Quotessence
Home / Authors / Lena Dunham
Lena Dunham

Lena Dunham Quotes

Filmmaker

Filter quotes by topic

AllThinkingPeopleIfsFeelsWayWantWritingPersonsBodyKind Of GirlKnowsGirlParentLooksNeedsKindLittlesSexYoungBook

Famous Lena Dunham Quotes

“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.”

PeopleIfsChildrenLongHas BeensHomeKidsCultureGirlBeliefFunCausesParentUnderstandingSituationTaughtGayOkayFatsMake SenseInfrastructureNot Okay
Author:Lena Dunham
Create image

“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.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWantFeelsMadeBookMomentsYoungInterestingWonderfulHotMalesAffairInsightReactionsLove AffairReally InterestingProtagonistsMy Boyfriend
Author:Lena Dunham
Create image

“I remember it made me feel better because so many of my friends at school. Were doing that stuff and doing that stuff on sleep overs. But I just didn't feel ready. It wasn't like I had any judgment of it being two women. It would have scared me as much if not more. I was like a three month period in which all the words sleep over was code for was "let's get together and touch each other's vaginas." and I was. Haunted. And I remember going home and feeling like I couldn't tell my mother even though she would've understood and probably laughed.”

IfsFeelsMadeTwoFeelingsHomeSchoolTogetherRememberMotherThreeStuffSleepReadyMonthsPeriodsJudgmentUnderstoodMy FriendsScaredCodeLaughedFeel BetterGet TogetherThree MonthsGoing Home
Author:Lena Dunham
Create image

“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?'”

IfsLooksLittlesHas BeensSaidShowsBigsMightLastsCultureStuffPartyGoneWeekBunchCutePantsMight Have BeenBody ImageThighsShortsWildeOlivia
Author:Lena Dunham
Create image

“There is nothing gutsier to me than a person announcing that their story is one that deserves to be told, especially if that person is a woman. As hard as we have worked and as far as we have come, there are still so many forces conspiring to tell women that our concerns are petty, our opinions aren’t needed, that we lack the gravitas necessary for our stories to matter. That personal writing by women is no more than an exercise in vanity and that we should appreciate this new world for women, sit down, and shut up.”

IfsWorldShouldWritingPersonsStillsMatterHardStoriesForceOpinionNeededExerciseDeserveConcernAppreciateDown AndVanityNew WorldShut UpPettyKind Of GirlAnnouncingConspiringGravitasPersonal Writing
Book:Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's
Create image

“I have been envious of male characteristics, if not the men themselves. I'm jealous of the ease with which they seem to inhabit their professional pursuits: the lack of apologizing, of bending over backward to make sure the people around them are comfortable with what they're trying to do. The fact that they are so often free of the people-pleasing instincts I have considered to be a curse of my female existence.”

PeopleIfsMenTryingHas BeensFactsSeemsExistenceHe ManComfortableFemaleInstinctMalesPursuitEaseCurseCharacteristicsJealousApologizingEnviousBendingBending Over
Book:Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's
Create image

“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.”

IfsMenWorldNeedsWritingWellsBookAgeGirlWomenDifferencesEducationAttitudeNovelSelf EsteemStupidTaughtPerspectiveComfortableUniqueTrainingMen And WomenSevenGenderActressesInsaneComplimentKind Of GirlReally StupidBeing A GirlStupid MenCompliments YouUnique Perspective
Author:Lena Dunham
Create image

“I always feel that there are two choices for women. Either be totally confident about your non-size-zero body and say, 'I love what I look like and this is who I am,' or be the person who is obsessed with diet and exercise and keeping toned. What feels more realistic to me is that some days I wake up and think I love how I look. On other days I say, 'If I had real self-control, I would be 10 pounds lighter.' That contradiction is, to me, what being a girl actually feels like.”

IfsThinkingFeelsLooksPersonsTwoRealSelfBodyWould BeChoicesGirlExerciseWake UpSizeWho I AmObsessedDietsContradictionPoundsZeroRealisticSelf ControlLightersReal SelfTwo ChoicesBeing A GirlDiet And ExerciseSize Zero
Author:Lena Dunham
Create image