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I Dream Of Big Things. I Work For The Small Things. If You're Going To Dream, You Might As Well Dream Big. A Lot Of That Came From My Mother. She Was Adamant About The Work Ethic---about How You Can't Just Dream Things.

-Kevin Costner

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I Dream Of Big

Kevin Costner

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I Dream Of Big Things. I Work For The Small Things. If You're Going To Dream, You Might As Well Dream Big. A Lot Of That Came From My Mother. She Was Adamant About The Work Ethic---about How You Can't Just Dream Things.

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I Think Religion Is A Funny Thing Because, When You See Somebody Who Can Really Break It Down, Sometimes It Feels Foolish What You Believe.

If It's Fifty Years From Now And It Still Has The Same Value, That's A Movie.

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I Split My Time Between Santa Barbara And Aspen. I Live On A Pretty Fast Horse.

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Be True To Yourself

When You Try To Portray People's Lives, You Try To Make Sure You Don't Portray Them As Clowns And That You Give Them A Level Of Dignity. You Don't Try To Change Their Persona, But You Try To Understand That They Had Unique Problems, Set In A Century That You Don't Live.

I Don't Have A Seller's Remorse About How I've Lived. I Am Cognizant Of What I Have Done, And Any Of Us Could Maybe Draw The Line Better. But I've Tried To Live Pretty Fearlessly.

We Still Live With This Unbelievable Threat Over Our Heads Of Nuclear War. I Mean, Are We Stupid? Do We Think That The Nuclear Threat Has Gone, That The Nuclear Destruction Of The Planet Is Not Imminent? It's A Delusion To Think It's Gone Away.

I Have Instinctually Thought I Could Do Things In My Life, And I Followed That Up By Sometimes Putting Everything I Have At Risk - My Money, My House - To Make A Movie.

If Somebody Said My Wife's Not Beautiful, I'd Go, She Is. I Wouldn't Say, Really? No, She Is. I Know She Is. In My Mind, You Know.

It Was An Experience Of A Lifetime To Sit Only A Few Feet Away From Him [castro] And Watch Him Relive An Experience He Lived As A Very Young Man.

I Want To Be A Part Of Something, And When We Define Movies Now Based On How They Do On The Weekend. We Live In A Society Of "thumbs Up, Thumbs Down."

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I Wanted Very Much To Do Traffic And At One Point It Looked Like I Was Going To Work On It. And Then, Of Course, Catherine Zeta-jones Had Her Relationship With Michael Douglas And It Suddenly Didn't Happen.

I Have Seen Soldiers Panic At The First Sight Of Battle, And A Squire Pulling Arrows From His Body To Fight And Save His Dying Horse. Nobility Is Not A Birthright, But Is Defined By One's Actions.

It's Never Bothered Me To Work Hard. I've Probably Worked On Some Of The Longest Schedules In Movie History.

We Recognize Ourselves In Westerns, ... I Believe The Western Can Orchestrate Moments Around Reality. The Reality Can Be As Entertaining To Us As The Lie.

I Always Thought The Leading Actor Should Be The Best Supporting Actor, Because You're The Only Person That Can Help Every Other Actor On The Set.

When A Defining Moment Comes Along, You Define The Moment, Or The Moment Defines You.

Defining Moments

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You Have To Try To Dismiss The Loudness Of Cynicism. It's Certainly Going To Come.

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I've Had Moments In My Life Where It Was All Out On The Table. Everything I Had. I'm Okay With That, Because I Had A Strong Belief That What I Was Doing Other People Could Believe In It, Too, If I Can Get It Just Right.

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I Am A Really Writer-oriented Actor.

I Want To Live Forever, And I Know I Won't. I'm Not Afraid Of Dying. I'm Only Afraid Of One Thing: Not Being Able To Raise My Kids.

I'm In A Position Where Whatever I Do, I Can Get My Head Handed To Me. I'm In A Position To Fail Because There Is A Whole Group Of People Out There Who Want Me To Fail. It's A Weird Vibe.

Sex And Golf Are The Two Things You Can Enjoy Even If You're Not Good At Them.

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I Dream Of Big Things. I Work For The Small Things. If You're Going To Dream, You Might As Well Dream Big. A Lot Of That Came From My Mother. She Was Adamant About The Work Ethic---about How You Can't Just Dream Things.

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Common Experience

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Conventional Wisdom Is So Scary Because What If Everybody's Wrong?

Conventional Wisdom

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I've Always Been Distracted When Somebody Is Coming After Me And Saying, "you're The Only Person Who Can Play This Part."

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I Don't Take Much Stock In Other People's Opinions If I Think Something's Good.

I Actually Play Sports Better When I'm Mad. Some Players Don't Play Better When They're Mad. They Lose Their Sense Of Where They're At. I Have A Tendency To Do Better When I'm Under Pressure.

