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If You Approach A Film With The Feeling That You Are Going To Have Some Impact On Society Then You're Liable To Get Carried Away With Yourself. Alfred Hitchcock Once Told Me, When I Was Analyzing A Lot Of Things About His Pictures, "clint, You Must Remember, It's Only A Movie.

-Clint Eastwood

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If You Approach A

Clint Eastwood

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If You Approach A Film With The Feeling That You Are Going To Have Some Impact On Society Then You're Liable To Get Carried Away With Yourself. Alfred Hitchcock Once Told Me, When I Was Analyzing A Lot Of Things About His Pictures, "clint, You Must Remember, It's Only A Movie.

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Today, The Only Thing Hollywood Swears By Is Space Adventures Because That's What Goes Over Well. For My Part, I Trust My Instinct And I Make The Films I Believe In. If The Public Follows Me, That's Wonderful. If It Doesn't Follow, "c'est La Vie.

There Are A Lot Of Conservative People, A Lot Of Moderate People, Republicans, Democrats, In Hollywood. It Is Just That The Conservative People By The Nature Of The Word Itself Play Closer To The Vest. They Do Not Go Around Hot Dogging It.

I Never Look Back And Think Too Much About My Films. I've Done Some Work I've Been Proud Of Over The Years But Which Of Them Is My Favourite I Really Don't Know. I Could Say The Last One. I've Had Little Jumps In My Career Like Unforgiven Possibly.

I Was Always Respectful Of People Who Were Deeply Religious Because I Always Felt That If They Gave Themselves To It, Then It Had To Be Important To Them. But If You Can Go Through Life Without It, That's Ok, Too. It's Whatever Suits You.

I've Done A Few Special Effects Movies In My Life, So I've Gotten That Out Of My System.

My Father Died Very Suddenly At Sixty-three. Just Dropped Dead. For A Long Time Afterward, I'd Ask Myself, Why Didn't I Ask Him To Play Golf More? Why Didn't I Spend More Time With Him? But When You're Off Trying To Get The Brass Ring, You Forget And Overlook Those Little Things. It Gives You A Certain Amount Of Regret Later On, But There's Nothing You Can Do About It. So You Just Forge On.

The Thing That Haunts A Man The Most Is What He Isn't Ordered To Do.

I Am Not A Regret Type Person. I Don't Believe In Regrets. Lots Of Things You Would Do Differently If You'd Do It Again, But You Don't Do It Again, So You Don't Think About It. But That Goes For Life In General. You're Only Dealing With The Knowledge You Have At That Time.

I Always Revered People That I Thought Had An Idea And Proceeded Through With It. I Guess I've Been That Way Since The Day I Called My Father And Told Him I Was Going To Study Acting And Maybe Try To See If I Could Do Well With That, And He Told Me: "don't Do That. You Don't Want To Do That, That's Just Dream Stuff. Get A Legitimate Job And Move Forward."

When I Was A Kid, I Remember The First Batman, The First Superman Comic Books When They Came Out, Thinking How Great That Was And Wouldn't It Be Great To See A Movie Like That. They Did Some Cheap Serials, But They're Not The Same As Today. But I Think Younger Audiences Would Like To See A Real Hero Also.

Hollywood, As Everyone Knows, Glamorizes Physical Courage. . . . If I Had To Define Courage Myself, I Wouldn't Say It's About Shooting People. I'd Say It's The Quality That Stimulates People, That Enables Them To Move Ahead And Look Beyond Themselves.

You Spend Your Life Training To Be An Actor, Observing People's Characteristics So That You Can Design Characters Around What You've Seen.

When You're An Actor, You're So Busy: People Are Always Coming Up To You And Pulling Your Collar, Making Sure That Things Fit, Brushing Your Hair And You're Always Being Yanked Up, So Finally When You're Behind A Camera, You're Just A Slob.

I'm Past Doing One Chin-up More Than I Did The Day Before. I Just Kind Of Do What I Feel Like.

I Know What You're Thinking. Did He Fire Six Shots Or Only Five? Well, To Tell You The Truth, In All This Excitement, I've Kinda Lost Track Myself. But Being As This Is A .44 Magnum, The Most Powerful Handgun In The World, And Would Blow Your Head Clean Off, You've Got To Ask Yourself One Question: "do I Feel Lucky?" Well, Do Ya, Punk?

I've Always Told My Son Scott The Same Thing: Don't Rush Into Anything, Because There's Gonna Be A Lot Of Fish In The Sea. You Can Be One Of The People That's Lucky Enough Not To Become A Loser Two And Three And Four Times Over Like People Do, Just By Being A Little More Patient.

