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I Have A Problem With Writer/directors, Personal. I Can't Work Well With Both Of Them On The Set, If Both Of Them Are Giving Instructions. Writers Tend To Be In Love With What They Wrote. You Can't Always Translate The Words Into The Meaning, Sometimes The Meaning Is Better Served Without The Words, Difficult To Make A Writer To Try To Understand That. It Gets, Sometimes, Tense.

-Morgan Freeman

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I Have A Problem

Morgan Freeman

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I Have A Problem With Writer/directors, Personal. I Can't Work Well With Both Of Them On The Set, If Both Of Them Are Giving Instructions. Writers Tend To Be In Love With What They Wrote. You Can't Always Translate The Words Into The Meaning, Sometimes The Meaning Is Better Served Without The Words, Difficult To Make A Writer To Try To Understand That. It Gets, Sometimes, Tense.

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What I Haven't Talked About I Don't Intend To Talk About.

There's An Exercise We Do Where Someone Is Sat Behind You And You're Asked To Close Your Eyes And Fall Backwards. That's Acting.

These Walls Are Funny. First You Hate 'em, Then You Get Used To 'em. Enough Time Passes, You Get So You Depend On Them. That's Institutionalized.

Doing Comedy Is As Easy As Doing Anything Else. You're Dependent Totally On The Material.

I Don't Think That Anyone Learns Anything. Well, I Mean, You Do Always Learn Something If You Have Your Eyes And Ears Open. You Do Learn Something From Every Outing, Every Time That You Go For It. But For Me What Actors Do Is Interact And That's Why You Have To Do That.

I Believe In Helping The Planet Survive, And That Includes Reaching Out To Help Some Of The Disappearing Creatures Whose Habitats We're Destroying. It's Up To Us To Somehow Reverse That Trend. I Don't Know How We'll Achieve It, But We Need To.

I Find It Difficult To Watch Myself... I Find It Boring.

I've Always Been Really Hot On Westerns. All My Life Growing Up, Cowboy, Cowboy, Cowboy.

When I Was Doing Theater, I Was Very Successful At Believing That I Was Great, God's Gift To The Theater.

I Know People Are Saying They Like You. I'm Not Being Insulted Or Pushed Around Or Anything. People Are Coming Up Because They Like Me. Nevertheless, I Can't Be Everybody's...none Of Us Can. I Hate Saying No To People.

Nobody Is Trying To Save Energy. We're Trying To Shift Our Use Of Fuel. Forget Saving Energy; If We Get The Right Kind Of Energy, There Are Endless Amounts.

I Once Heard A Wise Man Say There Are No Perfect Men. Only Perfect Intentions.

I Think The Educational Value Is What Comes First. I've Always Thought That The Most Effective Tools We Have For Disseminating Information, I.e. Education, Is Television And Film.

I've Been Living With Myself All Of My Life, So I Know All Of Me. So When I Watch Me, All I See Is Me. It's Boring.

Actors Cannot Work Against Each Other. It's Totally Impossible.

I Don't Have Anybody Telling Me What To Say. I Have People Who Would Suggest, Maybe, That I Shouldn't Do This, That Or The Other, But That's Strictly Up To Me.

Very Often, You Know, You Stop Walking Because You Say, 'well, I'm Tired Of Climbing This Hill. I'm Never Going To Get To The Top.' And You're Only Two Steps From The Top.

Your Job Is Always The Same If It's A Juggernaut Or If It's Just One Of These Little Jewels Of A Film That's Gonna Wind Up At The Laemmle Or Something, So Your Job Doesn't Change Whatsoever... Give It Your Best Shot.

You Can Make Anything Into A Play For The Simple Reason That The Human Mind Is One Of The Best Writers In The Business. So, If You've Got A Writer Who's Clever Enough To Give You Enough Clues, You Will Fill Out Every Blank Spot In A Play, Every Single One.

The Accident Was A Horrible Thing - But That Horrible Thing Made Chris, At The End Of His Life, Superman. It's A Happy Irony If There Is Such A Thing. I'm Proud To Have Known Him.

I Have To Remind Myself That Some Birds Aren't Meant To Be Caged. Their Feathers Are Just Too Bright. And When They Fly Away, The Part Of You That Knows It Was A Sin To Lock Them Up Does Rejoice.

I Was Always Ambitious. I Always Wanted To Be More Than I Was....i Always Wanted To Be A Movie Actor.

