Andrew Garfield

Andrew Russell Garfield (born 20 August 1983) is an English and American actor. He has received various accolades, including a Tony Award, a BAFTA TV Award and a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award, a Laurence Olivier Award and two Academy Awards. Time included Garfield on its list of 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.

Quotes

 * I’m in a real period of not-doing. The usual aggressive, ambitious, driven heartbeat, rapping at the door has subsided for a while.
 * "Andrew Garfield’s search for the sublime" in GQ (15 November 2022)


 * I didn’t have to force my way into letting myself rest. It was interesting. I’ve been thinking about this a lot, the reason for this weird peace I’ve been experiencing. I think the loss of my mum was a big thing. That cataclysm is a forever-reverberating shift into a deeper awareness of reality. Existence. The shortness of this window we have. I think that’s working on me in profound ways that I’m probably not even aware of.
 * "Andrew Garfield’s search for the sublime" in GQ (15 November 2022)


 * It’s that eternal struggle between being devoted to the invisible world, the world of spirit, the world of imagination, creativity, what we know we’re meant to do. But if we were purely devoted to that, it would be much harder for us to put a roof over our heads. So how do we balance that? We’re living through a capitalistic period in the history of humanity. And it’s deeply disgusting and horrific and ugly and all those things, as well as beautiful. It’s a fascinating time to be alive. And how do artists – how does anyone, because everyone is an artist – really retain that connection to soul, to spirit, to the unseen, to the thing that really pulls us? Our own personal genius. Our own personal calling. Giftedness.
 * "Andrew Garfield’s search for the sublime" in GQ (15 November 2022)


 * Life seems to be a perpetual practice of letting shit go. Letting go of an idea of how a thing should look, or be, or feel. And that one’s a big one [to let go of], because of course I would’ve loved my mum to have met my kids, if I’m going to have kids. And she will. In spirit. She’ll be there for it. I know she’s there, for all the big ones.
 * "Andrew Garfield’s search for the sublime" in GQ (15 November 2022)


 * I’ve been mentored by the human beings in my life. I’m so lucky that I’ve had the opportunities I’ve had. And the friendships I’ve had, and the mentors and the teachers. But I’m also pretty intent. Like, I’m not a nice person to be around if I’m not able to follow the thing that I feel I’m supposed to follow.
 * "Andrew Garfield’s search for the sublime" in GQ (15 November 2022)


 * You let it drown you sometimes. You ride it sometimes. You give thanks, that’s the point. And it’s so trite and so cliché, but that’s it. Whatever that unnamable thing is, that we try to call “love,” that’s what we’re meant to experience here, somehow.
 * "Andrew Garfield’s search for the sublime" in GQ (15 November 2022)


 * If you have the sun sign that’s the same as the moon sign of someone else … that’s good.
 * "Flirty Andrew Garfield interview goes viral: ‘I only want to see you’" in News.co.au (14 January 2023)


 * We all die with an unfinished song, and that’s the setup. None of us complete. None of us finish the symphony. There’s a few notes left to be done, if we’re lucky.
 * "An Interview with Andrew Garfield" in Believer (5 April 2022)


 * There’s no getting there in terms of finding that balance. It’s always a practice and a process. And one thing will work for a while and then it won’t work anymore; you have to find another practice to keep you centered. I think the trickiest part is just coming back to a level of real relaxation and ease in between working.
 * "An Interview with Andrew Garfield" in Believer (5 April 2022)


 * There’s lots of practices I have, but the other problem is that I love what I do so much, but it can take me over. And that’s a great thing, and it’s a gift, but there’s a wound in that as well, as you’re kind of alluding to.
 * "An Interview with Andrew Garfield" in Believer (5 April 2022)


 * And one of the keys in what we do is we get to feel like we are extending beyond that human body, that human limitation, and we are touching something divine in what we do, if we’re lucky—or at least we’re reaching for it. But then what goes up must come down, and we have to honor the human body as well, so it’s a constant process.
 * "An Interview with Andrew Garfield" in Believer (5 April 2022)


 * I love learning about other artists’ processes so much; I don’t know why. It’s like a magpie-collecting hobby of mine. I find it incredibly inspiring, and just as a human being, I’m like, God, I love people. I love it when people devote themselves to something that is greater than themselves, and they work at it.
 * "An Interview with Andrew Garfield" in Believer (5 April 2022)


 * So to be in line with and to join in that creativity is, I think, maybe the highest calling. I think it’s all of our callings, to whatever degree or in whatever context, in whatever corner of the garden we’re meant to tend. And we know it. We know when we’re in the right corner, you know what I mean? We can feel it. We can feel it in our bones. Our blood starts to flow, our cheeks flush, we get that feeling of spring in our bodies, and we come alive. We can feel it when we’re close to the shoreline of ourselves, and then it’s harder to identify when we don’t feel it. It’s a strange thing.
 * "An Interview with Andrew Garfield" in Believer (5 April 2022)


 * But in terms of legacy, it’s not something that really interests me. I think I’ve developed a pretty healthy awareness of how small I am. Honestly, I think it’s because I’ve had to, because I have a pretty healthy ego and it can be boring. It’s a practice to be constantly remembering the perspective of the moon. You know what I mean? Like looking down on all my little problems and going, Dude, shush.
 * "An Interview with Andrew Garfield" in Believer (5 April 2022)


 * But there’s also a learned behavior there as well. Distinguishing between those two feels important because there’s times when all of us burn out. My mother, she would burn out; my father, my brother, me. We all have a similar drive, which is maybe inexplicable, where we want to offer ourselves fully to what we’re doing.
 * "An Interview with Andrew Garfield" in Believer (5 April 2022)