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When You're Writing A Script You Have The Option To Embellish On Life Or Switch The Order Of Events Or Make It Generally More Cinematic. I Would Stick Too Closely To My Own Experience And Not Necessarily Think About The Fact That It Needs To Have An Event Happen. Realising That I Could Channel My Own Experience Into A Story That Was Slightly More Cinematic Was A Very Important Moment For Me - Allowing Myself To Accept That The Kind Of Screenwriting I'm Doing Is A Work Of Fiction.

-Lena Dunham

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When You're Writing A

Lena Dunham

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When You're Writing A Script You Have The Option To Embellish On Life Or Switch The Order Of Events Or Make It Generally More Cinematic. I Would Stick Too Closely To My Own Experience And Not Necessarily Think About The Fact That It Needs To Have An Event Happen. Realising That I Could Channel My Own Experience Into A Story That Was Slightly More Cinematic Was A Very Important Moment For Me - Allowing Myself To Accept That The Kind Of Screenwriting I'm Doing Is A Work Of Fiction.

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I'll Start By Saying That "fifty Shades Of Grey:" It's Like I Don't Have. An Elicit Confused Relationship To My Sexuality. So I Don't Need A Book Like That.

My Weight Fluctuates Depending On My Mood And My Current Devotion To My Fitness Routine.

I Actually Didn't Enjoy Being A Child Particularly At All Even Though I Had Nice Parents In A Comfortable Place To Live. Just Because I Was Too Confused In Generating Too Many Answers For Myself That Just Scared Me More.

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

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The People Accusing Me Of Being Productive Don't Know How Hard It Is For Me To Just Bend My Elbow Sometimes.

I Spent All My Time On My Movies Worried That People Were Eating And That The Schedule Was Being Kept, So To Have Experts In Those Areas Giving Me The Brain Space As A Writer And Director Is Huge.

But I Am A Girl With A Keen Interest In Having It All, And What Follows Are Hopeful Dispatches From The Frontlines Of That Struggle.

Katherine Heiny's Work Does Something Magical: Elevates The Mundane So That It Has The Stakes Of A Mystery Novel, Gives Women's Interior Lives The Gravity They So Richly Deserve -- And Makes You Laugh Along The Way.

Feminism And Issues Surrounding Being Female In The World, Always, But Particularly Right Now At This Complicated Cultural Moment. It's A Huge Part Of What's Important To Me.

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Throughout The Day I Often Ask Myself, Could I Fall Asleep Right Now? And The Answer Is Always A Resounding Yes.

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I Think Women Are Conditioned To Stand By Their Man And Watch Them Make It To The Top, But Most Men Never Believe The Person They Get Into A Relationship With Is Going To Rise Any Higher Than She Was When They Met. It Takes A Very Special, Evolved Person To Be Able To Deal With Change Within A Relationship.

I Would Have Specific Books [when I Was 12 Or 13] That Had Pages That I Knew Had Sex On Them That I Would Go And Read.

We're Living In A World Where [judy Blume] Books Were Ever Banned, And Now Like "fifty Shades Of Grey" Is Being Read In High Schools. Like It's Just A Wild.

It Was Only When I Started Making Short Films In College And I Was Looking For Girls To Play The Me-ish Parts That I Thought, Well, Maybe I'm Just Going To Try Doing This Myself Before Somebody Else Comes In And Handles It. For A Long Time My Acting Was Just A Marriage Of Convenience Between Me And These Characters That I Was Writing.

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

I Have To Take My Shoes Off, You Guys.

When You're Writing A Script You Have The Option To Embellish On Life Or Switch The Order Of Events Or Make It Generally More Cinematic. I Would Stick Too Closely To My Own Experience And Not Necessarily Think About The Fact That It Needs To Have An Event Happen. Realising That I Could Channel My Own Experience Into A Story That Was Slightly More Cinematic Was A Very Important Moment For Me - Allowing Myself To Accept That The Kind Of Screenwriting I'm Doing Is A Work Of Fiction.

Survivors Are So Often Re-victimized By A System That Demands They Prove Their Purity And Innocence.

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Sometimes I Was So Bored That I Started Arguments Just To Experience The Rush Of Almost Losing Him.

