Background Image

...

I Think The Real Heroic Teachers Are The Ones Who Work With Kids, Like My Mom And My Sister Do.

-David Duchovny

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

I Think The Real

David Duchovny

...

I Think The Real Heroic Teachers Are The Ones Who Work With Kids, Like My Mom And My Sister Do.

Views: 4

Topic

More From David Duchovny

Part Of Being An Actor Is Letting Things Come About Organically As Opposed To Forcing Them.

I Would Say Recently I've Gotten Back To Perusing [samuel] Beckett's Novels. Listening To The Way Donald Trump Speaks Without Saying Anything Has Made Me Think About Language.

I Love Dogs. They Live In The Moment And Don't Care About Anything Except Affection And Food. They're Loyal And Happy. Humans Are Just Too Damn Complicated.

Live In The Moment

I Drive An Electric Car.

There Is Never A Personal-life Connection Between My Characters And Myself. I'm A Professional And I Can Access What I Need To Access, So There's No Bleed-over. I Didn't Need To Believe In Aliens To Play Mulder. As For My Personal Life, Everything Is Fantastic Right Now.

There Are Moments When You Get Out Of Your Own Head And You Exist In The Moment, And That Can Be Good Acting.

I Wouldn't Say We Were Doing That. I Think We Probably Stopped Thinking. Though It Took A While To Stop Thinking.

I Don't Discount Belief. I Just Discount Most Of The Things That People Believe In.

Feelings Come And Go, Unless You Don't Feel Them. Then They Stay, And Hurt, And Grow Pear-shaped And Weird.

In The U.s., Oddly, We Have Images Of Men As Arrogant And Aggressive.

You Can Go Through Life And Actually Speak Your Mind And Do It In An Articulate Fashion And With A Really Intelligent Point Of View.

Just Like Every Show Has A Tone, Every Show Has Different People On It Playing Different Games. I Don't Say 'game' In A Pejorative Sense, I Just Mean, These Are Different Stories That We Tell Ourselves When We Go To Work.

I Don't Like Watching People Work If They're Making Art.

I Don't Want To Know What Happens In Any Movie That I Go To See.

I Like My Computer. But I Don't Know How To Use It As Well As The 10-year-old Daughter.

As We Age, There Are Different Things That Become Important To Us And That Means That Different Aspects Of Our Character Come To The Forefront; Certain Aspects Recede. And That's Fun. It Would Be Shitty To Have To Imitate Myself.

At Princeton I Wrote My Junior Paper On Virginia Woolf, And For My Senior Thesis I Wrote On Samuel Beckett. I Wrote Some About "between The Acts" And "mrs. Dalloway'' But Mostly About "to The Lighthouse." With Beckett I Focused, Perversely, On His Novels, "molloy," "malone Dies," And "the Unnamable." That's When I Decided I Should Never Write Again.

I Think It Was W.h. Auden Who Said He Was Lucky That His First Favorite Poet Was Thomas Hardy, Who Was A Good But Not A Great Poet, Because If You Are Exposed To The Greats Too Soon It Can Just Squash You As A Writer.

I Don't Know About The Baby, But I Will Be Interested To See, Like Anyone Who's A Fan Of The Show [how It's Resolved]," He Said, And Then Joked, "they'll Have To Resolve Me While I'm Not There, So I Hope They Don't Say, 'oh Yeah, Mulder's Gone, What An Asshole. He Had A Baby With Me, He Kissed Me And Then He Left.'

It Seems Unlikely That We're Alone In The Universe. But I'm Pretty Sure Nobody's Hiding Any Contact.

Dogs Are The Broccaflower Of The Animal Kingdom.

I Will Read Biographies Or Autobiographies While I'm Writing, But Mostly I Put Books In A To-read Queue, Like Rachel Cusk's New Novel, "outline."

I Love Doctor Who And I Remember The First One, Which Was Wonderful In Its Low-tech Quality. I Also Loved The Theme Song, Which Sounded Like The Cure To Me. Which Character Would I Like To Play In Doctor Who? Who's The Bad Guy? The Dalek? Ok, I'll Play Him.

Humility Is Considered An Un-masculine Quality.

I Don't Mind Close-ups, I Like Them, But They're Kind Of Forceful - You See A Lot, You Get A Lot Of Information In A Close-up. There's Less Mystery.

