At 65, David Duchovny is still finding new ways to discover the truth out there – including, perhaps surprisingly to some, through poetry. The X-Files star and father-of-two has an Ivy League degree and an unfinished PhD waiting in the wings, and in 2025, he released his first collection of poetry; a new paperback version will include newer works written over the last six months.
Much of the collection focuses on his own reflections of an at-times strained relationship with his father, famous writer and publicist Amram Ducovny; Amram’s death in 2002; and fatherhood. But at a time when media and literature are pored over by fans looking for Easter Eggs, David says that “writing is not a game” he wants to play.
“I’m not writing Taylor Swift songs where you’re supposed to connect the dots,” he laughs. “I think if the poem is worth its salt, it’s going to resonate with the reader. The great preponderance of us are going to lose a parent, and that’s a universal experience and a deep and formative one.”
“Writing is not a game that I play myself with other authors. I don’t care about an author’s autobiography when I’m reading their work, and if I was listening to a song, it doesn’t do me any good to know what that person is referring to personally. I don’t like that at all.”
“Writing is not a game that I play myself with other authors”
David is preparing to release new music, and recently worked with his daughter West, 26, for the first time on the independent film Soapbox. David also co-wrote the movie and calls the opportunity a “gift”.
“There were certain kinds of tensions in my mind going into it, but they were all ego-oriented – ‘I don’t want my daughter to see me fail,’ or ‘I don’t want my daughter to see me being a bad actor,’ or something like that. But they’re all very small-minded things that in the actual doing of it went away very quickly.”
© Mat HaywardThere is a great emphasis on learning from failure in David’s works; his The X-Files co-star and close friend Gillian Anderson was one of several guests on his podcast, Fail Better with David Duchovny.
Trivial matters don’t mean much to David, a man clearly searching for a meaning out of life that he recognizes he may never discover.
© Getty Images“Any worthwhile creative endeavor is going to put you up against a shadow of something that is going to teach you a lesson or foil you,” says David.
“It’s a game that we’re playing, all doing the best that we can to light up the darkness momentarily – but I’m not under the delusion that I’ve ever done anything that was a complete success, except in the fact that it was a process that I enjoyed, and I gave my whole heart to it.”
“I’m not under the delusion that I’ve ever done anything that was a complete success”
What is his barometer for success if nothing is a complete success? “To continue on, in the face of failure, is my definition of success,” he says with a wry smile. “To keep on trying to bring light to the darkness.”
“I live a very creative life,” he says. “I get to have these different areas where I get to be a creative person – I’m a husband, I’m a father, and I’ve lived my life without ever having to have a regular job, so I think I consider that a success.”
© Mat HaywardHis newer poems contemplate spirit and consciousness, topics that David says he has always been “obsessed with,” although he would not consider himself a religious man.
“Sadly institutions have claimed that word [religious], but I consider myself spiritual, somebody who’s trying to attain a certain amount of egoless consciousness,” he says, acknowledging that the idea is a core base belief to most world religions, if not one that is visibly practised, and sharing his hope that the world can “move from an ego consciousness to a more universal consciousness”.
© FilmMagicIn February 2026, David celebrated his first year of marriage with wife Monoque Pendleberry – he welcomed West and son Kyd with ex-wife Tea Leoni – and as he looks to the next decade with his family, he admits to feeling what he calls a “spiritual joy”.
“I have joy in my marriage. I have joy with both my kids,” he says. “But we’re not going to be content, we’re going to keep on pushing and not give up, try to stay alive…. Life is very mysterious and rewarding in that way.”
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