I can't honestly account for the very personal response that I have to one story and not another, a sense of an orbit, the orbit of a world that draws me as my own life recedes.
Daniel Day-LewisRead
I suppose it's a very highly developed form of denial, but some part of me completely denies that I'm a performer.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects an inner conflict regarding self-identity and the nature of performance in art.
Daniel Day-Lewis expresses a profound contemplation on his identity as a performer, suggesting that despite his accomplishments in acting, he feels an inherent denial of that label. This reflects a common struggle among artists who grapple with the authenticity of their craft and how it relates to their true selves, highlighting a deeper philosophical inquiry into the nature of self-perception and role-playing.
Themes
IdentityPerformanceArtSelf-DenialPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the nature of fame, this quote serves to remind us that public personas may not reflect personal truths.
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All quotes βOne of the great privileges of having grown up in a middle-class literary English household, but having gone to school in the front lines in Southeast London, was that I became half-street-urchin and half-good-boy at home. I knew that dichotomy was possible.
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You don't merely give over your creativity to making a film - you give over your life! In theatre, by contrast, you live these two rather strange lives simultaneously; you have no option but to confront the mould on last night's washing-up.
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When I've gone back to work, it's always with that sense of inevitability. That may be a complete delusion, but it's the one that I need to get out of bed and go about my business. That sense that I can't avoid this thing. I better just get on with it.
Daniel Day-LewisRead
I don't torture myself. And I do the work because of the pleasure involved. I'm satisfying a compulsion I find nigh-on irresistible. It's not necessarily because of the work itself. I just feel the need for a period of regeneration afterwards. Like leaving a field fallow when you've grazed too much on it. I feel depleted.
Daniel Day-LewisRead
England is obsessed with where you came from, and they are determined to keep you in that place, be it in a drawing room or in the gutter.
Daniel Day-LewisRead
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