I Love Every Aspect Of The Creation Of Motion Pictures And I Guess I Am Committed To It For Life.

Motion Pictures

I Think Being Able To Age Gracefully Is A Very Important Talent. It Is Too Late For Me.

My Old Drama Coach Used To Say, 'don't Just Do Something, Stand There.' Gary Cooper Wasn't Afraid To Do Nothing.

Twenty-some States In The United States Have Statutes That Say Showing The Nipples To Children Is Oscene. That's The First Thing We Come Into Contact With When We Arrive On This Palnet: A Woman's Breasts!

I Always Thought What An Interesting Idea Because Almost Everybody's Fascinated By The Perpetrator Of A Crime; Very Few People Study What Happens To People For The Rest Of Their Lives, And How It Affects Not Only That Particular Character But Other Characters Around Him As Well.

You Know When You're Young And You See A Play In High School, And The Guys All Have Gray In Their Hair And They're Trying To Be Old Men And They Have No Idea What That's Like? It's Just That Stupid The Other Way Around.

All I Know Is There's Thousands Of People In The Academy And A Lot Of Them, The Majority Of Them, Haven't Won Oscars.a Lot Of People Are Crying, I Guess.

I Don't See Myself As Conservative, But I'm Not Ultra-leftist. You Build A Philosophy Of Your Own. I Like The Libertarian View, Which Is To Leave Everyone Alone. Even As A Kid, I Was Annoyed By People Who Wanted To Tell Everyone How To Live.

I Was Forty The First Time I Directed. I Formed A Company In 1967, Looking To The Future. My Dad Taught Me That Whatever You Do, Do It Well. Be The Best At What You Can Do For That Particular Job In Life. That Always Resonated With Me.

You Have To Steal A Lot. You Have To Have A Criminal Mentality To Be A Film Director.

I Was Always Annoyed By Too Much Explaining.

Pose? I Don't Pose. What Am I? Paris Hilton Or Something?

I Found Out That A Lot Of My Liberal Friends Weren't Liberal Because They Weren't Liberal About Approaching Anybody Else's Ideas, Or At Least Standing For It. They Started Getting Really Animalistic About, "i Can't Even Associate With This Guy. He's Stupid. He's An Idiot."

People Have Lost Their Sense Of Humor. In Former Times, We Constantly Made Jokes About Different Races.

I Haven't Been Very Active In Politics.

Am I Aging? The Pros And The Cons? Well, You Know A Lot More, At Least Until The Time You Start Forgetting It All. Actually, Aging Can Be A Fun Process, To Some Degree.

There's Really No Way To Teach You How To Act, But There Is A Way To Teach You How To Teach Yourself To Act. That's Kind Of What It Is; Once You Learn The Little Tricks That Work For You, Pretty Soon You Find Yourself Doing That.

Finding Yourself

The Main Thing Is, You Just Want To Have Your Place In History. You Hope That People Will Look Back On It In 15, 20, 30 And Beyond Years, And Say, "that Was An Exciting Film."

Everybody Has Certain Things They Wish They Hadn't Done In Life. They Wish They Hadn't Kicked Their Dog When They Were Ten Or Something. There Are Many Things You Can Go Back And Have Regrets About. I Don't Like Doing That. But By The Same Token I Do Agree That When You Get To A Certain Stage In Life, You Change. And You Should Change.

Our Modern Society - Especially In The West, And Especially Now - Reveres Youth.

Aging Can Be Fun If You Lay Back And Enjoy It.

Scott's Eastwood Movie Snowden Sounds Fascinating. I Want To See It Because It's About Deserting Your Country ... For Whatever Reasons You Have. Edward Snowden Became Famous For The Wrong Reasons, As Captain Chesley "sully" Sullenberger Became Famous For Doing Something Spectacular.

I Don't Really Get Into A Big Intellectual Analysis Of Why I Am Going To Do A Certain Script Or Not.

When You Think Of A Particular Director, You Think You Would Have Liked To Be With Them On One Particular Film And Not Necessarily On Some Other One.

There's Only One Way To Have A Happy Marriage And As Soon As I Learn What It Is I'll Get Married Again.

An Awful Lot Of Good Movies Have Gone Unrecognized, And An Awful Lot Of Bad Movies Have Had Tremendous Recognition. As Long As You Keep That In Mind, You Are Never Really Disappointed.

It's Always Fun To Talk About Jazz.

If Anybody Asks Me What I Attribute The Longevity Of My Career To, Then I Say It's Because I Was Never Satisfied With Being A Cowboy In The Plains Of Spain And Later I Was Never Satisfied With Just Playing A Detective In San Francisco, And Constantly Just Pushing The Envelope.

