Daniel Day-Lewis Quotes

How can you be a recluse in a house full of children, even if you had the inclination to be, which I don't?

It's a source of great sadness to me that my father died without having seen me do anything worthwhile. He was constantly having to make excuses for me.

A lot of guys in jail tattoo their hands.

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

The West has always been the epicentre of possibility. One of the ways we forge against mortality is to head west. It's to do with catching the sun before it slips behind the horizon.

I don't feel my son should pay the price for what I do.

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.

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

I find it easier to work when it's quiet.

For about a year, I just didn't know what to do. I did laboring jobs, working in the docks, construction sites.

When I do work, I feel the same sort of urgency as I ever did. If I didn't feel that, I don't think I would wish to be doing it. I wouldn't really see the point.

A voice is such a deep, personal reflection of character.

My life is devoted to self-delusion - and I have a great capacity for that - but it's the thing that gives me the most pleasure, so I can't complain about it.

I don't torture myself. And I do the work because of the pleasure involved. I'm satisfying a compulsion I find nigh-on irresistible. It's not necessarily because of the work itself. I just feel the need for a period of regeneration afterwards. Like leaving a field fallow when you've grazed too much on it. I feel depleted.

It is awesome to feel you are carrying on the family name.

I never retreat from films, as it were, I simply indulge in other interests, that's all.

As a member of the audience I don't like it that I can't see what's going on in the eyes and in the face and in the most subtle responses of a performer when I'm more than a few rows back. I find it very frustrating.

I still relate to my father very much. I mean, I talk to him in a certain way, as we do talk to the dead.

I like things that make you grit your teeth. I like tucking my chin in and sort of leading into the storm. I like that feeling. I like it a lot.