I Had No Clue What Anyone Was Talking About Like, You Know I Don't Think I, I Don't Think Any Of The Depictions Of Sex Were More To Me Than Just Like An Image Of Two People's Arms Rubbing Together [when I Was Eight], I Just Had No Clue.

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

I'm Not Jealous In Traditional Ways - Of Boyfriends Or Babies Or Bank Accounts - But I Do Covet Other Women's Styles Of Being.

I Can Play Very Annoying Girl, Very Lost Girl And Then All The Things In The Spectrum Between.

From What I Hear, [ "fifty Shades Of Grey" ] Is Not A Way That I Feel Like I Need To Be Turned On Or Like A Hole That Needs To Be Filled In Me.

Women Saying "i'm Not A Feminist" Is My Greatest Pet Peeve. Do You Believe That Women Should Be Paid The Same For Doing The Same Jobs? Do You Believe That Women Should Be Allowed To Leave The House? Do You Think That Women And Men Both Deserve Equal Rights? Great, Then You're A Feminist.

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.

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.

Don't Wait Around For Someone Else To Tell Your Story. Do It Yourself By Whatever Means Necessary.

If You're Writing, You're Starting In Private. It Can Really Be This Amazing, Private, Freeing Experience. Forget That It's For Other People - That Comes In Later.

Girls Are Trained To Say, ‘i Wrote This, But It’s Probably Really Stupid.’ Well, No, You Wouldn’t Write A Novel If You Thought It Was Really Stupid. Men Are Much More Comfortable Going, ‘i Wrote This Book Because I Have A Unique Perspective That The World Needs To Hear.’ Girls Are Taught From The Age Of Seven That If You Get A Compliment, You Don’t Go, ‘thank You’, You Go, ‘no, You’re Insane.

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You Can't Give Any Exciting Speech Without Misremembering Things.

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I Think We All Feel That Way When We're Young We Don't Think Teachers Have Lives. We Don't Think Therapists Have Lives. We Don't Think Doctors Have Lives.

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I Seriously Consider Television To Be The People's Medium.

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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.

What A Snarky Jerk. (obviously, I Later Slept With Him.)

I Have An Authority Problem.

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Scandal Has Made Wine And Popcorn Seem Like A Viable, Even Healthful, Meal.

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My Fears Came True: People Called Me Fat And Hideous, And I Lived. And Now I Keep Living.

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.'

Every Time I Start Feeling Sexy I Trip.

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Self Reflection

It's Almost Like When You're Young, Your Friends Take On The Romance Role, And Then Guys Take On The Role Of Your Friends Later.

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You’ve Learned A New Rule And It’s Simple: Don’t Put Yourself In Situations You’d Like To Run Away From. But When You Run, Run Back To Yourself, Like That Bunny In Runaway Bunny Runs To Its Mother, But You Are The Mother And You’ll See That Later And Be Very, Very Proud.

I Refresh Twitter As Thoughtlessly As Some Twirl Their Hair.

Mine's [fans] A Lot Of Like Weird Guys In Prison. So I Don't Need To Answer Them.

I Had No Friends. I Worried A Lot.

I Sort Of Tend To Equate Tattoos With Prisoners, Punks Or People With A High Level Of Self-confidence. I Don’t Necessarily Have A Covered-in-tattoos Personality.

Self Confidence

My Dad Once Told Me That He Would Rather I Had An Old Boyfriend Than A Tall Boyfriend. I Don't Know Why, I Think He's Just Feels Stressed By... He' Not That Short I Just Think The Idea Of A Really Tall Guy Is Super Anxiety Producing To Him. And Now I'm With Neither Old Guy Nor A Very Tall Guy. So Everything Has Worked Out Perfectly.

Barbie’s Disfigured. It’s Fine To Play With Her Just As Long As You Keep That In Mind.

Confidence Lets You Pull Anything Off, Even Tevas With Socks.

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I'm Not Great At Dating, But I Need To Do It To Relax.

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

I Never Set Out To Make Any Statements About A Specific Character, I Just Set Out To Tell What Feels Like Is A Truthful Story, A Person That You And I Might Truly Encounter.

I Didn't Tell Him I Was A Virgin, Just That I Hadn’t Done It “that Much.” It Hurt A Little More Than I'd Expected But In A Different Way, And He Was Nervous Too And He Never Came. Afterwards We Lay There And Talked, And I Could Tell He Was A Really Nice Person. I Commended Myself For Making A Healthy, Albeit Hasty, Partner Choice. I Really Couldn't Wait To Tell My Mom.