A Man's Just Gotta Know His Limits

Every Man Has Got To Know His Limitations.

To Me, Life Is Like The Back Nine In Golf. Sometimes You Play Better On The Back Nine. You May Not Be Stronger, But Hopefully You're Wiser. And If You Keep Most Of Your Marbles Intact, You Can Add A Note Of Wisdom To The Coming Generation.

If You Can Make A Good Picture That Actually Has Some Substance, That's Doubly Good Nowadays 'cause Most Everybody Else Is Trying To Address How Many Cgi Plates We're Gonna Do, What Little Being Is Gonna Come In From Another Asteroid.

I'm Not Really Conservative. I'm Conservative On Certain Things. I Believe In Less Government. I Believe In Fiscal Responsibility And All Those Things That Maybe Republicans Used To Believe In But Don't Any More.

Historically, Actors Have Been Made Very Famous For Roles That Were Something That Was Far - - Richard Widmark Comes To Mind (playing Tommy Udo In "kiss Of Death") Or Something Like That, Where You Do Some Famous Role And Everybody Imitates You For The Rest Of Your Life. But Obviously It's Much More Fun To Play Something You're Not Than It Is To Play Something You Are.

I Have Great Respect For The Fbi, And I Know That There Have Been Some Rumors Lately That The Fbi Was Disenchanted Because Of What We Were Doing In Story, Or Doing A Certain Take: That's Not True. Actually The Fbi Was Tremendously Enthusiastic About Us Doing [ J. Edgar Hoover ] Film.

We Don't Even Know Who's In The Academy.

There's A Rebel Lying Deep In My Soul.

The Prospect Of Dating Someone In Her Twenties Becomes Less Appealing As You Get Older. At Some Point In Your Fife, Your Tolerance Level Goes Down And You Realize That, With Someone Much Younger, There's Nothing Really To Talk About.

In School, I Could Hear The Leaves Rustle And Go On A Journey.

I'm Not A Chick-flick Enthusiast.

I Just Think It Is Important That You Realize, That You're The Best In The World. Whether You Are A Democrat Or Republican Or Whether You're Libertarian Or Whatever, You Are The Best. And We Should Not Ever Forget That. And When Somebody Does Not Do The Job, We Got To Let Them Go.

I Haven't Killed Anybody All Day. Help Me Keep It That Way.

Scott Eastwood Always Came In And Did A Good Job. And He's Now Graduated To Better Roles, And The Chicks Are All Calling And Asking Where Scott Is. They Used To Ask Where I Was. Now They're Going, "what About Scott?"

The Cruelty Of Nature Is You Have To Work Out Harder When You Get Older ... It Should Be The Other Way Around: Work Out Hard When You're A Kid You Should Be Able To Coast When You Get Older. But Unfortunately You Have To Do More To Stay In The Same Position.

Things Always Look Different From Higher Up.

When I Look Back On My Life, I Don't Have Regrets About What I Didn't Do. If I'd Become A Musician, It Could Have Ruined My Life.

What Happened Is I Was Going To College In 1950. L. A. City College. A Guy I Knew Was Going To An Acting Class On Thursday Nights. He Started Telling Me About All The Good-lookin' Chicks And Said, "why Don't You Go With Me?" So I Probably Had Some Motivation Beyond Thoughts Of Being An Actor. And Sure Enough, He Was Right. There Were A Lot Of Girls And Not Many Guys. I Said, "yeah, They Need Me Here." I Wound Up At Universal As A Contract Player.

If You're Doing A Biography, You Try To Stay As Accurate As Possible To Reality. But You Really Don't Know What Was Going On In The Person's Mind. You Just Know What Was Going On In The Minds Of People Around Him.

My Mother Knew How To Read Music And Everything. But I Just Kinda Learned Off Of Records. And So, I Was Listening To Records And I'd Play 'em Over And Over.

My Uncle Played Rugby, And My Dad Played Football, And They Used To Argue Which Game Was The Roughest - And Everybody Agreed Rugby Was. It's A Great Team Sport, And To Be Successful, Every Person Has To Play In The Same Level.

I Could Be The Driver - The Uber Guy Saying, "i Used To Be In Films Years Ago... ."

My Wife And I Are Both Libertarian; She Was A Democrat And I Was A Republican, And We Both Met In The Middle Somewhere.

Dyin' Ain't Much Of A Living, Boy.

Don't Look At Me Like I've Gotten Old Or Something Like That.

I'm More Focused On Making A Scene Seem Real As Opposed To Perfect.

