Top 100 Paul Dano Quotes
#1. I approach every role from scratch.
Paul Dano
#2. I don't like to spend a lot of money on haircuts: I'll sometimes grow my hair and get an acting job and get them to cut it for free. I think for a lady, though, it's okay to spend a lot on a haircut.
Paul Dano
#3. The hardest thing about working with your partner is that the work starts to become first.
Paul Dano
#4. I don't really know what kind of actor I am.
Paul Dano
#5. Robert De Niro's sort of like a surfer: he doesn't really force anything. So if he catches the wave, or something spills out - to watch a guy be a force at what he does. He has a good worth ethic.
Paul Dano
#6. I like listening to my playlist on the iPod. I don't want radio with commercials.
Paul Dano
#7. One of my favorite films is 'Dumb and Dumber.'
Paul Dano
#8. Have I seen any plays that I've been in? Uh, you know, might be a little weird.
Paul Dano
#9. For me, playing a really bad character is about figuring out what brought the person to where we need him.
Paul Dano
#10. I've been fortunate to work with several actors and directors who I look up to, and learned from each of them.
Paul Dano
#11. I don't like tight pants on guys.
Paul Dano
#12. As an actor, I always feel you basically have to be able to delude yourself.
Paul Dano
#13. I can obviously relate to a character who is an artist, because the creative process is a big part of my life.
Paul Dano
#14. I do like the idea of consequence and how our actions play themselves out, but I am completely scared of knowing what the future would be like. I would never go near a fortune teller, even though it's probably not even real. I just don't wanna know.
Paul Dano
#15. The idea of writer's block or not having inspiration is totally terrifying to me.
Paul Dano
#16. Sometimes we fall in love with the idea of a person and have trouble seeing the real thing.
Paul Dano
#17. The only exercise I get is playing sports because I hate the gym. I try to learn to love it.
Paul Dano
#18. I tore my ACL playing basketball.
Paul Dano
#19. As people, no matter what we are doing, your whole body is living and breathing.
Paul Dano
#20. It's hard to talk about acting because I don't think it's quite as explicit as a lot of people might think. And that's probably the best thing about it.
Paul Dano
#21. Sometimes it's summer camp on location. So it's nice to have a little New York community of people you love.
Paul Dano
#22. I love cereal. I eat several bowls a day, mostly a few late at night.
Paul Dano
#23. New York is kind of a mythological city in may ways.
Paul Dano
#24. I went to tranny bars and kind of got used to being around that and then getting dressed up.
Paul Dano
#25. One thing you notice is, there's a lot of people with raw talent, and then there's people who take that talent and work hard.
Paul Dano
#26. The only constant I can find is hard work.
Paul Dano
#27. I would like to do something really big and then something really small, and see what it's like to work in that way, but in front of a live audience.
Paul Dano
#28. Being actors is a strange job. To try to go live that out, it's a very strange thing to want to do when you step back and think about it.
Paul Dano
#29. When somebody mentions that I did a play with George C. Scott, I'm like, it can't have happened. What was I doing on a Broadway stage at 11 years old? It's so far in the distance now.
Paul Dano
#30. I think control is a two-way street; sometimes people want to control things to keep them safe if they are afraid of life.
Paul Dano
#31. I guess sometimes fear is a good thing. It's a really good motivator.
Paul Dano
#32. You look at the part in '12 Years A Slave,' you finish that script - I mean, it's a powerful story. You go, 'Man, I have to play a bad character in this.' And then you go, 'Well, do I want to play a bad character and contribute to a good story?'
Paul Dano
#33. I love Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath and Guns N' Roses and AC/DC.
Paul Dano
#34. I think it is important to make sure that I have my real life as well, because Hollywood can certainly seem like an alternate reality sometimes.
Paul Dano
#35. As an actor, the toughest thing is being subject to circumstance. Meaning: What scripts are out there that are available?
Paul Dano
#36. To be running away from explosions with Harrison Ford, you know, that's pretty great.
Paul Dano
#37. Of course I think it's a movie for everybody [Insane Farting Corpse], but that's probably just because it's a movie for me.
