At a certain age it just became apparent to me that this was probably the work that I would have to do.
Everybody has to know for themselves what they're capable of.
Five years ago I just felt I wanted to do other things. Over the years I've always taken periods of time away from acting.
How people are around a director, it really does affect everything, every detail of the life of the movie.
I can't remember if anything specific happened that led me to this tiny piece of self-knowledge, or whether it just came to me.
I don't know what impression you might have of the way I live. I live in a quiet place. I do not live as a hermit, though other people would prefer it if I did.
I feel less often compelled to do the work than I was in the past.
I find it easier to work when it's quiet.
I hate wasting people's time.
I just enjoy kidding myself, I suppose, for a period of time. I suppose that partly the reason why I do love this work.
I made the film in spite of Harvey, not because of Harvey.
I see a lot of movies. I love films as a spectator, and that's never obscured by the part of me that does the work myself. I just love going to the movies.
I suppose I have a highly developed capacity for self-delusion, so it's no problem for me to believe that I'm somebody else.
I suppose the place where I live is fairly remote, it would seem remote to some people.
I tend to respond to that bizarre compulsion, but it could easily lead me there as opposed to back onto a movie set.
I think I have a strange relationship with time. I'm not really aware of that time passing. I don't feel that I'm wasteful with time. But I'm not aware of it passing.
I think some actors thrive on working at a much greater pace than I do.
I try to honor that bargain that I made with myself that I wouldn't do this work unless I really felt the need to. I just didn't see the point.
I was a savage for so many years of my life. There was some seed of determination in me that I was not conscious of. I was mostly consciously getting into trouble and drunk.
I was unruly. If I'd had to become a paid up member of any party at that time, it would've been the anarchists probably.
I would wish for any one of my colleagues to have the experience of working with Martin Scorsese once in their lifetime.
I'm not always doing this work, but whatever I'm doing when I'm not doing this work seems to be as much a part of this as anything else.
I'm very often still very much alive for that other being and that other world long after the film is finished.
If people take an interest in you and they think there's half a chance, they might hang on. It's dreadful.
It's a complete illusion, this notion. We create for ourselves this strange delusion that we exchange our lives for someone else's.
It's usually fairly clear, when you start to tell a story, what the demands are.
Making a film, setting it up and getting it cast and getting it together, is not an easy thing.
Many years ago, I really didn't know where the next work was coming from.
My curiosity sustains me for the period of the shoot.
My life doesn't feel separated, divided into two parts in the way that it apparently seems to most other people.
People talk all kinds of things on my behalf, which I've never spoken about myself. That's one of those things.
The last time I was on a small set would've been probably My Left Foot.
The whole thing of weight, I guess it's because there is a wider fascination we all have with weight.
There must've been some part of me that wanted to make my mark. But there was never a defining moment.
There's nothing worse than finding yourself in a situation, a very demanding piece of work, and knowing that you're not a true ally to the person who's in charge of all that.
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.
You can never fully put your finger on the reason why you're suddenly, inexplicably compelled to explore one life as opposed to another.
Daniel's art work was reproduced in The Irish: A Treasury of Art and Literature, edited by Leslie Conron Carola and released in 1993.
After Michael Madsen was found to be unavailable for the part, Daniel tried to get the role of "Vincent Vega" in Pulp Fiction (1994), one of only times that he actively pursued a part. However, by that point in the casting, Quentin Tarantino had John Travolta in mind for the part.
Daniel shares his birthday with Uma Thurman and comedian Jerry Seinfeld.
Daniel lived apart from his wife Rebecca Miller while she was directing him in The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005). This is in keeping with his habit of being isolated while he is in character and shooting a film, in part the reason he is hesitant to take more film work.
In The Crucible, Joan Allen plays his wife. In The Boxer, Emily Watson plays his wife. Both have played "Reba McLain." Allen played the part in Manhunter, Watson played the part in the remake, Red Dragon.
Always quiet and introverted, Daniel said that he was not popular in school and was mocked as an outsider while growing up in England, partially because he was of half-Jewish/half-Irish stock. The upside was that, instead of socializing, he developed a rich fantasy life that later helped him to delve so deeply into his characters.
Not only does Daniel and Michelle Pfeiffer share a birthday, but they were married on the same day, albeit three years apart.
Daniel is a highly skilled woodworker in addition to being able to make his living as a cobbler.
According to Gangs of New York (2002) co-star John C. Reilly, Daniel got sick during shooting in Italy, refusing to trade his character's threadbare coat for a warmer coat because the warmer coat did not exist in the 19th century; doctors finally forced him to take antibiotics.
Daniel was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the "100 Sexiest Stars" in film history, he placed #11 in 1995.
Daniel assumed Irish citizenship, and moved to County Wicklow, Ireland in 1993.
Daniel describes himself as "a lifelong study of evasion."
Daniel turned down the role of "Aragorn" in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Daniel is 6'1 1/2" tall.
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