I Would Just Like To Say Something, Ladies And Gentlemen. Something That I Think Is Very Important. It Is That, You, We - We Own This Country. We - We Own It. It Is Not You Owning It, And Not Politicians Owning It. Politicians Are Employees Of Ours.

You Get To A Certain Age And You're Just Glad To Be There. I Don't Know What To Add To That. It's Fun. You Have To Be A Realist, So You Try To Look For Roles That Are Within The Age You Are.

For A Man, Once You've Sired Your Pups, You're Done.

If You Read Any Of The Biographies On J. Edgar Hoover, You Find That They Contradict Each Other More Than They Agree. Often Times, They're Often Told From A Political Perspective.

People Love Westerns Worldwide. There's Something Fantasy-like About An Individual Fighting The Elements. Or Even Bad Guys And The Elements. It's A Simpler Time. There's No Organized Laws And Stuff.

It's Not About You. It's About Them.

I Guess It's Like Trying To Put Through The Flat Tax, Which Is Probably My Favorite One Of All.... If We Did Pass It, All Of A Sudden, What Do You Have? You Have The Whole Tax System Run By A Little Old Lady On A Home Computer, Doing The Work Of All These Thousands Of Bureaucrats And Accountants. Passing That Would Be Amazing, Wouldn't It?

Everybody Wants To Make Something They Think Is A Surefire Winner, Though Nobody Knows What A Surefire Winner Is, In My Opinion.

Over The Years, I Realized There Was A Republican Philosophy That I Liked. And Then They Lost It. And Libertarians Had More Of It. Because What I Really Believe Is, Let's Spend A Little More Time Leaving Everybody Alone.

You, Me...we Own This Country. Politicians Are Employees Of Ours....and When Somebody Does Not Do The Job, We Got To Let Them Go.

You Are Always Hoping That Movie Audiences Are Interested In Characters And Interested In Story Values Rather Than Just Mindless Special Effects. But You Never Know.

Hitchcock Used To Believe That If There Were Three Or Four Memorable Scenes In A Film That Would Be Enough To Drive It, But I Don't Know If That's True Or Not.

Politicians Have To Make Unpopular Decisions. Schwarzenegger Is Going To Understand The Nature Of His Job. I Wish Him Good Luck, He's Going To Need It. It's Going To Be Difficult For Him.

When A Naked Man Is Chasing A Woman Through An Alley With A Butcher Knife And A Hard-on, I Figure He Isn't Out Collecting For The Red Cross.

I Always Felt Blessed That I Was Able To Make A Living In A Profession [acting] That Not A Lot Of People Can Make A Living At, And I Was Able To Do Something I Liked, Rather Than Be In A Job That I Hated.

Participating In A Gun Buy-back Program Because You Think That Criminals Have Too Many Guns Is Like Having Yourself Castrated Because You Think Your Neighbors Have Too Many Kids.

I Take Vitamins Daily, But Just The Bare Essentials Not What You'd Call Supplements. I Try To Stick To A Vegan Diet Heavy On Fruit, Vegetables, Tofu, And Other Soy Products.

No, I Don't Have To Practice That Grunt. You Just Do It. Once You're In Character, You're In Character. You Don't Sit There Purposely Thinking, Well, I'll Grunt Here, Or I'll Groan There.

Everybody Always Feels That They're Right Even If They're Wrong And That's What A Whole Actor's Career Is Built Around Rationalizing Your Way Into Whatever Character You're Playing.

I've Taken Advantage Of A Few Breaks That Came Along And Moved Along With Them.

As You Get Older You Try To Do Things That Please You More. You Get A Little More Selfish. You Start Thinking I Want To Do Things Where I Enjoy Myself.

Most People Who'll Remember Me, If At All, Will Remember Me As An Action Guy, Which Is Okay. There's Nothing Wrong With That. But There Will Be A Certain Group Which Will Remember Me For The Other Films, The Ones Where I Took A Few Chances. At Least, I Like To Think So.

You Have To Teach Yourself To Act But Michael Chekhov Will Give You The Necessary Tools - And For Me, Psychological Gesture And Centers Are Extremely Valuable They Work Like A Charm. I've Used Them All Along And Still Do.

A Good Man Always Knows His Limitations.

I Like The Inspiration Of The First Take.

I'm Trying To Preach The Idea That If We Don't Pay Attention To History We're Destined To Repeat It.

The Best Part Of Aging In This Business Is Losing That Obsession About Work And Being Able To Spend A Little More Time With Family.