I Frustrate Myself As A Writer. There Are Certain Things That I'll Think, 'well, That Would Be Really Fun To Play... If Somebody Else Was Playing This Character.'

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.

Everyone Needs Something From Me.

It's Not That I Don't Want To Hear About That [blow Job] Stuff, I Just Want To Hear About It Immediately. And I Want To Hear About It On More Comfortable Terms.

No One Wants To See A Tattoo On A Stomach.

I Wish That Author [ E. L. James] All The Success In The World. It's Just Not For Me.

If A Young Woman Is Looking At The Landscape Of Hollywood, What She Sees Is Almost Only Challenges.

I Felt Like My Parents Were Always Involved With Abstraction, And I Wanted To Do Something Very Specific.

Now If You Went To Someone's House To Look For Them, You Would Be A Psychopath.

The Biggest Fear That Everybody Has Is Dying. Not To Get Too Meta On You, But I Think Every Fear That People Are Trying To Work Out Is Really Like I'm Going To Die And No One Is Going To Care, And It Doesn't Matter Because God Might Not Exist. That's What People Are Trying To Figure Out. I Wish We All Had One Fear So We Could Think About It Together And Figure Out A Solution, But We're All Doing Different Things.

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.

I Would Be A Horrible Girlfriend At This Point In My Life, Because I’m Both Needy And Unavailable.

I Hate To Be The Person That's Like, "we're Doing Something That's Never Been Done Before."

Aren't Most Of Us Dealing With The Fact That We Have Moms Who Either Weren't Ready To Be Moms Or Had Some Level Of Resentment About It? Everybody Is Dealing With The Different Iteration Of Pain Their Mom Has Handed Them.

I've Only Recently Realized That I Have A Radically Different Relationship With My Parents Than A Lot Of People.

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

Marriage Equality

I Shared A Bed With My Sister, Grace, Until I Was Seventeen Years Old. She Was Afraid To Sleep Alone And Would Begin Asking Me Around 5:00 P.m. Every Day Whether She Could Sleep With Me. I Put On A Big Show Of Saying No, Taking Pleasure In Watching Her Beg And Sulk, But Eventually I Always Relented. Her Sticky, Muscly Little Body Thrashed Beside Me Every Night As I Read Anne Sexton, Watched Reruns Of Snl, Sometimes Even As I Slipped My Hand Into My Underwear To Figure Some Stuff Out.

I Feel Like A Lot Of The Female Relationships I See On Tv Or In Movies Are In Some Way Free Of The Kind Of Jealousy And Anxiety And Posturing That Has Been Such A Huge Part Of My Female Friendships, Which I Hope Lessens A Little Bit With Age.

I Took "forever" [by Judy Blume] To The Bathroom To Read [when I Was Eight] And Then I Heard My Mom Coming So I Stuck It Under The Toilet And Went Running Out. And I Went Back Later To Check For It. And It Was Gone.

I Seriously Consider Television To Be The People's Medium. Like The Idea Of Seeing Your Parents Naked Or Having Somebody Go Down On You And Worrying About Whether You Smell, Or Worrying About Whether Your Body Is Weird Or What Goes Across The Face Of A Person Who's Supposed To Be Experiencing Pleasure But Isn't - Those Are Things I'd Love To Normalize On Tv.

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.

I Am Not A Particularly Political Person, But, As A Tribeca Resident, The Commodification Of September 11th Is Offensive To Me.

It Would Probably Be Too Easy A Cop Out To Say That Just Republican Males Hate Me. Though There's A Large Swath Of Them, For Sure.

You Just Have To Work, We All Have To Work Really Hard To Take Care Of Ourselves And Feed Ourselves Good Information, Just Like We Feed Ourselves Good Food. Feed Ourselves Good Books And Good Messaging And The Things That Make Us Feel Like We Can Be Connected With Ourselves And Others In A Deeper Way.

It's Not Brave To Do Something That Doesn't Scare You. Performing In Sex Scenes That I Direct, Exposing A Flash Of My Weird Puffy Nipple, Those Things Don't Fall Into My Zone Of Terror.

I've Always Had A Talent For Recognizing When I Am In A Moment Worth Being Nostalgic For.

