Golden Globes: 'Girls' Winner Lena Dunham Talks Critics and Thanking Chad Lowe

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With Homeland scoring expected wins in the drama categories, the breakout TV star of Sunday's Golden Globes may have been Girls.

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The HBO comedy, taking its category and a lead actress win for star and creator Lena Dunham, got one of the most lively reactions the Beverly Hilton stage saw all night. And the excitement didn't cool backstage.

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After a breathless "thank you" to an applauding room of reporters, Dunham was quick to address recent criticism of her show.

"I think that when you get criticism, you have to be elegant about it and appreciate it," she said. "It's part of the gift of getting to put your work out there in the world. I'm sure people don't like the show for a lot of reasons."

Dunham, whose series officially returned for its second season while she was accepting her kudos, said that EP Jenni Konner drew her to TV after her film Tiny Furniture.

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"I realized very quickly through talking to a variety of people that cable television was the only place that I was going to get to tell the stories that I wanted to," she said. "Claire Danes put it beautifully. I'm just really lucky to be working in this medium, with these people, right now."

As for her speech, Dunham also cleared up why she thanked actor Chad Lowe.

"Because Hilary Swank forgot," she said of the actor's then wife and her Oscar win for Boys Don't Cry. "And because I'm an asshole."