Top 40 Jeff Daniels Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Are we just pretending to be unhappy so that we can add drama to our lives, so that we seem more substantial?”

— Jeff Daniels

2. “Everything’s a story, kid. Stories are what help us make sense of the world.”

— Jeff Daniels

Featured in: Quotes About Stories

3. “I never said, ‘I’m going to be a big star.’ I said, ‘I’m going to be a good actor.’ And that took the pressure off.”

— Jeff Daniels

4. “Nothing seems to matter but ourselves. That’s not how I was brought up. I don’t recognize the country I live in anymore.”

— Jeff Daniels

5. “I went to Walter Reed hospital a couple of times to visit wounded soldiers, kids with no legs and one arm. You start to question some things.”

— Jeff Daniels

6. “I think Michigan keeps you sane and on an even keel through the ups and downs. In Michigan, I do fireworks, shovel snow and live life.”

— Jeff Daniels

7. “I know I’m not bipolar or schizophrenic, but this career allows you to explore, to take some facets of yourself and spin it.”

— Jeff Daniels

8. “We’re all capable of anything as human beings. Any emotion, any action. We really are.”

— Jeff Daniels

9. “I think we have the attention span of a gnat. You know, with cell phones and Twitter.”

— Jeff Daniels

10. “The biggest compliment I think an actor can get is I can’t imagine anyone else in the role.”

— Jeff Daniels

11. “I also write plays, so I understand the writers mind, and how obsessed you can get writing.”

— Jeff Daniels

12. “I love living in Michigan, which has been great for my kids and my family.”

— Jeff Daniels

13. “As an actor, you’re always at the service of somebody else’s vision. In a play, it’s more of the director’s vision, and he or she’s got their hands on you all the way up to opening night, and if it’s a film, there are even more people.”

— Jeff Daniels

14. “I always wanted to do films. I’d gone to New York early in 1976 and did a lot of theater, but I really wanted to chase the paths of people like Pacino and Lemmon and those guys. Alan Arkin. Film was where I wanted to go.”

— Jeff Daniels

15. “Television in the last few years has been where all the great writers are going. TV now is what indie film used to be.”

— Jeff Daniels

16. “There are so many projects that you go into hoping the story works, and here comes a new third act and that kind of thing.”

— Jeff Daniels

Featured in: Quotes About Stories

17. “Stars don’t want to have flaws. Stars like to be likable.”

— Jeff Daniels

18. “I don’t watch dailies. I don’t pretend not to read reviews, I just don’t. I wait for it to come on the air, just like everybody else.”

— Jeff Daniels

19. “Well, the music industry is littered with actors who belatedly came to singing.”

— Jeff Daniels

20. “You see a lot of these movies that are really just 90-minute video games. The effects are incredible. I get it: There’s an art to that, terrific. I’m not interested in it, but there’s an art to that I suppose.”

— Jeff Daniels

21. “I think it’s a style of acting that you trust. You trust the instincts.”

— Jeff Daniels

22. “Meryl Streep’s brilliant, just brilliant. I’ve been fortunate to do two movies with Meryl. And for an actor to go moment to moment like she does, there’s no one better. And she dances between moments. Each take is different because she’s riding instincts, she’s riding impulses. And she trusts that.”

— Jeff Daniels

23. “There’s not a single job in this town. There’s nothin’, nada, zip. Unless you wanna workforty hours a week.”

— Jeff Daniels

24. “I think the American electorate should work a little harder at getting informed. That includes hearing, truly listening, to what the other side is saying. Whether you’re left or right.”

— Jeff Daniels

25. “You know, its really strange now with the Internet, with everyone having an unsolicited, anonymous opinion.”

— Jeff Daniels

26. “Every actor just wants good writing.”

— Jeff Daniels

27. “The indie world changed when the economy went south. I was frustrated with doing something, then waiting for it to come out, and sometimes it never did, or would just play in New York for 50 people. So I really wanted to try something else.”

— Jeff Daniels

28. “On cable now, the writer is king. Any actor chases that.”

— Jeff Daniels

29. “There is no best anything in art.”

— Jeff Daniels

30. “I just never did buy this idea that you have to live in Los Angeles to be an actor. I didn’t see that as a requirement in my job description.”

— Jeff Daniels

31. “One of the more noble things the Oscars can do is pay attention to movies no one knows about. Blockbusters don’t need much help.”

— Jeff Daniels

32. “I never starved. And you know, whatever talent I have, I’ve relied on that, versus image or star. I have just said, ‘Hire me if you want somebody good.’ I tried to be as good as I could be every time out, and that’s kind of bridged the decades.”

— Jeff Daniels

33. “And the actors tend not to want to watch themselves very often. I’m one of those guys.”

— Jeff Daniels

34. “I was haunted by trainers going “Up, up, up, get up.” You find yourself picking your head up and then realizing, They aren’t talking to me.”

— Jeff Daniels

35. “I learned a long time ago that the show you’re going to see isn’t the one you have in your head. As soon as you understand that, you’re going to enjoy it a lot more.”

— Jeff Daniels

36. “Give me good writing, and I’ll play it all day.”

— Jeff Daniels

37. “I never starved. And you know, whatever talent I have, I’ve relied on that, versus image or star.”

— Jeff Daniels

38. “I have done all of the genres, and the dramatic role is my favorite.”

— Jeff Daniels

39. “I love the theater, but if I had to choose, I would choose a film at this time in my life. Something meaty, to sink my teeth into.”

— Jeff Daniels

40. “Comedy is hard to do. All the cliches about it are true.”

— Jeff Daniels

41. “I’m the guy to call. Look at the resume. I have kids of my own. I have dogs.”

— Jeff Daniels