Self Reflection

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.

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.

I'm Always Afraid That I'm Being Unprofessional, Yet I Continue To Sign All My E-mails 'xoxo.'

I Get A Lot Of Unasked For Sexual Confessions.

If Someone Doesn't Answer Your Email Within Six Hours, It Means They Hate You.

I Always Say That I Can Play Sort Of Six Variations On One Girl, All Of Whom Are A Variation On Me. Maybe I'll Think Of Myself As An Actor If, Like, I Do A Corset Drama.

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.

I'm Just Waiting To Be 85 And Be In A Pajama Community. Everyone's Welcome To Join Me.

I'm So Proud Of Jason's [benjamin] Work. I Can Say This And He Can't, But There's No Group Of Documentary Subjects More Devoted To Their Documentarian. The Vibes Are Really Positive, And I Feel So Lucky.

Instagram What You Think Is Funny And Exciting And Try Not To Include Any Animal Abuse!

People Are Ultimately Threatened By Young People Taking Positions Of Power.

Position Of Power

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.

Guys Warning Girls Not To Fall In Love With Them Is So Truly Douchey That It Should Have A Higher Success Rate.

Falling In Love

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

I Think Breakfast Is The One Meal When You Don't Have To Eat Animal, Maybe.

The Parts I Enjoy Playing Aren't Really Available To Me. So I Have To Write Them.

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

Hell Hath No Fury

It's Not Brave To Do Something That Doesn't Scare You.

I Have Sort Of A Zen Body Philosophy, I'm Sort Of Like: We're One Weight One Day, We're One Weight Another Day, And Some Day Our Body Just Doesn't Even Exist At All! It's Just A Vessel I've Been Given To Move Through This Life. I Think About My Body As A Tool To Do The Stuff I Need To Do, But Not The Be All And End All Of My Existence. Which Sounds Like I Spent A Week At A Meditation Retreat, But It's Genuinely How I Feel.

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.

You're A Small Business And You Have To Take Care Of Yourself The Way You Would A Small Business And Take Care Of Yourself The Way Any Small Business Owner Would.

I Thought I Was Really A Radical, Political Person, Which Of Course I Am Not.

I'm Really Lucky Because I Surround Myself Onset With People Who I Really Trust To Give Me Feedback, So I'm Directing Myself.

I Feel Like You Don't Know If Someone's Equipped For A Romantic Relationship Until They're Out Of Their Twenties.

Romantic Relationship

There’s Always An Article Coming Out, Saying, ‘the New Thing Is Funny Women!’

I've Been A Little Haphazard About How Nude I Get, And The Only Thing That Keeps Me From Getting Anxious About It Is That I've Had Complete Control Over It.

I Find It Really Awkward To Do A Scene Where I'm Supposed To Seem Like I'm In Love.

I Still Go To A Party And Say Something Embarrassing To Someone, And Then Write Them A Weird E-mail About It The Next Day, And Then Write Them A Text Because I Think They Didn't Get The E-mail. No Matter What Happens With Your Level Of Success, You Still Have To Deal With All The Baggage That Is Yourself.

Feminists Believe That Men And Women Should Have The Same Opportunities. If You Are A Feminist You Believe In Equal Rights As A Whole. That’s Not A Concept You Can Really Shoot Down.

I Love Directing Scenes That I'm Not In Because Suddenly I Really Feel Like A Filmmaker Which Is A Different Thing.

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

It Is Really Funny How Even Cool Chicks Are Sort Of Like, 'our Moms Covered That Feminism Thing And Now We're Living In A Post-that World,' When That Just Isn't True.

The Work That's Interesting To Me In Other People Is Really Confessional.

At A Brunch Potluck, I Realize That I Do, In Fact, Hate Everybody.

When It's Low-budget, And You Have One Other Person On The Set, You Have To Make Rules.

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.

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?

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

We Both Followed Our Hearts And Had No Choice But To Hurt Each Other Deeply.

A Huge Part Of The American Trans Population That's Often Overlooked Are Trans Teenagers. Many Of Them Are Homeless, And Those Are Not The People Who Are Necessarily Going In For A Custom Suit. But That's One Of The Reasons Why We Were Excited That We Got To Do A Contest With Hbo To Sponsor A Young Person Getting A Suit Made Who Might Not Have The Means To Do It On Their Own.

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