The Highest Power Is The Human Mind. That's Where God Came From And My Belief In God Is My Belief In Myself.

When I Was Growing Up, I Didn't See Me In The Movies Except In Certain Lesser Roles. If It Wasn't Funny, I Wasn't There. Then Sidney Poitier Came Along, And He Wasn't Funny. He Was Just Good. There's Me. So That Was My Pattern.

And That If You Become A Star, People Are Going To Go To See You. If You Remain An Actor, They're Going To Go And See The Story You're In.

I Can Only Be So Long Without Work Before I Start Getting Antsy.

People Don't Want To Hang Around Someone That You Don't Know How They're Going To React To Anything You Do Or Say.

I've Travelled A Lot, But I Am Essentially American. All My Input Has Been American.

Don't Be Different Just For Different's Sake. If You See It Differently, Function That Way. Follow Your Own Muse, Always.

You Do A Movie. However Long It Lasts, It Begins And It Ends In A Relatively Short Period Of Time. In A Given Period Of Time, Let's Say A Year, You Can Have Three, Four, Or Five Different Experiences Which Is Exciting.

Different Experiences

I Remember Saying To My Agent, "listen, Everybody's Going Out To Hollywood And Making Movies. I Think I Ought To Go Out There." And His Advice To Me Was, "i Wouldn't Do That If I Were You. If They Want You In Hollywood, They'll Send You." And Sure Enough, They Did.

Someone's Always Going To Come Down On The Side Of The Fence.

You Measure Yourself By The People Who Measure Themselves By You.

I Don't Do Cold. My Reaction To Cold Is Drastic. I'm A Southern Boy.

I Think That We Did A Really Good Thing When We Elected Barack Obama. I Read His Books. He Is Absolutely And Totally Qualified For The Job. He's Proven Himself To Be Not Only Qualified For The Job, But Very Good At It. The Things That He's Managed To Get Accomplished In The Face Of So Much Push-back Is Amazing, And I Think - This Is Morgan Freeman's Personal Thought - We're Going To Be In A Lot Of Trouble If We Don't Reelect Him, Because The People On The Other Side Of The Fence Scare Me.

I Am Impatient With Directors Who Don't Know What They Want, And The Way You Don't Know What They Want Is Because They Want To Do One More. "let's Do One More." So, "what For?" I Guarantee You There's Not Going To Be A Change.

It's Sort Of Well-known That Anytime Any Catastrophe Happens Anywhere In The World, They Can Count On The United States For Help.

I've Just Never Been The Kind Of Actor That Things Have Stayed With. I've Never Needed To Carry A Character Off Stage.

Being Blind Is As Simple As Closing Your Eyes. The Blind Don't Act Any Different Than You Or I. You Never See A Blind Person Going Around Saying, 'i'm Blind.' So If You Want To Play Blind Just Close Your Eyes And Keep Them Closed And Fare Thee Well.

Even Through My Good-looking Youth, I Wasn't Called On For Any Romantic Parts, Which Is Okay. What I Was Called On To Do, I Enjoyed Doing. The Funny Thing About Life Is That If You Live Long Enough, I Think, You'll Get Every Wish You Ever Had. It'll All Come True.

From Early Childhood, My Thrust Was To Get Into The Movies.

Early Childhood

The Best Way To Confront, Or Deal With, Technological Innovation Is To Keep Moving Technologically.

I Never Think About Awards Or Anything Like That When I Do A Job. I Was First Named A Best Actor When I Was 12 Years Old And It Doesn't Really Mean Anything When You Get Down To It, Because There Is No Best. I Don't Get All That Involved. My Chest Puffs Up As Much As I Can Puff It Up But I Am Not Trying To Be Better Than The Person I Am Acting With. I Am Trying To Be At Least As Good. That's How It Works.

How Do We Change The World? One Random Act Of Kindness At A Time.

Changing The World

So If I Believe In God, And I Do, It's Because I Think I'm God.

Everybody Works The Same, But The Preparation Very Often May Be Different. You Cannot Work Differently. You Have To Say The Words That Were Written On The Page, And You Have To Make Your Marks. That's The Work.

One Day Very Soon, We'll Be Asked: What Did We Do. And We Will Say: We Did Everything We Could... We Have To... Because If We Don't There Won't Be Anyone Left To Ask. We Have Never Faced A Crisis This Big, That We Have Never Had Better Ideas To Solve. This Is Our Only Home. We Can Choose Today To Make A World Of Difference.