I Do Believe If One Keeps Busy It's Very Good For A Person. In Fact, People Are Always Rushing Into Retirement And We Read In Europe That People There Are Talking About Their Retirement Age And Moving It To 67 Or Something. Well, Back When They Started Retirement Funds And Everything, The Average Age Was 70 Or 60, And Then All Of A Sudden Now It's 80, And So. [...] And So You Keep In Shape, You Keep Yourself Mentally In Shape. And If You Keep Yourself Mentally In Shape, Chances Are Physically It Will Follow Suit.

I Never Considered Myself A Cowboy, Because I Wasn`t. But I Guess When I Got Into Cowboy Gear I Looked Enough Like One To Convince People That I Was.

I Believe That Everybody, Whether You Believe In The Afterlife Or The Chance Of A Near-death Experience And You Come Back And You See Someone [on The Other Side] - Whether That Has Happened Or Not, I Don't Know, But Certainly Everyone Has Thought About It At Some Point Or Another In Time. It's A Fantasy That If There Is Anything Out There Like That, It Would Be Just Terrific, But That Remains To Be Seen.

I Still Work Out On A Daily Basis.

I Do Believe In Self-help.

When I See A Story, I Ask: Is This Something I'd Like To Be In? Is This Something I'd Like To See? And If I'd Like To See It, Would I Like To Tell It?

I Think The Only Way It Has Influenced Me Is To Cause Me To Try To Branch Out And Do Other Things. So That People Will Know That I Am Reaching Out And Trying To Be A Little More Versatile. So They Realize He Is Not A "dirty Harry." He Doesn't Advocate Martial Law Or Mayhem -it's A Character.

I Tried Being Reasonable, I Didn't Like It.

I Don't Believe In Pessimism. If Something Doesn't Come Up The Way You Want, Forge Ahead. If You Think It's Going To Rain, It Will.

Famous Inspirational

The Main Thing Is To Do Each Project The Way You Want, And If They Find An Audience, That's Terrific. And If They Don't, There's Nothing You Can Do Anyway, So Don't Let It Concern You That Much. An Awful Lot Of Good Movies Have Done Badly And An Awful Lot Of Bad Movies Have Done Very Well. There Are No Real Rhymes Or Reasons For It. Sometimes The Stars Don't Always Align Right. But If You've Done The Best You Can, You Feel Pretty Good About It.

And I Think It's That Time. And I Think If You Just Step Aside And Mr. Romney Can Kind Of Take Over. You Can Maybe Still Use A Plane. Though Maybe A Smaller One. Not That Big Gas Guzzler You Are Going Around To Colleges And Talking About Student Loans And Stuff Like That.

Society Is At Odds With Itself.

There's Nothing Like A Nice Piece Of Hickory.

It Takes Tremendous Discipline To Control The Influence, The Power You Have Over Other People's Lives.

Influence And Power

Abuse Of Power Isn't Limited To Bad Guys In Other Nations. It Happens In Our Own Country If We're Not Vigilant.

You Should Never Give Up Your Inner Self.

There's A Lot Of Great Movies That Have Won The Academy Award, And A Lot Of Great Movies That Haven't. You Just Do The Best You Can.

If You're Afraid To Take Risks In Anything In Life, It's Just Boredom.

Anything In Life

Music Does Have A Very Special Place In My Heart. I Enjoy It Very Much. I Suppose It Is My First Love And I Do A Lot Of It. It Seems To Be When You Are Making A Project It Inspires You Sometimes To Jot Down Something That You Think Fits The Situation.

I Had Always Planned When I Started Directing In 1970 That After A Few Years I'd Get Tired Of Looking At Myself On The Screen And Say: "hey, Let's Not Do That Any More." But Then Every Once In A While Something Pops Up. I'm Not Saying It Won't Happen Again But Probably The Odds Get Less As You Set Yourself For Roles That Fit Your Age Group.

These People Who Are Making A Big Deal Out Of Gay Marriage? I Don't Give A Fuck About Who Wants To Get Married To Anybody Else! Why Not?! We're Making A Big Deal Out Of Things We Shouldn't Be Making A Deal Out Of. Hey Go On And On With All This Bullshit About "sanctity"—don't Give Me That Sanctity Crap! Just Give Everybody The Chance To Have The Life They Want.

When You're Making A Film You Start Living With It, And I Find Myself Sitting Down And Figuring Out A Sound Or Melody That Would Go With A Film, Or A Particular Period. It's Not Brain Surgery, You Just Kind Of Feel It Along.

If A Person Is Constantly Evolving, Constantly Reading New Material And Being Exposed To New Material And Growing In Life, Then You're Becoming, Hopefully, A More Intelligent And Well-rounded Individual. If You're Not Then Something's Wrong And You're Sliding Back In The Other Direction.