Paul Dano
#38. I do think the first time you read a script, that gut response is very important, and that probably plants a seed that continues to blossom throughout the whole experience.
Paul Dano
#39. The whole being-in-a-room interview thing, at a junket or a film festival, is very inhuman. You meet the person, have five or 10 minutes to talk, and it's not like a conversation.
Paul Dano
#40. Certainly, being on stage is a rush.
Paul Dano
#41. I really don't want to go to work every day convincing myself of what I'm saying. I want the material to make me a better actor; then I try to return the favor to the material.
Paul Dano
#42. I volunteered at a homeless shelter in preparation for 'Being Flynn,' and when I'm walking along the Bowery, that's the first thing that comes to mind. That's a nice memory.
Paul Dano
#43. Michael Caine is so happy. Happy and healthy. I think he enjoys life. I think he's 82 now, and I have no clue if I'll be working at that age.
Paul Dano
#44. I used to write a lot of songs. I was an English major in college. I was a deluded poet for a year. Totally deluded.
Paul Dano
#45. Being actors is a strange job.
Paul Dano
#46. In life, you have to keep certain parts of yourself in check because you want to be a decent human being. But one of the guilty pleasures of acting is that sometimes you get to let a little something out that you don't in life because it's not right.
Paul Dano
#47. I remember going to the theatre when I was little and the lights going down and just getting really scared about what was going to happen up there.
Paul Dano
#48. I like the idea of finding parts that I know I can do but I don't totally understand them right away.
Paul Dano
#49. With somebody like Harrison Ford, they're so commanding and confident, and you know, he does have a certain power or charisma, and those are things that are sort of ineffable.
Paul Dano
#50. I started acting pretty young, so I haven't had too many odd jobs. But I used to sell candy out of my locker in middle school.
Paul Dano
#51. I think carrying your gut, or your instincts, through all the learning, is one of the most important things. You learn to prepare for a part in different ways, you learn to experiment, what you do for the character - you try working in different ways.
Paul Dano
#53. I've definitely been in ruts, and I think having some kind of perseverance is important.
Paul Dano
#55. 'Little Miss Sunshine' was really important to me.
Paul Dano
#56. I mean, to feel in good hands as an actor ... it's the best feeling.
Paul Dano
#57. I'm a private person, but I don't feel afraid to walk out of my door or anything. I get recognised occasionally, but not overwhelmingly so.
Paul Dano
#58. I feel like, once you're doing a job, you shouldn't talk about it.
Paul Dano
#59. I think it's more important to try and make a good film than give a good performance.
Paul Dano
#60. I like movies a lot, and I feel really excited when I see a movie that moves me the right way.
Paul Dano
#61. It's a lot of fun to be a part of films that you don't exactly know how they're going to turn out.
Paul Dano
#62. I've definitely had mentors, whether parents or friends or actors who I like.
Paul Dano
#63. At the heart of drama is conflict.
Paul Dano
#64. I'm not a person who needs to chit-chat between takes by any means.
Paul Dano
#65. This is so lame to say in a magazine, but I just grabbed some pink wallpaper. I find it to be a very relaxing color.
Paul Dano
#66. The way Hollywood works, you're never sure if their first thought is to make a great film and honor the material or just another business property.
Paul Dano
#67. I'm a sucker for period pieces. There is always great opportunity for research and to delude yourself into feeling like you are in a different time and place.
Paul Dano
#68. I'm really excited to share the movie [Swiss Army Man] with people, so I'm glad that people are seeing it. And I want them to, because I think it's a really fun movie to experience sitting next to people. It makes it funnier. It makes it more comfortable. It makes it sweeter.
Paul Dano
#69. I know I'd like to direct a film at some point, and maybe I'll write it.
Paul Dano
#70. Sometimes I think your intellect can get in your way as an actor or an artist. When you come from a world of improv and comedy, you're able to let it flicker and fall out.
Paul Dano
#71. In tragedy, it's hard to find a good resolution; it's not black and white: it's a big fog of gray.
