Dennis Quaid

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.

When you break up, your whole identity is shattered. It's like death.

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.

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.

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!'

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 was a really avid bowler when I was a teenager. I had about a 210-220 average. I had blisters on my fingers.

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.

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 want to work with great people. Great people really make you better.

If you're going to stick around in this business, you have to have the ability to reinvent yourself, whether consciously or unconsciously.

Everybody just wants to be famous first, and then maybe learn how to act.

I really want to see the Cubs in the World Series. I really do.

I could never hold a job for more than three months, which works out well because that's how long a movie shoots.

I really love doing what I do, being an actor. It's the greatest. You can do it until you die.

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.

Jesus himself talked about prayer and meditation. Anything that brings you closer to the Lord, what's wrong with that?

I always wanted to be an astronaut.

God is the only way you're going to make it in life, the glue that holds everything together.

Playing Bill Clinton is really, probably, the scariest time of my career.

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 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.

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.

Golf is meaningless, but it means so much.

What, like I want to look like Dick Clark? No. I think I look great with liver spots.

Wall Street has come to America's heartland, really. The only thing missing are the skyscrapers, you know?

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.

I can't hit a ball more than 200 yards. I have no butt. You need a butt if you're going to hit a golf ball.

There are three things being a celebrity is good for: raising money for charity, dinner reservations and tee times.

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 love being a dad, and I'm good at it. Kids teach you about life, like how not to focus on yourself so much.

I love politics, but I wouldn't want to be involved in it. Too little money, too much work!

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 directed a movie back in the '90s which had calf roping in it, and I got into it quite a bit back then.

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.

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.

I always want to find the best burger in town.

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.

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.

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.

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've never really sought out publicity.

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 look for a good story. Usually the best stories are the ones that are unbelievably true. 'Soul Surfer' is one of those stories.

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'm an idol of cinema? Oh, wow.

When you break up your whole identity is shattered. Its like death.

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.

'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.

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 doing independent films, but it's very hard to make a living that way.

That's what is great about what I do, going from one job to the other.

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.

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'm not really a pitcher; I just play one in the movies.

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.

Sometimes in movies, I still have to be the hero, but it's not all that important to me anymore.

I would like my kids to follow their bliss.

I have a resistance to change in things that I feel comfortable with and that I'm used to.

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.

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.

I love acting and making your own luck. You have to recreate yourself, I guess. Although, I don't know how.

It's great to get paid for what you love doing most. To enjoy your work. And to follow that. It's important.

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'd love to do a golf movie. I turned down Don Johnson's role in 'Tin Cup.' I regret that.

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.

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.

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 was made to be a perfectionist at everything I did. Everything was more important than what I wanted.

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 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.

I've done so many movies that when I see them I don't really watch them.

When I choose a movie, I'll ask myself: 'Is this a movie I want to see?'

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.

I've always considered myself a character actor. That's the way I was trained, really.

I'm lucky. I have a high metabolism, so I pretty much eat anything and everything.

My real-life athletic career was not very much. I played Little League baseball.

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.