Tomorrow Is Promised To No One.

Extremism Is So Easy. You've Got Your Position, And That's It. It Doesn't Take Much Thought. And When You Go Far Enough To The Right You Meet The Same Idiots Coming Around From The Left.

Maybe I`m Getting To The Age When I`m Starting To Be Senile Or Nostalgic Or Both, But People Are So Angry Now. You Used To Be Able To Disagree With People And Still Be Friends. Now You Hear These Talk Shows, And Everyone Who Believes Differently From You Is A Moron And An Idiot - Both On The Right And The Left.

I Couldn't Tell You Exactly What I Like About Golf. Just When You Think You've Got It Mastered It Lets You Know You Haven't. I'm Just Crazy Enough To Do It.

I'd Say, Go Ahead, Shoot Your Shot. More Power To Ya If You Can Come Up With A Different Angle On The Character.

What Do You Want Me To Tell Romney? I Can't Tell Him To Do That. I Can't Tell Him To Do That To Himself. You're Crazy. You're Absolutely Crazy. You're Getting As Bad As Biden.

If Somebody's Dumb Enough To Ask Me To Go To A Political Convention And Say Something, They're Gonna Have To Take What They Get.

As You Get Older, You Change Certain Things.

When You're Making A Movie, You Can't Think Anybody Will Ever See It. You've Just Got To Make A Movie For The Values It Has. The Greatest Films Were Made Because Someone Really Wanted To Make Them. And, Hopefully, The Audience Will Show Up, Too.

President Obama Is The Greatest Hoax Ever Perpetrated On The American People.

Ever Notice How You Come Across Somebody Once In A While You Shouldn't Have Messed With? That's Me.

One Day We Will Look Back And Realize That The Barack Obama Presidency Was The Biggest Fraud Ever Perpetrated On The American People.

Over My Career I Played Some Badass Characters. So, People Sometimes Think I Should Have A .44 Magnum. But That's Not True, I Don't Have That. But I Do Fire Them And I Do Enjoy Target Shooting And All That Sort Of Thing. I'm Not Much Of A Hunter. I Don't Like Killing Animals, But I Love To Shoot.

There's Something About The First Time An Actor Runs The Material Over His Or Her Face You Know When They Kind Of Run It Through Their Eyes And You See The Thing And There Is Little Imperfections In It And Not Every Line Is Delivered Perfectly, And It Doesn't Have That Mechanical Feeling.

Buzzards Got To Eat, Same As The Worms.

I'd Been Trying To Retire To The Back Of The Camera For Quite A Few Years. And Then, In 1970, When I First Started Directing, I If I Could Pull This Off, I Can Some Day Just Move In Back Of The Camera And Stay There.

A Talented Executive Would Be Somebody Who Knows How To Surround Themselves With A Lot Of People That Will Make Him Look Good. You Could Say That About A Politician Or You Could Say That About A Head Of A Major Corporation Or What Have You. The People You Surround Yourself With It's Very Important.

I Can't Do That To Myself...

There's A Saying That We Use In Golf: "i'd Rather Be Lucky Than Good." Of Course, To Be Lucky And Good Is The Ideal. If You Study Hard, You Can Get Good. And If You Get Lucky And Get The Proper Parts For People To Be Able To Appreciate What You're Doing ... I'm Sure There Are Many Actors That Are Quite Talented Who Have Never Been A Success Because They've Never Had The Right Opportunity And The Right Material. My Mother Used To Think I Had A Guardian Angel.

If A Person Doesn't Change, There's Something Really Wrong With Him.

The Interesting Thing With Child Actors Is That Kids Are Natural Actors. They're Wonderful Actors, And Most Kids Are Acting All The Time. They're Imagining They're Out In The Yard Playing. They're Imagining That Things Happened, And They Can Get Very Vivid.

I'm Anti - The Pussy Generation. Not To Be Confused With Pussy.

I'm Thinking, That's Barack Obama. He Doesn't Go To Work. He Doesn't Go Down To Congress And Make A Deal. What The Hell's He Doing Sitting In The White House? If I Were In That Job, I'd Get Down There And Make A Deal. Sure, Congress Are Lazy Bastards, But So What? You're The Top Guy. You're The President Of The Company. It's Your Responsibility To Make Sure Everybody Does Well. It's The Same With Every Company In This Country, Whether It's A Two-man Company Or A Two-hundred-man Company... . And That's The Pussy Generation - Nobody Wants To Work.

That's The Secret To A Movie Career - Just Keeping An Open Mind.

