Jeff Daniels Quotes

Television in the last few years has been where all the great writers are going. TV now is what indie film used to be.

Are we just pretending to be unhappy so that we can add drama to our lives, so that we seem more substantial?

I know there are people, if I go into a market or a city for the first time, there are people that are there that just want to see the famous person, or the guy from 'Dumb and Dumber' or whatever movie they liked. And that's fine, it gets them in the door, but then it's my job to give them something different.

Nothing seems to matter but ourselves. That's not how I was brought up. I don't recognize the country I live in anymore.

I was haunted by trainers going "Up, up, up, get up." You find yourself picking your head up and then realizing, They aren't talking to me.

I think we have the attention span of a gnat. You know, with cell phones and Twitter.

We're all capable of anything as human beings. Any emotion, any action. We really are.

Working with Jim Carrey is an absolute gas. I have never laughed so hard for so long. Had he been on-board for the sequel of Dumb & Dumber, I would've jumped on, with no hesitation.

Comedy is hard to do. All the cliches about it are true.

On indies it's hard to do, but in rehearsals, you make mistakes in rehearsal. It's really hard rehearsing a play or what rehearsal you get on any movie. That's where you get to make your mistakes, and you make big ones. So when you shoot [the movie] or you finally get the play in shape and do it, the mistakes are out of the way. If you're not afraid to make mistakes, then there is no writer's block or actor's block.

I just never did buy this idea that you have to live in Los Angeles to be an actor. I didn't see that as a requirement in my job description.

I think Michigan keeps you sane and on an even keel through the ups and downs. In Michigan, I do fireworks, shovel snow and live life.

You can't rewrite nothing, but you can rewrite 90 pages of sh*t. Now you've got your sh*t on the page, you can go work.

Give me good writing, and I'll play it all day.

I never starved. And you know, whatever talent I have, I've relied on that, versus image or star. I have just said, 'Hire me if you want somebody good.' I tried to be as good as I could be every time out, and that's kind of bridged the decades.

There is no best anything in art. Phillip [Hoffman] isn't better than Heath [Ledger]; Joaquin [Phoenix] isn't better than David [Strathairn] or Terence [Howard]. They aren't better than me. We all do different things. It's more of a celebration of a lot of great work than to give the gold to somebody. The underappreciated factor certainly has gone away.

I think the American electorate should work a little harder at getting informed. That includes hearing, truly listening, to what the other side is saying. Whether you're left or right.

I went to Walter Reed hospital a couple of times to visit wounded soldiers, kids with no legs and one arm. You start to question some things.

Everything’s a story, kid. Stories are what help us make sense of the world.

There are so many projects that you go into hoping the story works, and here comes a new third act and that kind of thing.

I'm the guy to call. Look at the resume. I have kids of my own. I have dogs.

I don't watch dailies. I don't pretend not to read reviews, I just don't. I wait for it to come on the air, just like everybody else.

As an actor, you're always at the service of somebody else's vision. In a play, it's more of the director's vision, and he or she's got their hands on you all the way up to opening night, and if it's a film, there are even more people.

The indie world changed when the economy went south. I was frustrated with doing something, then waiting for it to come out, and sometimes it never did, or would just play in New York for 50 people. So I really wanted to try something else.

I always wanted to do films. I'd gone to New York early in 1976 and did a lot of theater, but I really wanted to chase the paths of people like Pacino and Lemmon and those guys. Alan Arkin. Film was where I wanted to go.

I never starved. And you know, whatever talent I have, I've relied on that, versus image or star.

I have done all of the genres, and the dramatic role is my favorite.

Meryl Streep's brilliant, just brilliant. I've been fortunate to do two movies with Meryl. And for an actor to go moment to moment like she does, there's no one better. And she dances between moments. Each take is different because she's riding instincts, she's riding impulses. And she trusts that.

Well, the music industry is littered with actors who belatedly came to singing.

One of the more noble things the Oscars can do is pay attention to movies no one knows about. Blockbusters don't need much help.

I love the theater, but if I had to choose, I would choose a film at this time in my life. Something meaty, to sink my teeth into.

And that's one thing that helps me is I learn it blandly, vanilla, then I don't try to act it too soon because you start to act it, and you kind of go away from what the next sentence is, what the next paragraph is. So get it down so it kind of can - it's in there so you can then, as I call it, dance on top of it.

I think it's a style of acting that you trust. You trust the instincts.

On cable now, the writer is king. Any actor chases that.

Every actor just wants good writing.

And the actors tend not to want to watch themselves very often. I'm one of those guys.

I know I'm not bipolar or schizophrenic, but this career allows you to explore, to take some facets of yourself and spin it.

We've got a pretty close family. Just ended fourteen years of travel hockey with two boys. My daughter was always a part of that. So there's a lot of trips to the hockey games. As I tell idiotic, stupid, youth-sport parents, it's about the drive there and the drive back, not about the trophy or how your kid played. We've always had a good relationship with our kids. You're driving with them and talking to them at the age of eight. It became this adventure and they learned to love it. You connect, you really do. It's not for every family.

There's not a single job in this town. There's nothin', nada, zip. Unless you wanna workforty hours a week.

I also write plays, so I understand the writers mind, and how obsessed you can get writing.

I love living in Michigan, which has been great for my kids and my family.

Regardless of the fact that in this country, certainly in the arts, we treat comedy as a second-class citizen, I've never thought of it that way. I've always thought it to be important. The last time I looked, the Greeks were holding up two masks. I've always thought of it not only as having equal value, but as the craft of it, being funny.

The biggest compliment I think an actor can get is I can't imagine anyone else in the role.

I never said, 'I'm going to be a big star.' I said, 'I'm going to be a good actor.' And that took the pressure off.

Stars don't want to have flaws. Stars like to be likable.

There is no best anything in art.

You know, its really strange now with the Internet, with everyone having an unsolicited, anonymous opinion.

I would love to [do theater], but there are go-to girls for theater. I am learning that, upon moving to New York and inquiring. There are go-to girls that will get the role any day of the week. It's true. Some people won't even let me audition.

I learned a long time ago that the show you're going to see isn't the one you have in your head. As soon as you understand that, you're going to enjoy it a lot more.

You see a lot of these movies that are really just 90-minute video games. The effects are incredible. I get it: There's an art to that, terrific. I'm not interested in it, but there's an art to that I suppose.