I Like Producing But Acting Is The Quintessential Me, And I'm Probably Better At That Than I Am At Anything. My Heart Has Always Been In The Movies.

Rob [reiner] Is A Teddy Bear. He's Hell Delicious. He's A Really Good Director. He's A Great Soul. In The Movie Business, I Would Call Him A Movie Mom. The Only Person I Hold In Equal Esteem Is Clint Eastwood. Now I Have Worked With A Lot Of Terrific Directors, And I Don't Mean To Be Putting Any Of Them Below Their Own Station, But These Two, I Relish Working With Them.

If You Want To See A Miracle, Be The Miracle

Forgiveness Liberates The Soul, It Removes Fear.

I Was Raised In Mississippi, So Heat And Humidity Is My Bread And Butter. It Keeps Me Going. I Can't Stand Cold Weather.

Heat And Humidity

When I Was Getting Close To Being Accepted For Pilot Training, I Was Allowed To Get In A Jet Airplane. I Sat There Looking At All Those Switches And Dials And I Got The Distinct Feeling That I Was Sitting In The Nose Of Bomb. I Realized My Fantasies Of Flying And Fighting Were Just That - Fantasies.

If You Live A Life Of Make-believe, Your Life Isn't Worth Anything Until You Do Something That Does Challenge Your Reality. And To Me, Sailing The Open Ocean Is A Real Challenge, Because It's Life Or Death.

I'm Easy Going For The Most Part But Sometimes In The Morning If I Didn't Sleep Well I Can Be Kind Of Grumpy. But My Grumpiness Doesn't Have That Much To Do With My Dissatisfaction With My Station In Life.

I'm Not One Who Can Write Out A Speech And Remember All The Names Of The People That You Need To Thank Because You Need To Thank All Of Those People.

I Don't Do Comedy. I Think If A Situation Is Funny You Just Play It For Real And If It's Funny, It's Funny.

Which Lady Would I Like To Meet? Um, I Don't Know That There's Anybody Left That I Didn't Meet. But The One That I Really Wanted To Meet Died And That Was Princess Diana. I Really Wanted To Get To Know Her. I Like Her.

Challenge Yourself; It’s The Only Path Which Leads To Growth.

Did You Just Call Me Old? I Really Prefer The Word 'experienced'.

I Have A Problem With Writer/directors, Personal. I Can't Work Well With Both Of Them On The Set, If Both Of Them Are Giving Instructions. Writers Tend To Be In Love With What They Wrote. You Can't Always Translate The Words Into The Meaning, Sometimes The Meaning Is Better Served Without The Words, Difficult To Make A Writer To Try To Understand That. It Gets, Sometimes, Tense.

I Was Told That I Was Good In My Dance Movement Classes And That I Should Concentrate On Dance Because It Would Enhance My Ability To Get Acting Work.

I Feel Fine, I Don't Care Who The Director Is. All You Have To Do Is Know What Your Doing - All Of Us - Everybody In The Business - That's All You Ask Anyone - You Know Your Job, I Know Mine, Let's Go Do It.

My Earrings Are Worth Just Enough To Buy Me A Coffin If I Die In A Strange Place. That Was The Reason Why Sailors Used To Wear Them.

The Best Way To Guarantee A Loss Is To Quit.

I Don't Think You're Going To Get Nominated Every Time You Jump Out Of The Box.

It [love About Acting] Is All About Role Playing - The Same Thing You Do When You're A Kid, When You Play With Dolls Or Toys And Make Up Stories. I Never Grew Out Of It.

Literacy Could Be The Ladder Out Of Poverty

It's Seldom That You Get To Work With One Director More Than Once. I've Worked With Clint Eastwood Three Times, But That's The Only One That's Happened With, Simply Because I Adore His Work.

I Don't Have To Do Anything. The Character Is Shaped On The Page.

I Always Wanted To Be A Fireman, A Cop, An Indian Chief, A Doctor, A Lawyer. I Always Wanted To Be All These Things, So I Am Drawn To These Kinds Of Characters.

Once You've Gotten The Job, There's Nothing To It. If You're An Actor, You're An Actor. Doing It Is Not The Hard Part. The Hard Part Is Getting To Do It.

The Public Feels That If It's On The Internet And You Can Access It, You Deserve It. You Haven't Committed Any Kind Of Crime. We May Even Have To Rename Piracy. But In Any Case, We Have To Confront It.