I Think Patience Is A Skill And I Wish I Had It.

The Only Problem With Mitch [pileggi, The Actor Who Plays Skinner] Is That His Bald Head Means There's Nothing To Hold Onto When He Starts To Buck.

Linda Brewer's Example Is Inspiring, Colorful And Potentially Very Funny. Her Journey Also Exists Firmly In The Heartland Tradition Of American Success Stories And Comedies.

I Feel I Have To Work Hard To Nurture Whatever Talent I Have As An Actor. I Feel Like It's Not Natural To Me. So I Don't Take It For Granted... What I Think Is My Natural Ability - Which Is Writing - I Think I Totally Take That For Granted.

Our Human Nature Is Exactly The Same As It Was 500 Years Ago, Let Alone Five Years Ago.

I Wouldn't Succeed At Musical Theater.

I Mean, You Always Want Everybody To Pat You On The Back And Tell You You're Wonderful Every Time You Do Something; I Think That's Human Nature.

Actually, I Have An Interest In Finishing My Ph.d., But I Just Know I Never Will.

I Just Spend My Money On The Essentials. Just Basically Food And Shelter.

If Somebody Says What They Want Or What They Need It Gives The Person The Chance To Say Yes Or No, Instead Of Suffering In Silence Or Depravation Or Whatever It Is.

I Don't Believe In A Conspiracy To Hide The Existence Of Extraterrestrial Life.

Patrick Stewart Was The First Internet Sex Symbol Without Hair But Pileggi Always Thought It Was Him.

I Was About 26 Or 27 And It Was Imperative That I Make A Living Right Away And It's Hard To Make A Living On Stage, So I Started In Television And Film.

I Kind Of Dread Any Kind Of Critical Response, Just Because It's Always Painful In Some Way. Even If It's 80 Percent Good, It's The 20 Percent That's Bad That You Remember - And That's A Higher Number Than I Usually Get, 80 Percent Would Be Amazing.

Sex Is Great Until You Die, But It's Never As Great As It Was When You Were A Kid, When It Was A Mystery.

If My Work Was Good Enough, I Would Never Have To Do Publicity.

Maybe With "californication" The Character Was Partly Based On Rick Moody. I Read Him And Jay Mcinerney, The Templates For This Bad Boy Novelist.

I Had To Work In One Of The Most Beautiful Ski Resorts In The World For Almost Three Weeks. Pity Me.

Usually, When I Act, I Try To Forget The Words And Let Them Come, And Just Find My Way Through Them.

The Key Is To Get To Know People And Trust Them To Be Who They Are. Instead, We Trust People To Be Who We Want Them To Be - And When They're Not, We Cry.

I Reread "ball Four" By Jim Bouton, The Father Of All Sports Books. Aside From That, And Books Like "out Of Their League" By Dave Meggyesy, Sports Books Generally Pull Their Punches.

Most Journalists Expect Me To Answer All Their Questions About Aliens And Spaceships.

A Dream Is The Mind's Way Of Answering A Question It Hasn't Yet Figured Out How To Ask.

For Hundreds Of Years, That Was The Major Form Of Entertainment: The Grown-ups Sat Around And Watched The Kids Play. Now They Sit Around And Watch The Television. The Actors Are The Kids.

People Are Really Much More Respectful Than They're Made Out To Be And Much More Discerning About The Fact That I'm Not The Character I Play.

I Really Enjoy Taking An Outdoor Shower.

I Don't Know If [samuel] Beckett Is Something You Ever Bring To The Beach - Get Out Of The Water, Towel Off, And Start Reading Some Of "the Unnamable." Although, Because It's The Kind Of Book You Can Open To Any Page And Start Reading, It Is Beach Reading In That Way.

People… They Don’t Write Anymore – They Blog. Instead Of Talking, They Text, No Punctuation, No Grammar: Lol This And Lmfao That. You Know, It Just Seems To Me It’s Just A Bunch Of Stupid People Pseudo-communicating With A Bunch Of Other Stupid People In A Proto-language That Resembles More What Cavemen Used To Speak Than The King’s English.

Without Whining And Without Making Myself A Tragic Figure, There Is No Replacement For The Loss Of Your Privacy. It's A Huge Sacrifice.

