Lena Dunham reveals how she handles her critics on ‘The Daily Show’

Since the debut of “Girls” on HBO in 2012, series creator and star Lena Dunham has endured more than her share of snarky comments and blunt criticism on everything from her penchant for appearing nude on camera to the casting choices on her show to how she compensates local performers on her upcoming book tour.

It’s a lot to handle for someone who hasn’t yet turned 30. So when she appeared on “The Daily Show” on Wednesday night, Jon Stewart wanted to find out how she deals with all those critics.

“It can definitely be challenging,” she admitted. “It’s not something when you’re writing in your room and dreaming of this career, you’re necessarily like, ‘I’m going to have a TV show and I’m going to write a book and everyone’s going to hate me on the Internet!’ ”

She then revealed her motto: “I try to react with class and a little bit of sass.”

“I would have gone with double guns,” Stewart replied, firing his two middle fingers into the air.

Dunham, who was on the show to promote her book “Not That Kind of Girl,” recently came under fire by the website Gawker, which claimed she was not planning to pay local performers who would serve as opening acts on her upcoming multicity book tour.

Dunham later addressed the controversy on Twitter, saying, “Some good points were raised and I’ve ensured that all opening acts will be compensated for their time, their labor and their talents.”

Dunham said she has tried the angry approach, but said, “You end up looking like this crazy gnome throwing rocks out of a cave at the corner of the universe.”

Perhaps that can be the pitch for Dunham’s next HBO series.

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