David Duchovny Quotes

Who cares about people's personal lives? I mean, honestly. How are you then able to disappear into a role?

I do enter into character on set, but I can step out of it.

There's a rule in acting called, 'Don't play the result.' If you have a character who's going to end up in a certain place, don't play that until you get there. Play each scene and each beat as it comes. And that's what you do in life: You don't play the result.

I've had to play characters who I absolutely disagree with, as far as their politics, as far as their religion, and their stance on certain social issues, I completely disagree with them. But I have to go in and find who they are and get to their core, into their truth, and have absolute faith and believe in that, in order to portray it. So you have to walk in a lot of different shoes, in that you can't help but have your mind open as a result of that.

I'm all for whatever it takes to get wherever you need to get with a character, as long as you don't wipe it on me.

I'm sure there's pieces of me in all the characters I play.

As an actor, I think it's always important to separate yourself from your characters because, when you include yourself in a character, you're taking a liberty that you don't really have unless you're life is that incredibly close to the character.

I'd like to think I'm an actor who leaves things at work.

It's hard to actually take details from your personal life and apply them a scene because, as much as you can identify with a feeling, you just get muddled. As soon as you start bringing your own stuff in, it's like, 'No, that's not right.' You're playing a different person. You can relate, but you have to leave that stuff at the door.

I'm not one of those actors who gets so taken by a role that I can't live my life. I'm the type of actor who goes to work, transforms into a character, takes you on a journey, and then comes back home to be Billy. When I'm in it, I'm in it, but I know how to get out of it. When you can't shut it off, you're a crazy person. I'm not crazy.

What I love to do requires portraying different characters, and you have to separate your life from the role.

I think it's better to have your personal life and your work life separate. That way they don't corrupt each other, so to speak.

When I'm acting in a film that I'm not producing, I stay to myself.

You draw on whatever's relevant to the part you're playing; it makes it more personal.

I don't know if I do anything to get into character: I just go with my gut.

What I like is the acting itself. But I'm a lousy celebrity. I'm not interested in selling my private life. I take my private feelings to the work, but I want there to be a difference between me and whoever it is I'm playing.

Acting is a weird, kind of alienating job because you're in an isolated place. Even if you're working with a lot of other people, you're kind of alienated. Actors say that a lot, and I kind of find that to be true.

I think you have to be very secure as an actor to escape yourself - to revisit someone's past, whether you're portraying another person or creating someone, and then to come back to who you are and not bring those emotions with you.

When you're acting, you do have to prepare yourself for doing that. You have to leave behind - or you try and leave behind - anything that's going on in your personal life.

I know I sometimes come across as being quite dismissive about acting. But I'm not. It's like people reading their diaries in public. I don't want to talk about how I create characters. I find it self-indulgent.

I think some actors are very smart and have the tools. They know how to disconnect themselves from the characters, but I think for a lot of them, it's very difficult.

I never judge the characters I'm asked to play, and I don't need to feel that they are a part of me.

If you play-act for a living, it's better not to carry on doing it when you get home.

When I'm [playing] a character, I can look at it and know it's not me and not be concerned with how it looks.

What I do is I come in the morning and get involved in the character, but I'm always very pleased to leave it at night and have my life.