People Need To Start To Think About The Messages That They Send In The Movies.

Is There A Movie I Think I Should Have Won The Oscar For? Yeah. All Of Them.

Don't Be Afraid Of What You Want. This Is Your Time. The Barriers Are Down.

"you Are The Actor, And I Understand We Already Had Our Sit Down, You Explained Your Concept, Your View," So I Said, "okay, I'm In Your Hands." That Means That If You've Got To Nudge Me A Little Bit To The Right I Move To The Right, Just From The Pressure, Weight, But You Won't Have To Touch Me At All. You Can Come And Go "okay, You Want Me Over Here A Little Bit More," So No Pressure On Us At All That's Easy To Do.

Playing Is No Challenge; Every Time That You Get A Role You Get To Go Play With Other People In The Sandbox And So There Is No Challenge, Real Challenge. The Challenge, The Major Challenge Is Getting The Work, Finding The Sandbox.

Insanity Is Being Shit On, Beat Down, Coasting Through Life In A Miserable Existence When You Have A Caged Lion Locked Inside And A Key To Release It.

I Had Gone To School To Work On Technique And Found It Wasn't Something That Was Really Worthwhile To Me, Although It Probably Was.

Never Give Up The Ganja.

It Seems To Me That I Never Grow Unless I'm Actually Working With Other Actors Who Have Shed Whatever Shell It Is That Keeps Them Insulated From Each Other.

Working With Others

Our Situation, With Global Warming And Air Quality And All Of That, Has Gotten To Be Catastrophic.

Write Something Insightful. Say Morgan Freeman Said It. Win At Internet.

If I Wasn't Acting, I Have No Clue What I'd Be Doing 'cause I Have No Other Talent.

I Know American Football. I Know A Little Bit About Soccer. I Know Baseball, I Know Basketball. But, Rugby Is A Foreign Language.

This Kid Came Up With Napster, And Before That, None Of Us Thought Of Content Protection.

When I Was A Kid, I Was A Cowboy. I Had A Cap Pistol, And I'd Get Up In The Morning And Strap It On Before I Got Ready.

A Lot Of People Are Going Around Saying, 'you Won The Academy Award For Such And Such.' 'no. I Didn't.' 'you Didn't?' 'well, You Should Have.'

Let Me Tell You About Being Executive Producer. It Is Not A Job, It's A Title. Don't Go Around Asking Executive Producers What They Do Because They Don't Do Anything, Alright?

You Want To Retire From A Job You're Not That All Enamoured With. I Love What I Do. I Want To Keep Doing It Till I Can't Get Out Of Bed Doing It.

In My Career? Me. I'm The Boss. I'm The End All And Be All. I'm The Alpha And Omega In That.

Learning How To Be Still, To Really Be Still And Let Life Happen - That Stillness Becomes A Radiance.

My Job, Personally, Is To Do As Much As I Can To Spread The Warning That If We're Not Careful, It Will End. The Problem Is, We Don't Think Beyond Our Immediate Needs.

There Are Things That I Would Like To Do, But I Make A Big Distinction Between Liking To Do Something And Wanting To Do Something. If There's Something That I Want To Do I've Done It. If There's Something That Comes Up That I Want To Do I Will Do It.

How Are We Going To Get Rid Of Racism? Stop Talking About It!

Black History Month

The Trick To Any Profession Is Making It Look Easy.

I've Never Had Any Intimate Relationships With A Dolphin.

Intimate Relationships

I Like Working With Directors Because I'm Really Opinionated About What Things Work And May Not Work, What Audiences Like And May Not Like, (not Really) But I Do Have Opinions About Things. I Like To Be Able To Say Them And Then Have Them Acted On. The Director Who Responds To Me Like That, Always Gets My Appreciation. I Do Appreciate It. What I Find Is The Best Directors, No Matter What Kind Of Name They Have, Are Like That.

I Am God. So It’s Easy To Play Him. They Say God Is In All Things. So If God Is In Me, Then I Am In God. Therefore, I Am God. God Does Not Exist Without Me.

And Finding The Hat, I Always Like To Find The Hat. And Then Props Just Dress The Set. It's All Fabulous.

I Try To Keep My Mind Active. I'm A Solitaire And Puzzle Addict. I Exercise Religiously. I Don't Do Many Things Religiously And I've Taken Up Golf To Have Something To Do When I Have Nothing To Do.

