Dennis Quaid Quotes
Actor
I always want to find the best burger in town.
In aviation they have auto pilot and color radar and a lot of other instrumentation that is a backup for pilots. It's really brought the incidents of plane crashes way down. Same thing ought to happen in the medical industry, I think.
Certainly I'm a Christian first and foremost. But I do believe in religious tolerance and finding the commonality between all of us. I think that's how we're all going to come together.
I always wanted to be an astronaut.
Horseracing and ranch horses are two different animals. You're getting race horses out and running and running them. It can be really problematic. A thoroughbred's very delicate.
You don't have to be alone with your thoughts anymore. You don't have to process anything. You can call up someone to do something to instantly make you sort of feel better.
I spent a weekend in the White House with President Clinton, back in '99, I guess. We played golf and just hung out and talked on many subjects. I saw him several times subsequently in L.A. He's the smartest man I ever met, a great politician. Everybody was star struck around him.
Clinton knew how to get things done. He was battling the Republicans, and then he basically took a lot of their agenda and made it his own. That's what Obama's not doing.
God is the only way you're going to make it in life, the glue that holds everything together.
I was a guy back in the Eighties who was one movie away from a huge career, which at that time didn't happen. In the Nineties, I worked a lot, but it was kind of, 'Get out there and dig and find things.' Then I guess 'The Rookie' and 'Far From Heaven' were referred to as my comeback.
I love acting and making your own luck. You have to recreate yourself, I guess. Although, I don't know how.
Sometimes in movies, I still have to be the hero, but it's not all that important to me anymore.
I have a resistance to change in things that I feel comfortable with and that I'm used to.
I could never hold a job for more than three months, which works out well because that's how long a movie shoots.
I've done so many movies that when I see them I don't really watch them.
Your partner has to live with the best and the worst part of you, and they're affected by it.
When you break up, your whole identity is shattered. It's like death.
I want to work with great people. Great people really make you better.
I was made to be a perfectionist at everything I did. Everything was more important than what I wanted.
I grew up Baptist and still go to church. I myself have explored other religions, because I want to know what it is that makes other people tick. I find we're all talking about the same thing, really - it's all God.
My interpretation of a strong director is someone who knows their story. That's what directors are, they're storytellers because they're directing where your focus is going to be as an audience.
I try to be eclectic in my choice of films. If I've done anything that's intentional in my career, it's to try to do as many different types of characters and as many different types of genres of movies that I can.
Jesus himself talked about prayer and meditation. Anything that brings you closer to the Lord, what's wrong with that?
If you're going to stick around in this business, you have to have the ability to reinvent yourself, whether consciously or unconsciously.
I've never really sought out publicity.
I judge movies on how much fun I had while I was doing them. I had a great time on 'The Right Stuff.' Doing that was fantastic. And there was the year I did 'The Rookie' and 'Far From Heaven,' which was amazing because those two different roles were just so far apart.
That's what is great about what I do, going from one job to the other.
I love being a dad, and I'm good at it. Kids teach you about life, like how not to focus on yourself so much.
There's no way that I could do a 9 to 5 job. There's no way. I was not cut out for that. You come in and you work for three months on the one job. They say, 'Great,' you know, and you're on to the next one - and you never even got fired. It's wonderful.
It's hard for two actors to be together. Take the traveling, for instance. It winds up being a long distance relationship, all the time, because one's working here and one's working there, or one's staying at home and one's off someplace else.
I went out for the football team but, you know, I was too small. That's how I wound up in drama.
Before I was an actor, I was never able to hold a job for more than 3 months for some reason. It just wouldn't hold my interest, so there was some way that I wound up quitting or getting fired from it. But being an actor is perfect, because movies usually take about three months to shoot. Then it's over and they say, 'Hey, great job!'
I really love doing what I do, being an actor. It's the greatest. You can do it until you die.
What they will do is, you know the tabloids. They'll take one element of a story that may be true and they'll build everything around it. Take a picture and invent a story around it.
I didn't play football in school, but I've been a fan of football all my life. I have a fair understanding of it. Doing movies about it really helps because you know what makes them work and what doesn't.
I'm an idol of cinema? Oh, wow.
I like acting and being a musician. It's like comparing apples and oranges. But I really like my day job. I've always played music since I was 12, and I guess I always will.
One thing I've really never had a problem with was memorizing lines. Most of the time I don't memorize the lines until we're on the set shooting the scene.
Everybody just wants to be famous first, and then maybe learn how to act.
I've always considered myself a character actor. That's the way I was trained, really.
Golf is meaningless, but it means so much.
I used to eat a lot of fish, but I've been shying away from it because of the mercury thing. I eat more beef and chicken now.
I would like my kids to follow their bliss.
Surfing is like golf: You're always battling, and it keeps knocking you down. There are a lot of wipeouts. But when you stay with it and catch that wave, you really taste it. It's magic.
I'm lucky. I have a high metabolism, so I pretty much eat anything and everything.
When I watch a movie that I've been in, I'm watching it, but I usually remember what I was doing at that time, what was going on in my life.
I'd love to do a golf movie. I turned down Don Johnson's role in 'Tin Cup.' I regret that.
I found golf late in life, in 1990. I took some lessons and struggled. Then one day, I hit a drive that was so crisp and clean, with no vibration. There's no feeling like it. I was hooked.
