Top 122 David Duchovny Quotes

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.

If you have Darwin, Christ and Nietzsche, they’re all going to talk at once. You need somebody who listens.

I think there are ways in which shows can pop their heads up a little bit in the morass of everything you can watch.

In this age of media and Internet access, we are much more talkative than ever before.

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.

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’ve made so many mistakes. But it is my feeling that you learn from failures, so I welcome them as often as I can.

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.

When I grew up, I was in Manhattan the whole time. But my kids have been all over the world.

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 think of myself as more of a comic person. I don’t know about a comic actor.

I love the Lower East Side.

It’s hard to find scripts that know what they are from page one to page 115.

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.

Generally, I don’t like to walk out of a movie. It’s like a relationship – you want to see it to the end; otherwise, you won’t know if you left early or not.

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.

In the U.S., oddly, we have images of men as arrogant and aggressive.

The happiest moment of my life was probably when my daughter was born.

98% of the people in the world are harmless and wish you well, but it only takes one person who doesn’t. That’s what you’re constantly on guard against.

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.

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.

I’m not really a gamer.

I really enjoy taking an outdoor shower.

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.

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.

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.

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 wanted to write plays. I was at Yale graduate school at the time for English literature, not for acting… I liked the idea of collaboration, and I thought if I’m gonna write plays, I should learn something about speaking the lines that I might try to write.

I don’t 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.’

I don’t make decisions based on money.

I’m turning into a stricter dad.

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 always dreamt of being a basketball player. A dream that only I believed in.

I may be learning guitar, but I’ll never be able to sing.

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.

A lot of times passion projects or films are difficult to make because they don’t have proven directors attached to them.

You become tyrannized by this notion that women must not only be treated equally, but they must never fail.

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.

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.

In terms of likeability, that’s something that I don’t think about as an actor when I approach a role.

I think Polanski’s an amazing director.

I don’t know how anybody gets better at anything aside from doing it.

I don’t make decisions based on money.

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.

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 never, ever, ever cook. And I would never eat anything I might cook.

I really enjoy taking an outdoor shower.

I think of myself as more of a comic person. I don’t know about a comic actor.

One of the great things about doing series television is the guest actors that you can have come on and play around with.

I don’t need my phone to play me music. I need it to be a phone and an e-mail thing.

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.

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.

I enjoy comedy and I hope that people enjoy watching me do it.

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’m kind of stupid when it comes to gadgets.

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.

If my work was good enough, I would never have to do publicity.

I won’t look online. The whole fan thing makes me self-conscious, which is not to say I don’t appreciate it or understand it. If Mickey Mantle were around, I’m sure I’d have a ton of questions to ask him that might make him uncomfortable. I get it. That doesn’t mean it’s not really awkward.

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.

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’m not really a gamer.

Actually, I have an interest in finishing my Ph.D., but I just know I never will.

I lost my virginity when I was 14. And I haven’t been able to find it.

I’ll instinctively know that I identify with a character.

There’s nothing wrong with acknowledging the panoply of life’s rich experience.

One of the nice things about acting is that it allows you to open up to the other people within you.

People always love and respect characters who speak the truth, even if the truth hurts.

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.

I’m half Jewish, half Scottish. It’s hard for me to buy anything.

I’m half Jewish, half Scottish. It’s hard for me to buy anything.

Without whining and without making myself a tragic figure, there is no replacement for the loss of your privacy. It’s a huge sacrifice.

I lost my virginity when I was 14. And I haven’t been able to find it.