Secretly Everybody's Getting Tired Of Political Correctness, Kissing Up. That's The Kiss-ass Generation We're In Right Now. We're Really In A Pussy Generation. Everybody's Walking On Eggshells. We See People Accusing People Of Being Racist And All Kinds Of Stuff. When I Grew Up, Those Things Weren't Called Racist.

I'm A Movie Maker, But I Have The Same Feelings As The Average Guy Out There.

A Lot Of Times People Get To A Certain Age And They Quit. I Always Felt Sorry For The Frank Capras, The Billy Wilders, Directors Like That, Because They Quit In Their Sixties. Why Would You Quit? Think Of The Great Work They Could've Done In Their Sixties, Seventies, And On Up.

There's A Lot Of Young Guys Coming Along, But I'd Like To Say To The Various Financiers, Don't Forget The Senior Guys. The Senior Guys And Gals Are There, Willing To Do Their Best Work For You.

Crimes Against Children Are The Most Heinous Crime. That, For Me, Would Be A Reason For Capital Punishment Because Children Are Innocent And Need The Guidance Of An Adult Society.

I Always Liked Characters That Were More Grounded In Reality.

I Never Expect Anything. I Am Always Amazed At Why Anybody Goes To Any Movie Or Why Anybody Doesn't Go To Any Movie. Any Movie You Make, You Make It Because You're Hoping Somebody Wants To See It, But You Never Know.

Listen, Punk. To Me You're Nothin' But Dogshit, You Understand? And A Lot Of Things Can Happen To Dogshit. It Can Be Scraped Up With A Shovel Off The Ground. It Can Dry Up And Blow Away In The Wind. Or It Can Be Stepped On And Squashed. So Take My Advice And Be Careful Where The Dog Shits Ya!

Instead Of Calling Everybody Names, Start Being More Understanding.

If You Approach A Film With The Feeling That You Are Going To Have Some Impact On Society Then You're Liable To Get Carried Away With Yourself. Alfred Hitchcock Once Told Me, When I Was Analyzing A Lot Of Things About His Pictures, "clint, You Must Remember, It's Only A Movie.

It's Much More Fun To Play Something You're Nothing Like Than What You Are... It's Much Easier To Hide Yourself In A Character.

I Believe In My Gut. Most People Intellectualize Their Instincts Away, But When You Feel Something, You Have To Go For It. A Fistful Of Dollars Was A Great Instinct For Me, Because Here I Was, A Guy Who's Doing Rawhide.

Casting A Film Is To Me One Of The Most Important Things Next To The Writing. If You Cast It Properly Everything Takes Place Very Easily. If You Cast It Improperly You're Fighting An Uphill Battle.

After Directing Awhile, You Get An Instinct About It, But You Have To Be Able To Trust Your Own Feelings. Invariably, Two-thirds Of The Way Through A Film, You Say, "jeezus, Is This A Pile Of Crap! What Did I Ever See In It In The First Place?" You Have To Shut Off Your Brain And Forge Ahead, Because By That Time You're Getting So Brainwashed. Once I Commit Myself To A Film I Commit Myself To That Ending, Whatever The Motivations And Conclusions Are.

Sometimes If You Want To See A Change For The Better, You Have To Take Things Into Your Own Hands.

Every Movie I Make Teaches Me Something. That's Why I Keep Making Them.

I Had Three Points I Wanted To Make. That Not Everybody In Hollywood Is On The Left, That Obama Has Broken A Lot Of Promises He Made When He Took Office, And That The People Should Feel Free To Get Rid Of Any Politician Who's Not Doing A Good Job. But I Didn't Make Up My Mind Exactly What I Was Going To Say Until I Said It.

The Reason I Still Work At This Stage Of Life Is Because I Enjoy Learning Something New Each Day.

Learning Something New

Kids Piercing Themselves, Piercing Their Tongues, What Kind Of Masochism Is That? Is It To Show You Can Just Take It?

Nothing Wrong With Shooting...as Long As The Right People Get Shot.

Everybody's Got A Right To Be A Sucker ... Once.

I Like To Direct The Same Way That I Like To Be Directed.

Are You Going To Pull Those Pistols Or Whistle Dixie?

Let's Not Go And Ruin It By Thinking Too Much.

At Some Point In Your Fife, Your Tolerance Level Goes Down And You Realize That, With Someone Much Younger, There's Nothing Really To Talk About. And I Think We're At A Point Now Where A Lot Of Older Women Take Better Care Of Themselves, Compared To The 1940s And '50s When Women Were Programmed To Figure It's All Over After 30.