I grew up in Houston, and I remember we had separate drinking fountains, and black people sat in the balcony of the theater... We had an African-American housekeeper growing up who was really like my second mother. I thought it was silly - hatred just because of the color of somebody's skin.
You go to Main Street, and Wal-Mart is coming to town and kicking out all the mom and pop stores. All the people that were in the mom and pop stores are now working for Wal-Mart.
I still have my original love for acting. That's why I feel so lucky. I think that's what sustains me in the sort of leaner times.
When I get a script, it's the only time that I get to be an audience member with the first-time experience of that movie. That's the first and only time.
I really want to see the Cubs in the World Series. I really do.
I have always done my own stunts, and I have been in hundreds of fights in films, but I have never been in a fist fight outside the movies.
Wall Street has come to America's heartland, really. The only thing missing are the skyscrapers, you know?
I love doing independent films, but it's very hard to make a living that way.
In my early teen years, I wanted to become a vet. That was my plan. I worked as a veterinarian's assistant for a couple of summers.
I love politics, but I wouldn't want to be involved in it. Too little money, too much work!
I don't see how it's a risky thing to take a great part with a great director and a great script. That, to me, is not really a dangerous, risky proposition. It's actually a really good choice.
When I was in my mid-20s, I traveled a lot around the world, and the question I had for everyone I talked to was, 'What is your conception of God?' I found that everybody basically felt the same: God is within and without. He's in everything.
'Legion' was a lot of fun to shoot. It was a real unique apocalypse scenario that takes place in a diner out in the desert. Very much like a drive-in B-movie, but in a good way.
Playing Bill Clinton is really, probably, the scariest time of my career.
For many years, I was obsessed about what I was eating, how many calories it had, and how much exercise I'd have to do.
I have a ranch in Montana, but it's not a real working ranch. I've always liked the outdoors. I come from Texas. My grandfather was a farmer; that's as close as I come.
I've had varying luck with comedy in the past, but I'd really like to give that another go. I don't know if I'd chase down a part, but if the right thing came along I could certainly see myself stepping into that zone.
I owe the little formal education I got to my drama teacher, Mr. Pickett, who got us to read Shakespeare, Moliere, and other classics.
I directed a movie back in the '90s which had calf roping in it, and I got into it quite a bit back then.
I look for a good story. Usually the best stories are the ones that are unbelievably true. 'Soul Surfer' is one of those stories.
I guess I could say I'm an actor, which I am, but that sounds like I'm putting down being a movie star, which, let's face it, is what I've become to many people. For myself, I'm a guy who was very insecure from about age 14 until the day I hit my 30th birthday.
When I choose a movie, I'll ask myself: 'Is this a movie I want to see?'
I was a really avid bowler when I was a teenager. I had about a 210-220 average. I had blisters on my fingers.
You don't bad-mouth your ex or anything like that. The key is your kid knowing that both parents still love him and are there for him.
What I find is that we're all human beings and that it's all very similar, what we believe. At the bottom, there's really not that much difference between Christians and Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists. We all worship God.
My real-life athletic career was not very much. I played Little League baseball.
Athletes are sort of part of the community at large. They have to be dedicated to what they do, and go through lots of peaks and valleys. And there's a lot of training that goes into their careers. It's a struggle. Very dramatic.
I'm not really a pitcher; I just play one in the movies.
There are three things being a celebrity is good for: raising money for charity, dinner reservations and tee times.
Families need a spiritual bond with one another and with God. God is the only way you're going to make it in life, the glue that holds everything together.
It's great to get paid for what you love doing most. To enjoy your work. And to follow that. It's important.
I love being a dad. Basically it's the most gratifying, rewarding relationship in life. But, at the same time, it certainly is the most challenging.
Movies usually find me, but I'm open to anything.
I learned to surf for 'Soul Surfer.' Surfing is like golf: You're always battling, and it keeps knocking you down. There are a lot of wipeouts. But when you stay with it and catch that wave, you really taste it. It's magic.
If I've done anything intentional about my career, is that I really have not - I've chosen to try to do as many different types of things as possible. That's really what I like to do.
A lot of people that I started out with, I don't know where they are. I guess it takes tenacity to still be doing this, and luck, but I've been very blessed.
I would like to work with Todd Phillips of 'The Hangover'. I would like to do more comedies; it would be a lot of fun. No actors in particular. I don't consciously seek out things to do.
I love to work. I actually enjoy it now more than I did when I was in my 20s. I don't know why, but I'm just grateful.
I was a late bloomer. I tried out for the football team, and I got locked off the field. That's how I wound up in drama.
Going to the golf course every day for work? That's a good job.
Family is the most important thing in life, period.
I don't know if I'd want to be a Secret Service agent. In the movies, it's exciting and romantic and all that. Really, most of their job is standing in a hallway for 12 hours making sure somebody doesn't come through a doorway off of a stairwell.
I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid. I grew up in Houston. Gordo Cooper was my favorite astronaut.
It's about... my only strategy I've ever had in my career is to do as many different types of roles as possible, as many different types of genres. It keeps the fire in my belly.
I love politics, but I wouldn't want to be involved in it. Too little money, too much work! I don't really have the personality for that.