My Entire Life Has Been An Attempt To Get Back To The Kind Of Feelings You Have On A Field. The Sense Of Brotherhood, The Esprit De Corps, The Focus - There Being No Past Or Future, Just The Ball. As Trite As It Sounds, I Was Happiest Playing Ball.

One Of The Scary Things Is That, When You're A Kid, You Look At Your Dad As The Man Who Has No Fear. When You're An Adult, You Realize Your Father Had Fear, And That You Have It, Too.

I Don't Know How Anybody Gets Better At Anything Aside From Doing It.

Approaching A Part Or Thinking About Taking A Part, I Never Think, 'is That Person Like Me?'

Willie Mays Was The Best Ever. When I Was In College I Once Made A Catch Like The One Mays Made Over His Head. Sometimes When I'm Lying In Bed At Night I Think About It. It Still Makes Me Warm.

Sometimes When I'm Swimming, I Think That Maybe Someday I'll Put My Red Speedo Up For Auction. Or Maybe I'll Donate It To The Smithsonian. They Can Stuff It With Two Plums And A Gherkin And Put It On Display.

I Got Married A Bit Late, I Agree. In Any Other Period Of History I'd Have Been Dead At That Age And They'd Have Assumed I Was Gay. Like Michelangelo, Or Leonardo Da Vinci. But I Was A Late Developer. I Didn't Go Through Puberty Until I Was 35.

It's Rare In Movies Or Even In Life Where Somebody Owns Up To Their Needs. I Guess In A Relationship It's The Only Way It Has A Chance To Survive It.

You're Raising A Kid And You Give It Food And Shelter And, Most Importantly, You Give It The Feeling That It's Special. I Think People React To Celebrities Like That - I Mean, They Treat Celebrities Like Children.

I Dont Like The Idea Of Being Eaten By A Shark. I Like To Swim In The Ocean, And I Think Much More About Sharks Than Anyone Should. I Really Resent The Fact That My Oceangoing Experiences Are Ruined By Jaws.

It's Always Like You Write A Poem When You Can't Really Say What You're Trying To Say.

It's Hard To Find Scripts That Know What They Are From Page One To Page 115.

I Don't Think Of Myself As A Tv Actor. I Think Of Myself As A Film, Television And Off-off-off-off Broadway Actor.

I'm Actually Thinking About Getting Back To Being A Bath Tub. I Don't Think Anyone's Ever Quite Segued Into That.

The Only Episode Which Was Completely My Idea Was For Mitch Pileggi, The Actor Who Portrays Skinner, The Assistant Director Of The Fbi. He Appears Often In The Series, But Only For A Few Scenes. You Know Virtually Nothing About Him. I Wanted Him To Have An Episode That Was His Alone, So I Wrote Avatar For Him. He Even Has A Scene That's Pretty . . . Hot [knowing Smile]. He Was Very Happy.

Fame Does Lead To Money, Which I Don't Have A Close Relationship With. I'm The Kind Of Guy Who Never Sees The Money - It All Goes Somewhere Else. I Don't Understand It, I Don't Like To Deal With It. I Have A Fear Of Not Having It, Because I Grew Up Without It.

If Fox Mulder Discovered That Larry Sanders Was A Clone? I Think He Would Stab Him . . . But It Wouldn't Be With An Ice Pick.

I Enjoy Comedy And I Hope That People Enjoy Watching Me Do It.

As I've Gotten Older I've Become A Devotee Of 19th-century Authors, Such As Charles Dickens And George Eliot.

One Of The Great Things About Doing Series Television Is The Guest Actors That You Can Have Come On And Play Around With.

I'm Not Going To Give Up. I Can't Give Up. Not As Long As The Truth Is Out There.

I'm Very Proud Of My Scottish Blood.

Anxiety Is Part Of Creativity, The Need To Get Something Out, The Need To Be Rid Of Something Or To Get In Touch With Something Within.

As Names That Can Mean Things, I Prefer Spiritual To A Lot Of Other Things.

A Lot Of Times Passion Projects Or Films Are Difficult To Make Because They Don't Have Proven Directors Attached To Them.

I've Run Into Certain Geniuses Of Individualism - They Are Very Few And Far Between - Who Live Their Lives Completely On Their Own Terms; They Are Very Powerful And Have A Great Amount Of Happiness. We All Should Aspire To That.