Whether You Like It Or Not, You're Forced To Come To The Realisation That Death Is Out There. But I Don't Fear Death, I'm A Fatalist. I Believe When It's Your Time, That's It. It's The Hand You're Dealt.

What Trump Is Onto Is, He's Just Saying What's On His Mind. And Sometimes It's Not So Good. And Sometimes It's... I Mean, I Can Understand Where He's Coming From, But I Don't Always Agree With It.

It's What People Know About Themselves Inside That Makes Them Afraid.

Everybody Is Looking For A Reason To Not To Take Responsibility For Their Own Actions In Hand.

I Mean, I've Always Been A Libertarian. Leave Everybody Alone. Let Everybody Else Do What They Want. Just Stay Out Of Everybody Else's Hair.

[ J. Edgar]hoover, I'm Sure, Felt That He Was Right In Everything He Did And Even The Things That We Don't Like About His Character.

Acting Gets Into Your Blood, After So Many Years, And I Just Always Like Revisiting It. It's Fun To Meet New People And Watch Them Coming Along, At Different Stages Of Their Careers.

Do Ya' Feel Lucky, Punk?

Having The Security Of Being In A Series Week In, Week Out Gives You Great Flexibility; You Can Experience With Yourself, Try A Different Scene Different Ways. If You Make A Mistake One Week, You Can Look At It And Say, 'well, I Won't Do That Again,' And You're Still On The Air Next Week.

If You Cast A Film Incorrectly, Then You're Going To Be Fighting An Uphill Battle.

Nobody Knows Diddly. They Just Think They Do. And The People That Think They Know The Most Know The Least.

I Don't Believe In Pessimism.

I've Got To Learn French Because I've Been Going There For Years And Still, The Only Words I Know Are The Swear Words.

Improvise, Adapt And Overcome!

My Whole Life Has Been One Big Improvisation.

Everything That You Do Is A Challenge. And Acting Is Just Building Up Your Concentration And Being Able To Listen And To Do The Ridiculous.

Respect Your Efforts, Respect Yourself. Self-respect Leads To Self-discipline. When You Have Both Firmly Under Your Belt, That's Real Power.

Nobody Wants To Make Something That Displeases People, But Once You Make A Film, That's Out Of Your Control And You Can't Think About That. You Just Have To Follow Your Head And Make Sure That You're Satisfied By Putting Down What You Intended.

I'm So Glad For The Dozens Of Times I Haven't Listened Along The Way.

None Of The Pictures I Take A Risk In Cost A Lot, So It Doesn't Take Much For Them To Turn A Profit. We Don't Deal In Big Budgets. We Know What We Want And We Shoot It And We Don't Waste Anything. I Never Understand These Films That Cost Twenty, Thirty Million Dollars When They Could Be Made For Half That. Maybe It's Because No One Cares. We Care.

Men Must Know Their Limitations.

I Don't Necessarily Look For Dark Themes; They Just Seem To Appear.

With People In High Office, The Old - You Go Into The Extreme, Which Is Absolute Power And Absolute Power Corrupts.

You Know I've Had People Come Up And Ask Me To Sign Their Guns. Sign My Name On Gun Handles And Holsters And Stuff. I've Done It Once Or Twice For Law Enforcement Officials, But When People Do That -- And There Have Been Quite A Few Of Them Lately -- I Always Tell Them No. I Don't Want To Do That. I Don't Want My Name On That And I Hope You Use This Gun, Whatever Its Purpose Is, I Hope It's Used Wisely.

If You Think It's Going To Rain, It Will.

There Are Two Kinds Of Actors -- One Sits In A Dressing Room Waiting For His Call And The Other Gets Out Into The Business And Polishes His Craft By Absorbing Everything. I Don't Know Enough, I'll Never Learn Everything I Need To Learn. When A Guy Thinks He's Already Learned It, He Can Only Go Backwards.

The Craving For Information Is So Huge Now, And It Can Be Marketed At Such A Rapid Rate.

The Only Reason I Ever Thought About Retiring From The Front Part Of The Camera As Opposed To The Back Is Sometimes You Think, "how Many Roles Are There For Someone My Age?"

I'm In The Saddle Every Day Playing A Screwball. And Then Somebody Comes Along And Says, "how Would You Like To Go To Italy And Spain And Do An Italian/spanish/german Co-production With An Italian Director Who's Only Directed One Movie?" It Wasn't Like I Was Going There To Be With Federico Fellini. But Something Was There, And I Thought, Well, I Loved This Story When It Was Told By Akira Kurosawa; Maybe This Is A Good Idea. That's An Instinctive Moment. A Fistful Of Dollars Was Made.

Keep Your Eyes On The Horizon And Your Nose To The Wind.

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