Quotes by Jake Gyllenhaal

About Jake Gyllenhaal:

Jacob Benjamin is an American actor. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting at the age of ten. Following his first lead role in October Sky (1999), he starred in the indie cult hit Donnie Darko (2001), in which he played a psychologically troubled teenager alongside his older sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal. In 2002, he starred in another indie film, The Good Girl. In 2004, he appeared in the climate fiction-disaster film The Day After Tomorrow, portraying a student caught in a cataclysmic climate event.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I remember being in college knowing I didn't want to go anymore. I wanted to try and become an actor. There is a something in me, with a risk of sounding cliche, that I just had to do it. I knew from an early age that acting was my path.

Jake Gyllenhaal

My mum and dad are pretty amazing chefs and they spent most of my childhood cooking really extravagant things for my sister and me.

Jake Gyllenhaal

I don't think you can approach any piece of art with boundaries or rules. I think respect is a very important thing, but I also think what we discover along the way is really important.

Jake Gyllenhaal

I think that more and more there's a sense that the best performances I can give are the ones that are the truest to who I am. The further I move away from who I am, the worse they are.

Jake Gyllenhaal

The best thing that I got was rehearsing with my father. It was always about the process of figuring things out, and trying something new, and having another take on something and keeping it alive.

Jake Gyllenhaal

My experience on 'Jarhead' was life changing.

Jake Gyllenhaal

I've learned over the years that freedom is just the other side of discipline.

Jake Gyllenhaal

I grew up in a family where many of our close friends were gay couples. As well as that, every man goes through a period of thinking they're attracted to another guy.

Jake Gyllenhaal

I think family is the most important thing in the world. I think your own family is the most complicated thing in the world, and I think it's the most beautiful thing in the world.

Jake Gyllenhaal

The last name is pronounced Jill-en-hall. It's spelled with two l's, two a's. We have a song in my family; G-Y-Double L - EN - HAAL spells Gyllenhaal. It's a Swedish name. It's a family heirloom set to music.

Jake Gyllenhaal

I heard about the movie business before I even knew what it was. So I surround myself now with people who are like, 'Can we not talk about movies for an hour?'

Jake Gyllenhaal

I hope I'm a spiritual person. I'm trying to be a spiritual person.

Jake Gyllenhaal

Some movies you fall a step behind, and some you stay in the same place, make the same choices. And then sometimes there are people who know more than you but show you, and that's the maximum you can hope for - doing that with someone who says, 'I li...

Jake Gyllenhaal

I liken movies to playing a piano: Sometimes you're playing the chords and different notes with unresolved cadences and playing all major chords that are all over the place, and you're enjoying yourself with a great, simple melody.

Jake Gyllenhaal

I love 'Training Day' - that's a great movie.

Jake Gyllenhaal

Working on a movie like 'Prince of Persia' was awesome. It was great fun to be an action hero and to jump around, running off walls and fighting and having great quippy lines.

Jake Gyllenhaal

Really, contrary to popular belief, I like to have a good time and not take myself too seriously.

Jake Gyllenhaal

Every journey starts with fear.

Jake Gyllenhaal

It's funny to me that people find other people getting coffee really interesting, or walking their dog in the dog park.

Jake Gyllenhaal

If you're going to spend seven months of your life - for me seven months, for Roland Emmerich, 3, 4, 5 years of his life - doing something, I think you have to have something to say.

Jake Gyllenhaal

Author Bio

  • NameJake Gyllenhaal
  • DescriptionAmerican actor
  • AliasesJacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaal
  • BornDecember 19, 1980
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionActor; Film Actor