I'm A Firm Believer That Things Happen As They Should. The Universe Unfolds Just As It's Supposed To.

I'm Not A Comedian. I Don't Make Things Funny If They're Not Funny. I Don't Invent Funny Stuff.

Donald Trump Is The Honey Boo Boo Of Rich People.

If Your Income On Films Or Whatever You're Producing Using Film Drops Below A Certain Level, Then You Don't Have Enough Money To Stay In Business. People Like To Say That This Is All Just About Making Money, But If You Don't Make Money, You Don't Make Anything.

The Main Thing About Awards In Movies Is That They Can Serve As An Economic Surge For The Film. If You're Movie Gets Nominated For Any Award It Does It A Big Favour. People Might Go And See It Again... They Won't Give Up On It.

You're Not Going To Be Able To Look Like Anyone Else, No Matter How Hard You Try, Unless You're A Mimic, Then You're Not Acting, You're Just Mimicking. You Can't Go On Being John Wayne, That's John Wayne. So You're Not Going To Steal From John Wayne. I'm Not Going To Steal From John Wayne And You're Not Going To Come Back And Say 'didn't You Get That From The Circus?' You Know. But He Is One Of Those People Who Instructs Me, Whom I Look Up To - Whom I Think Is One Of The Masters Of His Craft That I Am So Enamoured Of.

That's Really Just The Worst Part Of Life Really, You Get Bracketed Somewhere And The Next Thing You Know People Are Saying, 'no. No. That's Not The Type. Get Me So And So.' I'm Not A Type. I'm An Actor.

If You're Not Living On The Edge Then You're Taking Up A Little Too Much Space.

Fatigue, Discomfort, Discouragement Are Merely Symptoms Of Effort.

...if We Get The Right Kind Of Energy, There Are Endless Amounts. I Think We Should Be Developing Every Kind Of Alternative Fuel That Is Available To Us. That Includes Hydrogen To Soybeans, From Solar To Wind. Whatever We Can Find That Is Going To Help Us Clean Up The Environment We Should Be Working Really Hard On Developing.

Never Let Pride Be Your Guiding Principle. Let Your Accomplishments Speak For You.

Guiding Principles

My Parents Were Working In A Hospital In Memphis. But I Didn't Live There For Any Length Of Time That I Remember. The First Thing I Remember Is The Town In Mississippi That I Live In Now, Charleston.

In Growing Up, I Was A Child Of The Movies. I Went To The Movies Every Given Opportunity, And That's Pretty Much What Has Informed A Lot Of My Choices.

Acting Means Living, It's All I Do And All I'm Good At. If I Weren't Getting Paid Well, I Would Still Be Acting In A Small Troupe Somewhere.

But I Can Say That Life Is Good To Me. Has Been And Is Good. So I Think My Task Is To Be Good To It. So How Do You Be Good To Life? You Live It.

Martin Luther King Jr. Is Remembered As Our Prince Of Peace, Of Civil Rights. We Owe Him Something Major That Will Keep His Memory Alive.

I Was A B Student In Math, Simply Because My Teachers Liked Me, As An Actor.

If You Look Back On Your Life And Where You Started From It's Like Looking Back Down A Mountain Back To The Desert Floor. It's Like Now I Can't Believe I Had Whatever It Takes Or Perceived Whatever It Took To Get Here.

In The Harshest Place On Earth, ... Love Finds A Way.

The Better The Actor, Usually The Safer You Feel Working With.

Costume Is Always An Asset. Normal Costume You Have A Lot To Say About - If You're Wearing Suits Or Ties, And What Color You Want, And How It's Going To Be Cut, And Stuff Like That, And Whether Or Not You're Going To Wear A Hat, And Blah, Blah, Blah. But, When You're Wearing A Special Costume, And Of Course, Costume Is Probably The Second Ingredient In Character, Script Being First, I Always Find That The Costume Does A Lot To Cement Your Character, To Put It Firmly In Mind.

I Find That If I Hold Your Hand, It Transfers An Energy First. I Have A Sense Of How You Feel. That's Important To Me Trying To Become Another Person. I Have A Lot Pressure To Bring A Character To Life In Any Kind Of Real Sense.

Race Seems To Me To Be Less And Less A Subject Worth Discussing.

Somebody Once Said To Me After I'd Done "deep Impact," "what Is It Like To Play A Black President," And I Said, "i Didn't Play A Black President. I Played A President. I Just Happened To Be Black. There's A Difference.

