedo gal" - on her shocking swimsuit scene in To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday (1996).

"I have a huge, active imagination, [and] I think I`m really scared of being alone; because if I`m left to my own devices, I`ll just turn into a madwoman."

"I live in an adult World, but I`m a kid. I love the work. But I no longer have a group of friends to hang out with regularly."