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I Wanted To Be A Poet. I Had A Really Romantic Idea About What That Would Mean. My Parents Knew Some Poets, And I Liked How They Dressed And Acted, But I Didn't Really Acknowledge That I Only Liked Reading Some Bits Of Poetry While I Was Peeing Or Something.

-Lena Dunham

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I Wanted To Be

Lena Dunham

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I Wanted To Be A Poet. I Had A Really Romantic Idea About What That Would Mean. My Parents Knew Some Poets, And I Liked How They Dressed And Acted, But I Didn't Really Acknowledge That I Only Liked Reading Some Bits Of Poetry While I Was Peeing Or Something.

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Falling In Love

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I'd Always Loved Movies, But It Wasn't Some Sort Of Desperate Love Of Celluloid. It Was Literally Like, "i Want To Write Things, And I Want People To See Them More."

Artists Themselves Are Neurotic And Fearful People, And You Can Look At Their Work And Figure Out What They're Scared Of.

I'm So In Awe Of What Visual Artists Do And I Do Understand The Differences Of What Visual Artists Do. I Have A Small Art Collection I Hope To Expand.

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I Know That When I Am Dying, Looking Back, It Will Be Women That I Regret Having Argued With, Women I Sought To Impress, To Understand, Was Tortured By. Women I Wish To See Again, To See Them Smile And Laugh And Say, It Was All As It Should Have Been.

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 Do Think Girls In Their Twenties Accept Certain Kinds Of Lesser Treatment Than They Would At Other Times In Their Lives.

Of Course You Don't Want Anybody To Feel Shame For Their Sexuality. But You Also Want To Make It Clear That A Loud, A Loud And Proud Approach To Your Sexuality At A Young Age Isn't Necessary To Be A Fully Integrated Person.

If You Watch My Movie, You Understand I Am Perverse And Weird And Angry And Not Looking To Direct A Film That Ends With A Bunch Of Teenagers Exploding Into Glitter.

I Don't Really Have A Place Where People Can Reach Me Via Email Because It Got A Little Overwhelming. People Tweet Things At Me Like, "oh Dm Me For A Great Story That You'll Definitely Need To Use On The Show," Which I Don't, You Know, Dm Them.

Here's What I Have To Say About Being Married: Someday You Will Look At Him, Hating Him With Every Fibre Of Your Being, Wishing That He Would Die The Most Violent Death Possible. It Will Pass.

I Learned That People Are Much More Game To Mock Their Own Personas Than You Would Think.

I Would Rather Spend My Entire Life Doing Nothing Than Have My Name Attached To Something Mediocre.

Things That Feel Super Personal Actually Feel Really Universal. It's Sort Of The More You Really Identify Something Specific Within Yourself, The More People Connect To It Because Ultimately We Are All Connected In Some Way.

Part Of Being A Feminist Is Giving Other Women The Freedom To Make Choices You Might Not Necessarily Make Yourself.

I Thought About ["summer Sisters" ] So Often As I Was Writing About These Female Characters Who Love Each Other And Hated Each Other And Were Sort Of In Love With Each Other.

But I Also Think When We Embark On Intimate Relationships, We Make A Basic Human Promise To Be Decent, To Hold A Flattering Mirror Up To Each Other, To Be Respectful As We Explore Each Other.

Intimate Relationships

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.

Eating Disorder

The Fact Is That I Write Under Duress, Often In My Bed, Often At The Last Minute. I'm Kind Of A Binge Writer I Would Say, Which I Don't Support. I Was Always Kind Of That Way. Probably The Time I Was The Most Regular As A Writer Was College. It Was Like, What Else Is There To Do When You're Living In The Midwest Studying Creative Writing?

I Think That People In The Phase Between Being Someone's Kid And Being Someone's Parent Have Always Been Uniquely Narcissistic, But That Social Media And Twitter And Livejournal Make It Really Easy To Navel-gaze In A Way That You've Never Been Able To Before.

Basically My New Litmus Test For People Is, Do They Make Me Hear About A Blow Job They Gave In The First Ten Minutes Of Us Talking? And If They Didn't Then I Can Feel Excited.

I Don't Want To Get Married Until All Gay People Can Get Married.

Marriage Equality

I Think What People Really Hate Is To Be Caught By Surprise By Criticism.

The Male Capacity For Turning The Negative Into A Compliment Is Really Alarming.

I Mean, I - It's So Funny, I Am, You Know, I Am, You Know, A Working Woman Out In The World, But I Still Live With My Parents Half The Time. I've Been Sort Of Taking This Very Long, Stuttering Period Of Moving Out.

Calling Someone A Drama Queen Is So Negative. Why Not 'content Creator'?

There Is A Sort Of Backlash Of People Who Feel Like You're Not Representing Them Accurately, And You Want To Say As Elegantly As You Can, "i Wasn't Trying To Represent You I, Was Just Doing What I Could Do To Make Being Alive Easier For Me." And If It Helped Anyone Or Made Them Feel Comforted In The Process Then It's The Greatest Thing You Can Ask For.

When Someone Anonymous Tells Me I'm Fat, That's Not A Person To Me. If They're Not Going To Acknowledge Me As A Person, I'm Certainly Not Going To Acknowledge Them As A Person.

My Shape Reminds Me A Lot Of My Grandmother, Whom I Was Really Close To. She Died When I Was 13, And We Have A Really Similar Body Type, The Squat New England Woman Who Can Roll Out Dough And Bring In Your Lawnmower. That's Kind Of The Vibe Of My Body, And I'm Into It.

The Experience Of Directing Yourself In A Sex Scene Is, In A Way, Great. It's The Fantasy We All Have In Our Lives All The Time.