I'm Not Defining My Band By Other People's Music, But By My Own.

I Haven't Tried To Buffer Myself. I Like Rolling The Dice.

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I Feel Like I've Been Able To Live A Dream Life, But My View Of Things Is Absolutely Inside Behavior About How I Behave And How I Count On Other People Behaving.

I've Been Around Where I Knew Other Actors Were Going To Steal The Scene, And I Don't Compete With Them.

I'd Like To Put On Buckskins And A Ponytail And Go Underwater With A Reed, Hiding From The Indians... To Me, That's Sexy!

Failure Doesn't Kill You... It Increases Your Desire To Make Something Happen.

When I Played Robin Hood, I Knew The Great Role Was Alan Rickman's And It Didn't Bother Me. I Always Think That Leading Actors Should Be Called The Best Supporting Actors.

I've Always Known That I'm A Little Out Of Vogue.

In America, Politicians Do Whatever To Get Re-elected, And A Lot Of Decisions That Were Being Made At That Time By Kennedy Were Certain Not To Get Him Re-elected.

I Don't Think I'd Have Been As Good As Bruce Was. He Was A Better Jfk Than I Would Have Been.

President Kennedy Was Willing To Go To War. He Was Not A Coward. The Man Had Been In War And So Had Ken O'donnell. He Was Ready To Protect This Nation, But He Was Not Ready For A Military Solution Just Because It Was Being Rammed Down His Throat.

When I See My Children, And When I See The People Who Value Me, I Know How Lucky I Am.

Sometimes It Takes A Partner To Say, "what Is It You Want?" Because I Think We Operate In Life And Sometimes We Don't Know. We're All In Some Kind Of Maze Going After The Cheese At The End, And We Get It And We Go, "what Is It That We Want?"

There's A Moment In Time Where Kids Really Don't Want To Hear Anything From Their Parents.

Real Heroes Are Men Who Fall And Fail And Are Flawed, But Win Out In The End Because They've Stayed True To Their Ideals And Beliefs And Commitments.

When I Do A Western, I Often Wonder What I Would Have Really Done In That Situation.

I Don't Read As Much As I'd Like. I've Been Writing A Lot. I've Been Doing A Lot Of Music, But I Don't Read As Much As I Should. I Just Don't.

I Like American History, So I Was Aware Of The Participants And A Lot Of It.

American History

I Wait And Take On Projects That I Think Can Work.

When You Draw A Western Correctly, You Create Such Drama, Such Dilemma That You Think You Almost Don't Want To Admit Who You Might Have Been.

There's Actually A Big Difference Between Story And Character. A Great Story Doesn't Make A Great Movie. A Great Script, Which Defines Its Moments And Characters Can Become A Great Movie. You Can Make A Movie That Makes A Lot Of Money And It May Or May Not Have Great Story Or Great Characters.

I've Been Able To Do A Lot Of Things In The Movies. I've Been Able To Run With The Buffalo, You Know. I've Been Able To Pitch A Perfect Game In Yankee Stadium. I've Been In The Bathtub With Susan Sarandon. I've Had A Lot Of Chances To Do A Lot Of Things. I Enjoy Sports, But I Enjoy Sports So Much To The Point That I Wouldn't Do The Movie Unless I Thought It Had A Chance To Be Good.

I'm Getting Those Familiar Feelings, And I'm Just Going To Enjoy The Process Of Getting To Know Someone Again.

There Are A Lot Of Things That Come To Bear On Movies Now That I Don't Think Are Good For Movies. They're Trying To Appeal To The Biggest Demographic And, When They Do That, You Sometimes Flatten Out.

It's Nice To Be Wanted In Almost Any Capacity.

You Have To Pick The Stories That You Want To Be Involved With And The End Game Is You'd Like To Be A Part Of A Hit. But I Think Your Moral Obligation Is To Follow Your Own Heart.

I'm A Coach's Coaching Player. I Like To Be On The Floor. So, If The Coach Tells Me What To Do Out On The Floor, I Can Get It Done. I'm Really Comfortable Being Directed.

I Don't Think I Ever Take Huge Risks, Though I'm Not Scared Of Doing So.

Audiences Trust Westerns When You Hit The Right Tone. I Think They're Not In Vogue, But They Will Always Be In Vogue When You Hit The Right Note.

Great Stories Don't Often Make Great Movies. Its' A Crafted Art Form.

I Think These Movies Are As Much For People Of That Time As For People Who Weren't Born. For People Who Weren't Born, They See How Leaders Must Act Under A Crisis Situation, Not Trying To Be Re-elected Or Not Trying To Check Polls, That They Go From Their Gut Check.

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