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The Story [for The Western Genre] Is Everything. Whether It's A Book Or A Screenplay, The Story Drives Everything. And If You Just Go Out And Try To Make One By Putting On Boots And Jumping On A Horse And Riding Off... If You Don't Have The Material, The Characters And The Things To Overcome And Conflicts That Give Life To Drama, You Don't Have It.

-Clint Eastwood

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The Story [for The

Clint Eastwood

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The Story [for The Western Genre] Is Everything. Whether It's A Book Or A Screenplay, The Story Drives Everything. And If You Just Go Out And Try To Make One By Putting On Boots And Jumping On A Horse And Riding Off... If You Don't Have The Material, The Characters And The Things To Overcome And Conflicts That Give Life To Drama, You Don't Have It.

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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.

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.

Every Once And A While Somebody Writes A Script, But Even Regardless Of What Age You Are, Most Of The Actors Would All Agree That It's All Based Upon Material And The Material Has Got To Spark With You. It May Be Great Material But You Think It's Great Material For Somebody Else. Or It's Great Material And I'm Perfect For It. So, You Just Have To Make That Judgment And If You Feel In The Mood To Do It.

At Certain Points If Your Life, You Like Doing More. I'm Not Sure What Causes It Or For What Reasons; You Just Do It.

I'd Have To Go For Donald Trump ... You Know, 'cause Hillary Clinton Is Declared That She's Gonna Follow In Barack Obama's Footsteps. There's Been Just Too Much Funny Business On Both Sides Of The Aisle. She's Made A Lot Of Dough Out Of Being A Politician.

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.

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.

Libertarian: Everyone Leaves Everyone Else Alone

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.

You Should Never Give Up Your Inner Self.

When I Was Young There Was No Respect For The Young, And Now That I Am Old There Is No Respect For The Old

Nobody Looks Like They Did When They Were 20, So Why Not Take Advantage Of The Fact That You're Changing, Emotionally As Well As Physically?

If You Want A Guarantee, Buy A Toaster.

Whatever The Drama Of The Story Is, You Have To Be True To It.

I Always Liked Characters That Were More Grounded In Reality.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

I Still Work Out On A Daily Basis.

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

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

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.

When You're Young, You're Very Reckless. Then You Get Conservative. Then You Get Reckless Again.

Conflict Is The Basis Of Drama. I Guess That Goes Back As Long As Time Has Existed As Far As Mankind Is Concerned, Dating Back To The Greek Tragedies Or The Old Testament. And Violence Is A Form Of Conflict, So Whether That's Catharsis Or Whether That Has Some Socially Damaging Effect On Audiences - I Suppose That Would Just Depend.

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.

You Can't Stop Everything From Happening. But We've Gotten To A Point Where We're Certainly Trying. If A Car Doesn't Have Four Hundred Air Bags In It, Then It's No Good.

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?

There's A Rebel Lying Deep In My Soul. Anytime Anybody Tells Me The Trend Is Such And Such, I Go The Opposite Direction. I Hate The Idea Of Trends. I Hate Imitation; I Have A Reverence For Individuality.

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?

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.

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.

Overnight Stardom Can Be Harmful To Your Mental Health. Yeah. It Has Ruined A Lot Of People.

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.

When You Hang A Man, You Better Look At Him.

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

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

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.

It's Always Fun To Talk About Jazz.

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.

You Have To Go With Your Instincts. I Remember When I Was About To Make "fistful Of Dollars" A Big Article Came Out That Said, "italian Westerns Are Finished." I Said, "swell." Then, Of Course, The Film Came Out, And It Did Something. I'm So Glad For The Dozens Of Times I Haven't Listened Along The Way.

Society Is At Odds With Itself.

I'm Just A Kid. I've Got A Lot Of Stuff To Do Yet.

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

I Was Always Annoyed By Too Much Explaining.

I Try To Stick To A Vegan Diet Heavy On Fruit And Vegetables.

Funny Inspirational

Vegetarian Diet

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

Great Stories Teach You Something. That's One Reason I Haven't Slipped Into Some Sort Of Retirement: I Always Feel Like I'm Learning Something New.

Learning Something New

I Don't Mind Telling A Dark Side.

I Just Don't Want To Copy The Current Trends Or Do Movies For Teenagers. I Want People To Get More Out Of Movies.

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.

You Have To Be Realistic About Where You Are In Life And Enjoy It.

Where You Are In Life

I'm Always Trying To Tackle Subjects That Tax Me And Make Me Think. That's The Key To Staying Young At Heart. The Brain Has To Be Exercised The Same As The Rest Of The Body.

The Most Gentle People In The World Are Macho Males, People Who Are Confident In Their Masculinity And Have A Feeling Of Well-being In Themselves. They Don't Have To Kick In Doors, Mistreat Women, Or Make Fun Of Gays.

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

There Was A Stool There, And Some Fella Kept Asking Me If I Wanted To Sit Down. When I Saw The Stool Sitting There, It Gave Me The Idea. I'll Just Put The Stool Out There And I'll Talk To Mr Obama And Ask Him Why He Didn't Keep All Of The Promises He Made To Everybody.

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.

A Lot Of People Are Bored Of All The Political Correctness.

Every Story Has Its Demands.

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

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[fbi] Philosophy Is "go Ahead And Make The Story You Want To Make, And Hopefully We'll Love It." So That's That.

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

Influence And Power

There's Nothing Like A Nice Piece Of Hickory.

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?

My Wife Is My Closest Friend. Sure, I'm Attracted To Her In Every Way Possible, But That's Not The Answer. Because I've Been Attracted To Other People, And I Couldn't Stand 'em After A While.

