Top 60 Gillian Anderson Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Just remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, but it takes action, perseverance, and facing your fears.”

— Gillian Anderson

2. “I hope everyone that is reading this is having a really good day.”

— Gillian Anderson

Featured in: Reading Quotes

3. “There is a difference between being listened to and being heard.”

— Gillian Anderson

4. “It is not a matter of being fearless. The fear is sometimes constant, but it’s about moving forward regardless of the fear. Courage means feeling the fear and doing it anyway.”

— Gillian Anderson

5. “I believe people are in our lives for a reason. We’re here to learn from each other.”

— Gillian Anderson

6. “You’re only given as much as you can handle at any given time. Whether it’s true or not, it gives you the strength.”

— Gillian Anderson

7. “Be of service. Whether you make yourself available to a friend or co-worker, or you make time every month to do volunteer work, there is nothing that harvests more of a feeling of empowerment than being of service to someone in need.”

— Gillian Anderson

8. “Well, it seems to me that the best relationships-the ones that last-are frequently the ones that are rooted in friendship.”

— Gillian Anderson

9. “I used to take myself very seriously, now it’s all just funny. You gotta laugh at yourself. You know, most of the time when something’s a big deal for us, it’s only become a big deal in the space between our ears.”

— Gillian Anderson

10. “I hope everyone that is reading this is having a really good day. And if you are not, just know that in every new minute that passes you have an opportunity to change that.”

— Gillian Anderson

11. “I have a real problem with stillness. With just stopping and being quiet.”

— Gillian Anderson

12. “I’ve got huge tubs full of stuff that I can sell on eBay. If there are people out there that are interested, I want them to come my way and buy my jackets and hats and scripts that are signed by everybody.”

— Gillian Anderson

13. “People generally treat me like I’m very intelligent and really, I’m much less intelligent than she is. Scully is insanely intelligent.”

— Gillian Anderson

14. “I truly believe that we can overcome any hurdle that lies before us and create the life we want to live. I have seen it happen time and time again.”

— Gillian Anderson

15. “Vibration is always good. Sitting on top of the washing machine thats going.”

— Gillian Anderson

16. “Success has nothing to do with happiness.”

— Gillian Anderson

17. “I wouldn’t say I’m normal. But I’m relatively stable. When I think of normal, I think of mediocrity, and mediocrity scares the f – out of me.”

— Gillian Anderson

18. “Mads is such a talented actor – it’s almost like he wears his emotions on his sleeve, but not all the time – when he decides that he needs to, he has such access to his emotional life and it is just really incredible. He can do everything with just his eyes.”

— Gillian Anderson

19. “My default is self-destruction, and anything on top of that is a bloody lot of work.”

— Gillian Anderson

20. “There’s a big part of me that would love to be a secret agent. But if I showed up to do an investigation and interrogate someone now, they wouldn’t be able to take me seriously. I’ve ruined that for myself.”

— Gillian Anderson

21. “The first time, where Fox Mulder and Scully met, she stands up for herself. She stands right there and gives it to him and that was extremely attractive.”

— Gillian Anderson

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

22. “I always felt I wasn’t completely American and I wasn’t completely British: there was a feeling of having my feet in both places.”

— Gillian Anderson

23. “Sometimes having a big amount of time is a gift, because by the time you’re at the end of the run you feel like you’ve figured it out finally or discovered everything you can about the character. Sometimes that’s not the case.”

— Gillian Anderson

24. “When I think of normality I think of mediocrity.”

— Gillian Anderson

25. “I’m trying to accept where I’m at, not run from it.”

— Gillian Anderson

26. “I’m a massive fan of Sunshine. Oh my God, I love that film.”

— Gillian Anderson

27. “In my case, I was born to parents who were very young, and I don’t think they were entirely ready to have a child. My dad was going to college and working two or three jobs at the same time, and my mum was working and going to school.”

— Gillian Anderson

28. “When I finished the series, I wasn’t going to do television again. I never wanted to do television to begin with, and I was so exhausted by the process that I was wary of being in front of the camera again.”