Is Listening Important? I Can't Think Of A Single Walk Of Life Where It Wouldn't Be.

I'm Not Intimidated By Lead Roles. I'm Better In Them. I Don't Feel Pressure. I Feel Released At Times Like That. That's What I'm Born To Do.

Growing Up In Mississippi, I Realized That It Was Separate And Unequal And All That, But It Was Still A Safe Place.

The Reason Actors, Artists, Writers Have Agents Is Because We'll Do It For Nothing. That's A Basic Fact - You Gotta Do It.

Marijuana Prohibition Is Just The Stupidest Law Possible....jus T Legalize It And Tax It Like We Do Liquor.

Finding Joy Is Probably Tantamount To Finding Yourself And Being Comfortable In Your Own Skin.

Finding Yourself

All My Life, All My Life That I Can, As Far Back As I Can Remember, I Saw My First Movie When I Was Six Years Old. And Since Then I Wanted To Do That. I Wanted To Be A Part Of That.

Anyone Who Spends A Significant Amount Of Time With Me Finds Me Disagreeable.

Part Of Acting Is Having The Security To Turn Yourself Loose And Let Yourself Go In Order To Reach Whatever Depths A Character Has. If Your Guts Aren't Hanging Out There, You Don't Offer Anything.

I Really Wanted To Work With Luc Besson. I'm A Big Fan Of His. Did You Ever See 'the Professional.' It Was Very Violent. But A Fabulous Story, A Fabulous Movie, Very Well Done. So That And Two Or Three Other Projects Of His That I've Seen, I Just Thought If I Had A Shot To Work With Him I Wanted To Do It.

If We Don't Save The Oceans, If We Don't Do Something About What We're Doing To The Oceans, As Well As The Planet At Large, We're Going To Be Really Sorry.

I Do Know There Are A Lot Of People Who Seem To Be In My Corner, And That's, Of Course, Wonderful. I'm Really More Interested In The Nomination Than In The Award, Because I Think The Nomination Just Puts You Within A Group Of Outstanding Actors.

Your Best Posture Is Your Next Posture.

I'm Always Trying New Things And Learning New Things. If There Isn't Anything More You Can Learn - Go Off And Die.

Trying New Things

Learning New Things

There's No Mystery To It. Nothing More Complicated Than Learning Lines And Putting On A Costume.

You Can't Take Credit For Talent; You Can Only Take Credit For Using It.

I Think The Best Thing Somebody Ever Did To Me Was My Mother Opening Her Legs And Squirting Me Out.

It Can Have An Enormous Effect Because Big Budget Movies Can Have Big Budget Perks, And Small Budget Movies Have No Perks, But What Is The Driving Force, Of Course, Is The Script, And Your Part In It.

I Always Tell My Kids If You Lay Down, People Will Step Over You. But If You Keep Scrambling, If You Keep Going, Someone Will Always, Always Give You A Hand. Always. But You Gotta Keep Dancing, You Gotta Keep Your Feet Moving.

Freeman Denied The Claim That He Was A “man Of God”, Saying That “the Question Of Faith Is Whatever You Actually Believe Is. We Take A Lot Of What We're Talking About In Science On Faith; We Posit A Theory, And Until It's Dis-proven We Have Faith That It's True. If The Mathematics Work Out, Then It's True, Until It's Proven To Be Untrue.

I Think You Take A Job, You Owe It As Much Passion As The Job Itself Demands. And Most Jobs Demand That You Be Totally Committed.

We’re Turning Everything On The Planet Into Food For Humans So We’re Cutting Down The Rainforests, Displacing All Of The Animals, And We’re Doing All This To Feed Humans... ... Imagine If There Were Only 2 Billion People Polluting? We’re Already Overpopulated. I Feel We’ve Become A Parasite On This Planet. If This Population Keeps Growing, We’ll Just Keep Devouring The Planet, And I Don’t Think It’s Going To Stand For That Very Long.

As Long As You Feel Like A Victim, You Are One.

Give Me Something Interesting To Play And I'm Happy.

And Some Places You Been Before Are So Great That You Don't Ever Mind Going Back. Some Places You Been Before You Don't Ever Want To Go Back, You Know, Like Montreal In The Winter.

You Don't Know How Much You Appreciate Your Privacy Until You Don't Have It.

I Think One Of The Things When You're Casting Children Is You're Also Casting Their Parents.