Action Is Pretty Boring To Do As An Actor. Action And Sex Scenes Are Silly Because It's All Faking.

If I Were Gay, You Know. I Think Woody Allen Is One Of A Long List Of Men I Might Go Gay For.

My Favorite Parts Of Work As An Actor And A Director Are Those Unplanned Mistakes That Do Happen, Because It's Like Catching Lightning In A Bottle. It's The Best Part Of What We Do.

When I Started Getting Notoriety It Was Cheesy To Appear In A Commercial.

On The One Hand, People Think They Own Kids; They Feel That They Have The Right To Tell The Kids What To Do. On The Other Hand, People Envy Kids. We'd Like To Be Kids Our Whole Lives. Kids Get To Do What They Do. They Live On Their Instincts.

I'm Always Trying To Perfect The Romantic Comedy, Though.

I Don't See Any Difference In The Craft Of Acting, In Film Or Television. It's Absolutely The Same. It's Different Storytelling, Playing A Character Over Multiple Hours, As Opposed To Two.

I Think Mulder Is The Worst Fbi Agent In The World. He Spends Millions Of Dollars Investigating These Paranormal Phenomena And Never Comes Up With Any Evidence. He's The Kenneth Starr Of The Fbi.

I Always Dreamt Of Being A Basketball Player. A Dream That Only I Believed In.

The Happiest Moment Of My Life Was Probably When My Daughter Was Born.

I'll Instinctively Know That I Identify With A Character.

I'm Not A Comic Book Character. I'm Not Indiana Jones Or Bond, I'm A Flesh And Blood Guy Who Is Ageing And Changing. I Don't Have To Do What I Did In '93. I Couldn't Do It And Thank God.

Maybe The Best Things About Celebrity Are The Things Like Being Able To Get That Seat On The Plane That You Wouldn't Normally Get, But That's Kind Of Like Cheating.

I'm Inspired As A Writer By Any Place Where I've Lived For A Significant Amount Of Time That Have Memories, My Past, And Stories Attached To Them, And That's Really New York And L.a. Any Place Where There's Ghosts Are Inspiring.

I Don't Make Decisions Based On Money.

People Think Celebrities Don't Have To Worry About Human Things Like Sickness And Death And Rent. It's Like You've Traveled To This Land Of Celebrity, This Other Country. They Want You To Tell About What You Saw.

A Bath Tub, Apparently, Was The First Thing I Wanted To Be.

I'm Not Reading Currently Because I'm Getting Revisions Of A Novel. If I Read While I'm Writing I Will Unconsciously Plagiarize And Go To Jail.

Games, By Nature, Have More Plot Options And Non-linear Qualities Than Tv And Film.

I'm A Big Philip Roth Fan. I Think "american Pastoral" Is The Great American Novel Of The Past 30 To 40 Years. It's A Novel About What Happened In The 1960s, And I Think America Is Still Dealing With What Happened Then. It's Devastatingly Sad.

Becoming An Actor Made Me Way More Interested In Plot.

I Lost My Virginity When I Was 14. And I Haven't Been Able To Find It.

I Understand The Self-loathing And The Resentment, And The Discipline That It Takes To Sit Down In Front Of A Typewriter Or Computer Every Single Day, Whether It's Going Well Or Not Going Well.

I Had A Fear That I'd Be Typecast, But I Don't Really Have That Fear Anymore.

Privacy Is Something I Have Come To Respect. I Think When I Was Younger I Wanted To Tell Everybody Everything, Because I Thought I Was So Damn Interesting. Then I Heard The Snoring.

I Don't Need My Phone To Play Me Music. I Need It To Be A Phone And An E-mail Thing.

What I Liked About Mulder Was His Quality Of Not Caring What Other People Thought Of Him. He Was Very Independent. He Wasn't Interested In Women. I Liked That. He Had Kind Of An Intellectual Quest, But Not A Sexual Quest. That Was The Challenge Of Mulder. Here Was A Guy That Got Almost Sexually Excited About Aliens. And I Wanted To Be Able To Do That!

Every Time Mulder Smiles, People Say, 'god, It Was Great To See You Smile. Mulder Never Smiles.' I Say, 'mulder Smiles A Whole Lot. He Smiles At Least Once A Show.' People Get These Ideas In Their Heads And They're Impossible To Shake. But, To Be Honest With You, Mulder Is Every Bit As Vulnerable And Quirky As Ally Mcbeal. I Think Mulder Has Pretty Good Legs, Too.

