Daniel Day Lewis Quotes (31 Quotes)


    I think I have a strange relationship with time. I'm not really aware of that time passing. I don't feel that I'm wasteful with time. But I'm not aware of it passing.

    Many years ago, I really didn't know where the next work was coming from.

    Being at the centre of a film is a burden one takes on with innocence the first time. Thereafter, you take it on with trepidation.

    Everybody has to know for themselves what they're capable of.



    If people take an interest in you and they think there's half a chance, they might hang on. It's dreadful.

    I don't know what impression you might have of the way I live. I live in a quiet place. I do not live as a hermit, though other people would prefer it if I did.


    I feel less often compelled to do the work than I was in the past.

    I would wish for any one of my colleagues to have the experience of working with Martin Scorsese once in their lifetime.

    I suppose I have a highly developed capacity for self-delusion, so it's no problem for me to believe that I'm somebody else.

    The last time I was on a small set would've been probably My Left Foot.

    I suppose the place where I live is fairly remote, it would seem remote to some people.

    When I've gone back to work, it's always with that sense of inevitability. That may be a complete delusion, but it's the one that I need to get out of bed and go about my business. That sense that I can't avoid this thing. I better just get on with it.

    I'm very often still very much alive for that other being and that other world long after the film is finished.

    I was a savage for so many years of my life. There was some seed of determination in me that I was not conscious of. I was mostly consciously getting into trouble and drunk.

    There's nothing worse than finding yourself in a situation, a very demanding piece of work, and knowing that you're not a true ally to the person who's in charge of all that.


    At a certain age it just became apparent to me that this was probably the work that I would have to do.

    I think some actors thrive on working at a much greater pace than I do.

    I'm not always doing this work, but whatever I'm doing when I'm not doing this work seems to be as much a part of this as anything else.

    The whole thing of weight, I guess it's because there is a wider fascination we all have with weight.

    There must've been some part of me that wanted to make my mark. But there was never a defining moment.

    How people are around a director, it really does affect everything, every detail of the life of the movie.

    It's a complete illusion, this notion. We create for ourselves this strange delusion that we exchange our lives for someone else's.

    I see a lot of movies. I love films as a spectator, and that's never obscured by the part of me that does the work myself. I just love going to the movies.

    I try to honor that bargain that I made with myself that I wouldn't do this work unless I really felt the need to. I just didn't see the point.

    You can never fully put your finger on the reason why you're suddenly, inexplicably compelled to explore one life as opposed to another.

    You don't merely give over your creativity to making a film -- you give over your life In theatre, by contrast, you live these two rather strange lives simultaneously you have no option but to confront the mould on last night's washing-up.


    Making a film, setting it up and getting it cast and getting it together, is not an easy thing.


    More Daniel Day-Lewis Quotations (Based on Topics)


    Daniel Day Lewis Quotes on Movies - Work & Career - Daniel Day Lewis Quotes on Time - People - Place - Life - Performance Arts - Experience - Will & Determination - Past - Hatred - Business & Commerce - Reasoning - Chance - View All Daniel Day-Lewis Quotations

    Related Authors


    Sean Connery - Owen Wilson - Wil Wheaton - Roberto Benigni - Robert Mitchum - Naveen Andrews - Luke Perry - Dwayne Johnson - Christian Slater - Ajay Naidu


Authors (by First Name)

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M
N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

Other Inspiring Sections