The First Thing That Always Pops Into My Head Regarding Our President, Is That All Of The People Who Are Setting Up This Barrier For Him... They Just Conveniently Forget That Barack Had A Mama, And She Was White - Very White; American, Kansas, Middle Of America. There Is No Argument About Who He Is, Or What He Is. America's First Black President Hasn't Arisen Yet. He's Not America's First Black President. He's America's First Mixed-race President.

I Grew Up In The South But I Started Dancing In My Twenties When I Got Out Of The Air Force, And Studying Dance, You're Surrounded By Gay Guys All The Time. You Get To Know Them And You Have To Shift Gears!

The Bigger Point Here Is That Golf Is A Good Metaphor For One's Life. The Challenge Of Golf For Me Is Trying To Learn New Rules. It's Something You Always Have To Work At; You Don't Get Perfect At Golf. It's The Never-ending Quest For Betterment.

In My Home, Who Is My Boss? If You Ask My Wife She'll Say Certainly Not Her. She Claims That She Can't Make Me Do Anything And So She's Not My Boss. I Am. I'm Pretty Sure, Maybe.

Nelson Mandela Was A Man Of Incomparable Honor, Unconquerable Strength, And Unyielding Resolve---a Saint To Many, A Hero To All Who Treasure Liberty, Freedom And The Dignity Of Humankind.

I'm Also Very Fond Of A Light Business Jet, So I'd Like To Get It Before It's Too Late.

I Have To Deal With Being Famous. Sometimes I Have To Tell People I Don't Do Autographs, Thank You Very Much. At Certain Places, I Refuse To Have My Photograph Taken.

As You Grow In This Business, You Learn How To Do More With Less.

As The Mask Of Deception Falls Off The Face Of Humanity Unveiling The Grim Reality Of Duality In Which Everyone Is A Casualty, No One Will Be Exempt Truth Has Many Shades It's Not A Matter Of Black And White, But Gray Although Many, We Are One, So In The Final Analysis Could It Be That We Are Fighting A War That Can't Be Won?

Look At, Look, The Tea Partiers, Who Are Controlling The Republican Party....their Stated Policy, Publicly Stated, Is To Do Whatever It Takes To See To It That Obama Only Serves One Term. What's, What Does That, What Underlines That? 'screw The Country. We're Going To Whatever We Do To Get This Black Man, We Can, We're Going To Do Whatever We Can To Get This Black Man Outta Here... It Is A Racist Thing.

Marketing Only Really Works With Word Of Mouth.

Attacking People With Disabilities Is The Lowest Display Of Power I Can Think Of

I Joined The Air Force. I Took To It Immediately When I Arrived There. I Did Three Years, Eight Months, And Ten Days In All, But It Took Me A Year And A Half To Get Disabused Of My Romantic Notions About It.

What Do I Want To Do? Acting Wise? Well, There's A Western That I Want To Do. There's A Lot Of Producing That I Want To Do, Projects That I Have Stacked Up That Are In My Office That I'd Like To Get Done.

But I Was 22 Before I Took My First Dance Class. I Had Never Been Athletic, So I Was Very Stiff; I Still Am. I Think What I Got Mostly From Dance Was Carriage.

They're Talking About Kids Who Have Grand Mal Seizures, And They've Discovered That Marijuana Eases That Down To Where These Children Can Have A Life. That Right There, To Me, Says, 'legalize It Across The Board!'

If I Stay At Home, I'm Not Famous. I'm Only Famous When I'm Out In The Streets, So I Don't Go Out On The Streets Much.

If You Sat Down And You Wrote A Script, You May Write Something That's Way Beyond What You've Ever Seen Me Do, But If You Thought Of Me To Do It, I Would Be Flattered To Be Asked To Do Something Other Than Be Wise.

I Am Going To Stop Calling You A White Man And I'm Going To Ask You To Stop Calling Me A Black Man.

Stage Is Really Hard Work. You've Got To Do It Every Night. Not Like Doing It Once And Walking Away.

My Approach To Acting Is That I Am Totally Intuitive. I Read The Script And I Get It. If I Don't Get It, I Can't Do It.

Well, Here’s A Scientific Question: Has Anybody Ever Seen Hard Evidence? What We Get Is Theories From Our Earlier Prophets. Now, People Who Think That God Invented Us Think That The Earth Can’t Be More Than 6,000 Years Old. So I Guess It’s A Question Of Belief. My Belief System Doesn’t Support A Creator As Such, As We Can Call God, Who Created Us In His/her/its Image.