I Really Like Gratuitous Nudity. I Hate When People Go, 'i'll Only Do It If It Makes Sense For The Movie'. It Never Makes Sense. So I Like It - The More Gratuitous The Better.

You're Kinda Striding The Line Of What's Yours And Theirs. What's Yours, What's Mine, What's Ours As Creators Of It And What's Yours As Owners.

Women's Fashion Is A Subtle Form Of Bondage. It's Men's Way Of Binding Them. We Put Them In These Tight, High-heeled Shoes, We Make Them Wear These Tight Clothes And We Say They Look Sexy. But They're Actually Tied Up.

Every Day I Try To Do Breathing Exercises, Meditation, And Yoga. These Things Sound Awfully Cliche, But They Help Me Slow Down And Try To Point To A Truth.

When I Grew Up, I Was In Manhattan The Whole Time. But My Kids Have Been All Over The World.

My Whole Life, Ive Wanted Things Before I Was Ready. I Was Always Pushing For The Next Job, The Next Success. I Was So Focused On Achieving And The Path That I Was Missing Some Great Point About Life.

When I Was A Kid I Ate Sports Books Up, Like "winners Never Quit" By Phil Pepe. That Was Like My Bible.

I Mean, There's Chemistry In Life And There's Acting Chemistry. I'm Not Saying They're The Same Thing, But They're As Mysterious.

Larry Grobel's Interviews Are Informative And Insightful Without Being Pandering Or Intrusive. You Get The Sense At All Times Of Both Intelligence At Work-the Interviewee's And Grobel's-both Inspired By The Encounter.

There's Two Things I Gotta Do. One Is, I Gotta Update My Resume. And Then, I Have To Call My Mother.

Everybody Gets The Tattoo They Deserve.

There Are People Who Are Really Great Musicians. I've Met A Lot Of Them. And I'm Not A Great Musician. I'm Adequate Enough To Be Able To Throw Some Chords Together And Write Songs, But I Can Only Feel That Because I'm Expressing Something Honestly, Or In A Heartfelt Way, Or In Some Way That's Not Bullshit, That In Some Way The Songs Have Merit.

Our Country Was Founded On A Distrust Of Government. Our Founding Fathers Gave Power To The People To Keep An Eye On Government. So When Politicians Say, 'trust Me,' They're Actually Being Very Un-american.

I Look Back The Old Old Ones [x-files Series], From The Beginning, And I'm Kind Of Mortified By My Acting! But I'm Kind Of Impressed By My Enthusiasm. I'm Just Thankful That I Got To Become Better At What I Did, And That We Didn't Get Cancelled In The First Year.

Obviously People's Feelings Are Going To Get Hurt When You Use Certain Words, But You Can't Outlaw Words. They're Really The History Of Our Culture. They Tell You What's Going On. When You Make Words Politically Incorrect You're Taking All The Poetry Out Of The Language. I'm Pro Anybody Living Their Lives The Way They Want To Live, Sexually And Otherwise; And I'm Anti Any Kind Of Language Repression.

Garry Shandling Is Someone I've Publicly Gone Gay For, For Jokes. Oh And Anyone In The Twilight Movies. I Don't Know Any Of Their Names, But All Of Them. The Wolves, The Vampires? They're All Fantastic.

If Young Actors Ask Me Things, I Always Tell Them To Get On Set And Watch How It's Done. If You Can, Watch The People That You Like, How They Work.

What Makes Me Mad Is Arrogance, Pretension, Putting On Airs.

In The General Sense, There's A Journey To Be Had. You Either Start At The Top Or The Bottom For A Journey To Happen. Our Movie Has To Start At The Top And Work It's Way Down. Or Start At The Bottom And Work It's Way Up.

The Real Truth About A Lot Of Life's Mysteries Can Be Explained By Science But People Don't Want To Get In Bed With Science Because It's Cold. They Prefer Religion, Myth, Drama.

People Always Love And Respect Characters Who Speak The Truth, Even If The Truth Hurts.

If You're Smart, You'll Always Be Humble. You Can Learn All You Want, But There'll Always Be Somebody Who's Never Read A Book Who'll Know Twice What You Know.

