Daniel Day-Lewis Quotes

The imagination is part of the arsenal that actors draw from.

For me, when I do my best acting, it's mainly imagination. Then I really have a lot of fun with it.

Acting is an imaginative leap, really, isn't it? And imaginations prosper in different circumstances.

Inspiration can come from anywhere. But I do love actors. I wish I could drop a bunch of names, but there are just too many.

I think that most actors, and they're a very strange lot actors, very strange people, but I think that they attempt to keep in touch with the child.

To me acting originally became an extension of game playing.

I guess just a lively imagination is the best effort an actor can have.

As an actor, the only thing you have is your instinct and your imagination.

Acting is an expression of imagination. No firsthand knowledge is necessary.

I feel like acting is a ton of fun. It's the freest and most alive you can be.

Theatre gives you wings as an actor.

Seriously, my music really does help my acting, and, like, getting in and out of a character from a different lifestyle and writing a song about it. Likewise, my acting inspires the music because I can write a theme that I wouldn't necessarily approach at all in life.

For a writer, they say write what you know. As a performer, you find it in yourself, in your heart. You relate to the character. You try to live it, try to have it be real for you.

Every time you get on a stage or in front of a camera, the whole exercise is about imagination. You're constantly depicting something that doesn't exist, and trying to find the reality of it. Once you settle on that premise, everything else is a matter of degrees.

Everything, I think, about acting is based on imagination.

Acting is so exciting to me. It's a thrill; otherwise I wouldn't do it. Not to be hokey, but I think life is definitely worth living, whether you're working or not. For an actor, the character is the thing... it doesn't matter what medium you're in. as long as you have something to do.

On some level, acting is the art of pretend, and you have to have a highly cultivated sense of imagination. You have to be able to see things that aren't there, no matter what aspect of acting, whether it's green screen, whether it's on stage, whether it's anything else, whether you're working on the radio.

I always wanted to tell stories and act.

A passion for any novel, and any character, can crystallise your ideas when you really need to be as open as possible as a performer.

Acting is in your soul.

I'm a craftsman. I'm an actor.

Your imagination is your most important tool as an actor, as cheesy as that sounds.

Young actors are pretty fantastic. I can't even imagine doing stuff like that when I was a kid.

I'm inspired every time I see a role I'd like to play, an actor turn in a well crafted performance, a story I'd like to tell, direct or produce.

At a young age, acting was so inspiring and exciting, because to me it was play - make-believe, pretend.