Daniel Day-Lewis

The West has always been the epicentre of possibility. One of the ways we forge against mortality is to head west. It's to do with catching the sun before it slips behind the horizon.

I can't re-examine work I did in the past with pride.

I feel less often compelled to do the work than I was in the past.

I suppose the place where I live is fairly remote, it would seem remote to some people.

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.

Many years ago, I really didn't know where the next work was coming from.

When I do work, I feel the same sort of urgency as I ever did. If I didn't feel that, I don't think I would wish to be doing it. I wouldn't really see the point.

For as long as I can remember, the thing that gave me a sense of wonderment and renewal... has always been the work of other actors.

I avoid talking about the way I work. But in avoiding it I seem only to have encouraged people to focus their fantasies about me in an ever more fantastical way.

I find it easier to work when it's quiet.

At a certain age it just became apparent to me that this was probably the work that I would have to do.

Quite honestly, if I were doing work related to a living being or historical being where there was visual or audio recordings available, I would find that extremely difficult because I don't know how you would avoid the process of mimicry. And mimicry, to me at any rate, is a very dull prospect.