We're The Last F - Ing People Who Have A F - Ing Opinion On What You Should Do With Your Body. Anything That Makes Your Day Easier, As Long As You're Not Feeding Your Baby Crack In Milk, Is Really Good By Us.

It's A Very Specific Body. Even Great Reviews Will Be Like: Chubby, Portly, Overweight. . . . Sometimes I'm Like, 'ugh, How Did I Make Myself The Guinea Pig For This?' But On The Other Hand, Hating My Body Has Not Been My Cross To Bear In This Life. Which I Feel Very Lucky About.

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I Am Thinking Particularly Of A Shower I Took Where The Lower Half Of My Body Was Under The Running Water And The Upper Half Was Laid Out On The Bath Mat, Eating A Loaf Of Bread.

I Would Go To Work From 9 To 6, Go Home, Nap For Two Hours, Then Write From 8 To 2 A.m.

My Dad Finds Twitter Just Infinitely Unrelatable. He's Like, 'why Would I Want To Tell Anybody What I Had For A Snack, It's Private?!' And I'm Like, 'why Would You Even Have A Snack If You Didn't Tell Anybody? Why Bother Eating?'

It Doesn't Occur To So Many People That If You Don't Have A Clear Heterosexual, Gender Confirming Identity That There Are Parts Of Day-to-day Life - Like Using A Bathroom Or Getting Your Clothes - That Just Aren't Going To Be As Easy.

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.

You Know, When I First Started Making Online Videos, There Were A Lot Of Filmmakers I Befriended Who Were Doing It Too.

It Completely Sickens Me What Our Culture Is Doing To Women. Last Week I Wore A Big Top And Little Shorts And A Bunch Of Stuff Came Out Saying I Was Without Pants. 'the No-pants Look,' It Said. And I Didn't Go Out Without Pants, I Had Shorts On... If Olivia Wilde Had Gone To A Party With A Big Silky Top And Little Shorts She Might Have Been Told Her Outfit Was Cute... What It Was Really: 'why Did You Show Us Your Thighs?'

It'll Be Taught In Homes That It's Not Okay To Make Fun Of A Kid Because He's Gay Or It's Not Okay To Make Fun Of A Girl Cause She's Fat. But That We Have Been Living For So Long In A Culture Where So Many People's Parents Supported Those Beliefs That There Wasn't Any Infrastructure For Children Understanding Right And Wrong In Those Situations, If That Makes Sense.

I Think That As Our Country Becomes More Tolerant As A Whole Of Certain Things, Hopefully Becomes More Tolerant, There's A Way That Certain Kinds Of Bullying Will Be Passe And Unacceptable.

My Mom Knows Pretty Well How I See Her.

Basically, Anything A Sexual Predator Might Do To Woo A Small Suburban Girl, I Was Trying.

The Thing That's So Hard About Being A Kid Is You Don't Have Enough Knowledge To Explain Things Yourself.

I Didn't Drink In The Essence Of The Classroom. I Didn't Take Legible Notes Or Dance All Night. I Thought I Would Marry My Boyfriend And Grow Old And Sick Of Him. I Thought I Would Keep My Friends, And We'd Make Different, New Memories. None Of That Happened. Better Things Happened.

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.

Okay, 'best Party Ever' -- To Me, That's Like Saying 'best Gym Ever' Or 'best Nature Documentary Ever,' Like How Good Can It Really Be?

I Really Loved ["the Love Affairs Of Nathaniel P" By Adelle Waldman]. It's Having A Really Hot Moment. Unlike Many Hot Books, It's Actually Really Wonderful. I Tend To Have That Reaction: I Don't Want To Read It If Everyone Thinks It's Cool. It Was A Really Interesting Insight Into Being Young And Male. Now That Made Me Feel Really Thankful For My Boyfriend And Really Thankful Because He Wasn't Like That Protagonist, But I Know So Many People Who Are Like That Protagonist.

I Think That It's Very Important To Be With Someone Who Makes You Feel Like The Best Version Of Yourself. In Some Sense, Your Partner Is A Mirror, And You Have To Like What They're Reflecting Back At You.

Reflecting Back

You Don't Need To Be Flamboyant In Your Life To Be Flamboyant In Your Work.

You Have To Move So You Don't Die. You Have To Move So Your Brain Doesn't Atrophy. You Have To Move So That You Look A Little Bit Like A Person That You Might Want To Be. There Are A Thousand Reasons Why Exercise Is Important, And I've Had To Find Ways To Make It Sexy For Myself.

My Parents Were Open About Sex. And My Dad Makes Paintings That Have A Sexual Component And It Still Scares Me.

I Wanted To Be A Poet. I Had A Really Romantic Idea About What That Would Mean. My Parents Knew Some Poets, And I Liked How They Dressed And Acted, But I Didn't Really Acknowledge That I Only Liked Reading Some Bits Of Poetry While I Was Peeing Or Something.

I Feel Like So Much More Than My Gender And So Much More Than My Relationship To My Body And My Relationship To Men. And, But Suddenly You're Sort Of Asked To Be An Expert.

I Used To Think Twitter Was A Waste Of Time And Sort Of Ran Counter To My Ability To Be Productive And To Write And Now Twitter Feels Like A Really Cool Part Of The Creative Experience.

I Went To Schools That Were Small Enough That Basically Everyone Was In A Play. I Played A Bouncing Ball In A Production Of Alice In Wonderland And A Fat Man In An Italian Commedia Dell'arte Play. I Was Given Some Small Chances.

I Don"t Feel Like There Are A Tremendous Amount Of Roles For The Size I Am.

Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Who Has Accidentally Napped.

Hell Hath No Fury

When I Write I'm Never Really Thinking About Themes Or The Universal.

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