— Gillian Anderson

29. “I know people who are embarrassed to be American. They don’t like showing their passports. It’s becoming a scary place. It takes someone very brave not to be quiet, someone who doesn’t mind death threats, their life being turned upside down, news cameras outside their door. There is no freedom of speech in America anymore. They are not living up to the constitution. There’s so much fear in America and control.”

— Gillian Anderson

30. “I think we’re tremendously different than the series, if they were to tune in to the series after seeing the movie they might be disappointed. That there was, you know, that they might have some kind of adverse reaction.”

— Gillian Anderson

31. “Only once have I taken on a role where I felt that I didn’t quite understand her, but I said yes anyway. I don’t think I’ll ever do that again.”

— Gillian Anderson

32. “Thinking man’s crumpet? Well, it’s more flattering than being a lobotomised man’s crumpet, I suppose...”

— Gillian Anderson

33. “People come in and out of our lives to teach us. And we teach other people. It’s part of the process. They come in and they go out. Some stay for longer than others.”

— Gillian Anderson

34. “We can’t heal our broken system by sitting in judgment. Within each of us lies the seeds of intolerance and hate. If we simply declare others wrong and ourselves right, we deepen the divide.”

— Gillian Anderson

35. “I’m actually very scared of sharks. I wanted to be a marine biologist when I was young, which may not have been compatible with that fear.”

— Gillian Anderson

36. “If I chose to have a nanny, I’d be able to pay to have a nanny – a lot of women don’t have that opportunity. I don’t feel like I’m a working single mom, because I have that option that a lot of people don’t have.”

— Gillian Anderson

37. “People always ask if I was really voted Most Bizarre Girl in high school. But that one’s actually true. I was living in Michigan in a very conservative town and had a nose-ring and a shaved head and did kind of strange things.”

— Gillian Anderson

38. “I have a tendency to go through my life at full speed and as a one-man band, and so I don’t generally stop and take in other people enough to develop many relationships. I’m starting to regret that a bit. I want to change it.”

— Gillian Anderson

39. “I was a good liar as a child.”

— Gillian Anderson

40. “We are all dying. Every single day that we are alive!”

— Gillian Anderson

41. “Self-esteem should have nothing to do with what you look like – if you exude genuine confidence, people will be swept into it. You have to be able to hold yourself.”

— Gillian Anderson

42. “When I’m inside the character, I feel like I’m a different person, and then when you see that character on screen and I see that it’s me, I find that disappointing.”

— Gillian Anderson

43. “Every now and then we’d meet up and reminisce about the characters. At the beginning, shortly after we started shooting, someone sent me some clips put together on youtube. It was the first time I’d seen something like that. “The intimate moments of Mulder and Scully.””

— Gillian Anderson

44. “I’ve seen productions where it feels like the actors are just tired and want to go home. That is one of the challenges doing theater – especially a long production – how to keep it alive for yourself and the audience.”

— Gillian Anderson

45. “I didn’t pay as much attention in school as I would have liked to.”

— Gillian Anderson

46. “Well, it seems to me that the best relationships – the ones that last – are frequently the ones that are rooted in friendship. You know, one day you look at the person and you see something more than you did the night before. Like a switch has been flicked somewhere. And the person who was just a friend is... suddenly the only person you can ever imagine yourself with.”

— Gillian Anderson

47. “By moving to London I removed myself from the madness of the entertainment industry. I love the city and the culture, and it was an opportunity to bring my children up in a more sane environment.”

— Gillian Anderson

48. “Is that the ultimate paradox of life, she wondered, that the universe should become less clear with age?”

— Gillian Anderson

49. “I will only take something or agree to do something that I feel like I understand, and inherent in understanding is empathy.”

— Gillian Anderson

50. “I became an actor because it was the only thing I could do. I didn’t have any friends, I didn’t fit in. But when I started acting everything in my life shifted and I felt happy.”

— Gillian Anderson