I Always Knew That Someone Was Going To Come At Me With A Script To Play God. It's Just One Of Those Things, The Way Your Career Is Unfolding And All The Talk About Gravitas Etc Etc, So I Had A Strong Feeling That Someone Was Going To Offer Me The Part Of God. I Was Totally Prepared To Say, 'thanks But No Thanks,' Unless It Was A Comedy.

Writing I Think, Out Of What All Of Us Do, Writing Is The Hardest. You're The Only Who Start With Nothing Except What's Up Here. You Do That. It's Really Hard I Think, Acting Is Not.

I Have Four Children And Nine Grandchildren. I'm Presently Wearing Out My Second Wife.

I Just Wanted To Be An Actor. It's Better To Be Well-rounded.

If You Dream You've Got To Dream That It's Going To Happen. Remember That. If You Dream You Have To Imagine That It Will Actually Happen.

I Understand That When Gary Oldman Was In That Suit [batman], Sweat Would Just Drip Off Of Him Where They Had To Have Holes In The Gloves Or Something.

Was I Always Going To Be Here? No I Was Not. I Was Going To Be Homeless At One Time, A Taxi Driver, Truck Driver, Or Any Kind Of Job That Would Get Me A Crust Of Bread. You Never Know What's Going To Happen.

I've Always Been A Fan Of Or Desired To Or Responded To Variety. I Like Variety In Life, So Variety In Work Is A Must.

I Don't Get Off On Romantic Parts. But I Often Think If I Had Had My Dental Work Done Early On, Well, Maybe.

Still, It Can Be More Effective To Accomplish What You Need To Accomplish With The Minimum Effort. Watch Anthony Hopkins. He Doesn't Appear To Be Doing Anything. He Is So Still That You Can't See Him Working, But You Are Drawn Into His Character Through His Very Stillness.

Get Busy Livin' Or Get Busy Dyin'.

It's Just The Stupidest Law Possible... You're Just Making Criminals Out Of People Who Aren't Engaged In Criminal Activity. And We're Spending Zillions Of Dollars Trying To Fight A War We Can't Win! We Could Make Zillions, Just Legalize It And Tax It Like We Do Liquor. It's Stupid.

We Are Turning Everything On This Planet Into Food For Humans. We'll Eat It And, If We Can't Eat It, We'll Kill It And Take Its Place And Just Move It Out Of The Way.

Someone's Going To Put The Clothes On You, And Part Of Being An Actor Is Wearing Costumes. Costumes Tell You An Awful Lot About Who You Are, So You Just, It's Nothing.

I'm Making A Great Effort Because Sometimes Life Is Not Enjoyable. Sometimes It's Painful And Sometimes It's Stressful, Sometimes It's Agonizing Even, So I Think Once You Get Around Those Humps: Strive For Pleasure And Peace.

Let Me Be The First To Tell You, Drinking Alcohol Is The Worst Thing To Do In Cold Weather. Hot Soup Is The Best Because The Process Of Digesting Food Helps To Warm You Up.

We Humans Are More Concerned With Having Than With Being.

Dr. Martin Luther King Is Not A Black Hero. He Is An American Hero.

If You Get Called On To Help Somebody Pull Focus To Some Good Cause, That's Good Use Of Your Fame. I Don't Try To Avoid That.

I Want To Be Up There, Being Lauded And Applauded And Given All These And On The Red Carpet, Waving At The Hordes Of People.

If You're Going To Play A Brain Surgeon, You Just Have To Learn How To Say The Words. You Don't Have To Go And Learn How To Cut Open Somebody's Scalp. I Think Acting Is Acting. Being Is Something Else.

I Knew At An Early Age I Wanted To Act. Acting Was Always Easy For Me. I Don't Believe In Predestination, But I Do Believe That Once You Get Where Ever It Is You Are Going, That Is Where You Were Going To Be.

There Is No Such Thing As Homophobia. It Is Not A Fear. It Is You Being An Asshole.

One Universe, Four Forces, Billions Of Galaxies. The Precision And Complexity Of Our World Is Enough To Make Even The Famous Cosmologist Go Just A Little Bit Crazy. How Does It All Fit Together? Is There A Single, Overarching Design To The Cosmos? And If We Find It, Will We Glimpse The Mind Of God?

I'm Not Sure That My Upbringing Has In Itself Informed My Acting Choices.

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Theodore Dalrymple

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