Paul Dano
#72. Reading the script [Insane Farting Corpse], by page two or three, I felt that way. I thought, I'm in. It was so beautiful and insane and funny and I wanted to see it happen.
Paul Dano
#73. I would not take a girl to a club on a Thursday. I would not take her to a really noisy, swanky restaurant.
Paul Dano
#74. I've seen people, where if they have to wait around the set for three hours, and they call you at the wrong time, and they're not ready for you, some people don't like that.
Paul Dano
#75. I want to do some bigger films, so long as there's some sort of exciting creative element or a good filmmaker behind them.
Paul Dano
#76. I think 'American Pie' is great.
Paul Dano
#77. I like characters that make me feel challenged and sort of inspired.
Paul Dano
#78. There's a lot of people that I would love to work with. There's a lot of different kinds of parts I wanna play. As your career progresses, you hope that you get some more opportunity or some more choice.
Paul Dano
#79. When I'm not acting, I like to go home and be really normal. So I usually grow out my hair until I get the next part.
Paul Dano
#80. 'Looper' was a wonderful script. Rian Johnson is the real deal and a really talented filmmaker.
Paul Dano
#81. It's a funny thing. You sort of never figure it out with acting. You're always learning.
Paul Dano
#83. A lot of people think I must be weird because of the films I've done. I get that.
Paul Dano
#84. I think was overly empathetic for a while in my life.
Paul Dano
#85. I feel like I have to be responsible for what I'm participating in or putting out into the world.
Paul Dano
#86. When you repeat yourself so many times, even if you're speaking the truth, the repetition starts to feel false. Sometimes, you just feel like the words you're speaking, even if they once had meaning, have lost it. And that makes you feel kind of silly.
Paul Dano
#87. When my girlfriend's away, I cook a big vat of meaty pasta and sauce and eat that for about a week. Then I eat out the rest of the time. When she's home, we eat at home probably twice a week. I chop, she cooks.
Paul Dano
#88. People have asked me about playing outsiders. I don't consider myself an outsider. Maybe that's why I'm interested in that. I'm not really sure.
Paul Dano
#89. My first paying job might have been doing a play, actually. My mom paid me to dress up as a flounder at my sister's 'Little Mermaid' - themed birthday party when I was little.
Paul Dano
#90. Everything you do, every experience that you have, enlightens you a little bit or worsens you.
Paul Dano
#91. Some projects go as you hope or imagine, and some change or reveal themselves in a different way; it depends.
Paul Dano
#92. I love Brooklyn; it's a part of who you are.
Paul Dano
#93. It just so happens that when I was, like, 19 or 20, I got a couple of auditions and got a couple parts with good people. Of the thousands of auditions where you don't get the part, I've done a couple of jobs where you do it and you're like, "Okay, this is good."
Paul Dano
#94. On 'There Will Be Blood,' I was cast at the last minute. I had 3 and a half to 4 days to get ready for the first day. I just went for it, threw myself in there and gave it everything I had. That was just guts and instinct, not a lot of preparation.
Paul Dano
#95. I think the idea is to try and understand everything about the characters and where the character is coming from, from their point of view, why they say what they do. And not, 'Oh, but I would never say that. Why does the character say that?' But then making it as personal as possible.
Paul Dano
#96. Homeless people really upset me when I was little. A lot of kids have this reaction, but I would get really worried or sad or concerned or cry.
Paul Dano
#97. In 'There Will Be Blood,' my character was someone who was an actor himself almost. He had a rehearsed quality about him. He was a performance artist in a way.
Paul Dano
#98. I know an actor who would play one type of part but could never get cast as tough. Once he got cast as tough, as a cop, he only got offered cop roles. It's a funny business in that regard. It's all about perception.
Paul Dano
#99. I think I was almost 12, so I knew who George C. Scott was, but if I could work with George C. Scott now, I'd be so pumped.
Paul Dano
#100. One of my favorite things I read was John Steinbeck's journals while he was writing 'East of Eden,' which was so cool.
Paul Dano
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