Actor Dennis Quaid, best known for portraying dramatic and comedic roles since the late 1980s, unwittingly became a patient-safety advocate after his ten-day-old twins were mistakenly administered a high dosage of heparin, for which he had filed a lawsuit against the drug manufacturer. He subsequently produced a series of documentaries about preventable medical errors. In an article that he co-wrote, he argued that sharing patient stories had a positive influence in motivating change in healthcare. He also donates the proceeds from the annual golf tournament, the Dennis Quaid Charity Weekend, to support local children's charities. Here are some of his quotes from his speeches, interviews, and media appearances. He often talks about children, acting, life, relationships, politics, and religion.
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.
'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.
Dennis Quaid
My family is the most important thing in the world to me, too, before anything else.
That's what is great about what I do, going from one job to the other.
Dennis Quaid
What is great about art and artists is that we get to ask the questions, even though we may never know the answers.
Dennis Quaid
I'm not really a pitcher; I just play one in the movies.
Dennis Quaid
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.
Dennis Quaid
If we never felt sorrow, we'd never recognize bliss.
Dennis Quaid
Back then, people were throwing their underwear onstage. I remember taking eight pairs of my own underwear to the cleaners and getting only four back.
Dennis Quaid
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.
Dennis Quaid
It's as predictable as the sun rising in the morning. Every time Barack Obama's poll numbers rise you can be certain he's done something else to weaken the country. He's empowered a base that loathes American excellence.
Dennis Quaid
Horseracing and ranch horses are two different animals. You're getting race horses out and running and running them. It can be really problematic. A thoroughbred's very delicate.
Clinton knew how to get things done. He was battling the Republicans, and then he basically took a lot of their agenda and made it his own. That's what Obama's not doing.
Dennis Quaid
I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid. I grew up in Houston. Gordo Cooper was my favorite astronaut.
Dennis Quaid
It's about... my only strategy I've ever had in my career is to do as many different types of roles as possible, as many different types of genres. It keeps the fire in my belly.
Dennis Quaid
I was a late bloomer. I tried out for the football team, and I got locked off the field. That's how I wound up in drama.
Dennis Quaid
Going to the golf course every day for work? That's a good job.
Dennis Quaid
A lot of people that I started out with, I don't know where they are. I guess it takes tenacity to still be doing this, and luck, but I've been very blessed.
Dennis Quaid
I would like to work with Todd Phillips of 'The Hangover'. I would like to do more comedies; it would be a lot of fun. No actors in particular. I don't consciously seek out things to do.
If I've done anything intentional about my career, is that I really have not - I've chosen to try to do as many different types of things as possible. That's really what I like to do.
Dennis Quaid
Family is the most important thing in life, period.
I directed a movie back in the '90s which had calf roping in it, and I got into it quite a bit back then.
Dennis Quaid
'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.
Dennis Quaid
When I choose a movie, I'll ask myself: 'Is this a movie I want to see?'
Dennis Quaid
I owe the little formal education I got to my drama teacher, Mr. Pickett, who got us to read Shakespeare, Moliere, and other classics.
Dennis Quaid
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.
Dennis Quaid
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.
Dennis Quaid
I look for a good story. Usually the best stories are the ones that are unbelievably true. 'Soul Surfer' is one of those stories.
Dennis Quaid
Playing Bill Clinton is really, probably, the scariest time of my career.
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 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.
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 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 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.
Everybody just wants to be famous first, and then maybe learn how to act.
Dennis Quaid
I'm an idol of cinema? Oh, wow.
Dennis Quaid
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.
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.
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.
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.
That's what is great about what I do, going from one job to the other.
Dennis Quaid
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.
Dennis Quaid
I've done so many movies that when I see them I don't really watch them.
Dennis Quaid
I was made to be a perfectionist at everything I did. Everything was more important than what I wanted.
Dennis Quaid
I love acting and making your own luck. You have to recreate yourself, I guess. Although, I don't know how.
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.
Dennis Quaid
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.
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.
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.
There are three things being a celebrity is good for: raising money for charity, dinner reservations and tee times.
Dennis Quaid
I always want to find the best burger in town.
Dennis Quaid
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.
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.
Dennis Quaid
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 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.
Dennis Quaid
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.
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.
Dennis Quaid
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.
Dennis Quaid
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.
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.
I don't know if I'd want to be a Secret Service agent. In the movies, it's exciting and romantic and all that. Really, most of their job is standing in a hallway for 12 hours making sure somebody doesn't come through a doorway off of a stairwell.
