Quotes from Daniel Day-Lewis

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

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.

I find it difficult to be in rooms now for long periods of time. I can usually take it for about an hour. Then I stride out.

I have a strange relationship with time. I'm not aware of it passing.

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 hate the domestic life.

I just knew at an early time in my life how important privacy was.

It didn't occur to me that it was possible to breathe life into Abraham Lincoln.

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

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

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

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

If you have a certain wildness of spirit, a cabinet maker's workshop is not the place to express it.

I hate wasting people's time.

Periodically over the years I've always taken periods of time away from acting.

I love to sit and watch people. I love to sit and listen to people.

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 don't deal at all well with the relative amount of stuff I have to face already.

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.

I don't torture myself.

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

It's easy to love humanity when you're this far away from it.

We all live under some repression; we have to, it's part of the deal.

In all fields of creativity you see the result of work that has become habit. Where the creative impulse has become flaccid or has died out altogether, and yet because it is our work and our life we continue to do it.