In High School And College, I Was An Athlete.

Those Characters Are Forever Searchingeven If We're Not Watching Them, They're Out There, In Some Dimension. Mulder And Scully Are Still Doing Their Thing, Because That's Their Nature.

I'm Half Jewish, Half Scottish. It's Hard For Me To Buy Anything.

I've Turned Down Jobs Because I've Said, 'honestly, I Can't Find My Way In. I Can't Do It. I Love You, As A Director. I Think The Script Is Good. You Deserve Better Than I Think I Can Do.'

I Think The Real Heroic Teachers Are The Ones Who Work With Kids, Like My Mom And My Sister Do.

At One Time There Were Voiceover Artists, Now There Are Celebrity Voiceover Artists. It's Unfortunate Because These People Need The Money Less Than The Voiceover Artist.

I Don't Think You Could Function On Set If You Think Like That. I Think Once You Start To Think Of The Impact, Then You're Not Really Coming From A Truthful Place. I Think The Best Thing To Do For Me Is What's Worked In The Past.

I Think People Still Have A Need For Miracles. Science Keeps Telling Them There's No Life On Mars, There's No God, Nothing's Trailing Hale-bopp, Those People Are Just Dead In Their Nikes. But They Want To Believe In Something.

You Do Hear Some Strange Rumours Floating Around. One I've Heard Is That I'm Allergic To Metal.

I Also Watch A Lot Of Really Bad Television When I'm Writing, "like Dancing With The Stars," With My Daughter.

In This Age Of Media And Internet Access, We Are Much More Talkative Than Ever Before.

Internet Access

I May Be Learning Guitar, But I'll Never Be Able To Sing.

Tv Directors Just Aren't Sexy For Some Reason, Although, You Know, Rob And Kim [manners] Are Very Sexy In My Eyes.

The Critical Mind Is The Creative Mind.

I'm The One Usually Wearing The Dress, Which Is What I Would've Preferred, But They Wouldn't Let Me. It's Been 15 Years Since I Did That And My Ass Isn't As Good As It Used To Be.

I Poop In The Backyard... I Wear Disposable Diapers.

Whenever Somebody Says They Need An Angle For Their Story I Always Fear That They've Got An Idea And They Want Me To Fit Into It Or They Want Me To Come Up With An Idea Myself Or I'm Supposed To Be More Revealing Than I've Been, And To Me It Just Sounds Like Something I Don't Want To Do.

I Enjoy Trying To Figure Out The Best Way To Compliment The Picture And Not Overpower It.

It's Almost Obscene When You See People Who Haven't Matured, Who Haven't Changed, Who Don't Have The Weight Of Years On Them. So That's Interesting To Me - To Think About Playing Him Into The Future, Anew.

If You Have Darwin, Christ And Nietzsche, They're All Going To Talk At Once. You Need Somebody Who Listens.

Tv Was The Boogey Man When I Was Growing Up. Video Games Are The Boogey Man Now. The Novel Was Once A Boogey Man. Books About Lowborn People Doing Lowborn Things Were Once Considered A Real Assault On People's Morals. Maybe Some Day Video Games Will Be Looked On As A Good Thing, But Personally I Don't See It.

I Think [kids] Enjoy Reading, But It's A Different World Now. There Are A Lot Of Competitors For The Imaginative Attention.

We All Know People For That Length Of Time And People Change. They Mature. There Is A Certain Expectation That A Fictional Character Does Not Change. But You Can't Go Back And Play Him The Same Way.

I Don't Think I'd Ever Be Cruel To An Animal.

It's Not Someone Else's Responsibility To Honor My Marriage. It's My Responsibility.

Chemistry Is Really About Two People Who Like To Act Together, I Think. It's Like Tennis In The Most Cliched Way. It's Like If You Hit The Ball, They Hit The Ball Back, And They Don't Hit It Into The Stands, And They Don't Put The Ball In Their Pocket And Walk Off - And They Don't Argue With The Umpire, You Know?

I've Got Huge Tubs Full Of X-files Memorobilia That I Can Sell On Ebay.

We Like To Keep The Sexual Tension Underplayed, Especially Between The Smoking Man And Me. Once We Thought He Was My Father . . . It Got More Interesting.

Trending Author

Friedrich Durrenmatt

Olusegun Obasanjo

Category