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 Know What You're Thinking 'did He Fire Six Shots Or Only Five?

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.

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

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.

[ 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.

Children Teach You That You Can Still Be Humbled By Life, That You Learn Something New All The Time. That's The Secret To Life, Really: Never Stop Learning. It's The Secret To Career. I'm Still Working Because I Learn Something New All The Time. It's The Secret To Relationships. Never Think You've Got It All.

I'm Not A Chick-flick Enthusiast.

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.

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

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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.

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.

Of Course We All Know Biden Is The Intellect Of The Democratic Party. Kind Of A Grin With A Body Behind It.

Directing Is More Like You're Being A Psychologist And You're Kind Of Analyzing The Situation And Evaluating Each Person For Their Idiosyncrasies.

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.

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.

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

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.

I Think It Is More Important To Tell A Story Rather Than Follow Any Trend; That Is A Less Bold Way To Go. If You Do That [follow Trends] You Are Just Trying To Ride On The Coat Tails Of Someone Else's Success.

That's Why I Don't Rehearse A Lot And Why I Shoot A Lot Immediately. I Have Ideas Of Where I'd Like To Take The Character, But We Both End Up Going Together.

I Was Kind Of A Little Disappointed When They Started Building A Competition Between Marty (martin Scorsese) And Me. I Have The Greatest Respect For Him And All The Films He's Done Over The Years.

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.

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

A Man's Just Gotta Know His Limits

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.

Hollywood Seems To Succumb To Fads. Well, Action Films Do Well. Give Me Violence. Give Me A Scene Where There's A Couple Of Car Chases Or Shooting And Stuff Like That. They're Forgetting The Fact That There's A Basic Structure To A Story That Is Essential To Making It Really Broad And Appealing.

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.

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.

They Say Marriages Are Made In Heaven. But So Is Thunder And Lightning.

Pay Attention To The Work You Want To Do And Everything'll Work Out Fine. If You're In It For The Ego, You Might Be Successful But At A Limited Level.

I Am Sort Of Anti-hunting. I Don't Put Down What Anyone Wants To Do, But It Seems To Me That Killing A Creature For Fun Is Not A Progressive Idea.

This Film Cost $31 Million. With That Kind Of Money I Could Have Invaded Some Country.

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.

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.

You Should Just Evaluate The Work And Make Your Judgments Accordingly. That's The Way You Do It In Life And Every Other Subject.

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

We Were Dealing With Films That Had Very Prominent Roles For Women And I Felt I Was Actually Contributing Something. Many People Had Wondered Why I Would Want To Do A Film Where The Best Part Was A Woman's Part. But I Wasn't Afraid To Be The Lesser Intelligence In A Film.

Michael Moore And I Actually Have A Lot In Common. We Both Appreciate Living In A Country Where There's Free Expression. But Michael, If You Ever Show Up At My Front Door With A Camera, I'll Kill You. I Mean It.

Once You Finish A Film, It Doesn't Belong To You Anymore - It Belongs To The Audience To Interpret It The Way They Feel Like Interpreting.

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.

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

Just Trust Your Instincts. There's An Old Saying In Golf, You've Studied The Swing Many Times, And You Practice And Practice, But When You Stand Over The Ball, You Just Have To Trust Your Swing. And You Trust It. And If You Don't Trust It, You'll Ruin It; Your Brain Will Take Over.

If The Director's A Communist, Whatever, He's A Communist. All I Care Is That He Directs. For The Actor, The Same Thing. All You Really Care Is That He Comes In And Performs.

I'm A Firm Believer In Research, But I'm Also A Firm Believer In Utilizing The Instincts That Are Within Your Soul Or In Your Body Or In Your Stomach, Wherever They Reside.

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.

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.

The Innocence Of Childhood Is Like The Innocence Of A Lot Of Animals.

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.

Self-respect Leads To Self-discipline.

As You Get Older, You're Not Afraid Of Doubt. Doubt Isn't Running The Show. You Take Out All The Self-agonizing.

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."

We Are Like Boxers, One Never Knows How Much Longer One Has

If You Feel Like You've Got Something To Offer You Should Do It While The Iron's Hot.

Are You Going To Pull Those Pistols Or Whistle Dixie?

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

You Have To Trust Your Instincts. There Is A Moment When An Actor Has It, And He Knows It.

I'd Like To Be A Bigger And More Knowledgeable Person Ten Years From Now Than I Am Today. I Think That For All Of Us As We Grow Older, We Must Discipline Ourselves To Continue Expanding, Broadening, Learning, Keeping Our Minds Active And Open.

Knowledgeable Person

Acting To Me Is A Very Organic Art Form And You Just Go And Do It. And I Like To Direct The Same Way That I Like To Be Directed. Let Me Bring In What I Want To Bring In, And If Something's Wrong, Just Tell Me About It And I'll Make Some Corrections Or Adjustments. And That's What I Do.

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.

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.

Nowadays, Politically, Everybody Is Promising Everything. That's The Only Way You Can Get Elected.

Winning The Election Is A Good-news, Bad-news Kind Of Thing. Okay, Now You're The Mayor. The Bad News Is, Now You're The Mayor.

I Think Great Movies Have To Have Some Great Moments In Them To Bring Them Up To That Level.

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

Anything In Life

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

Being Comfortable Is Over-rated.

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.

You Definitely Do Not Do Films For That Particular Reason. You Do Them For Yourself, For Your Satisfaction Of Creating This Thing With Characters And Watching These Characters Take On Real Life - That's All You Care About.

I Haven't Been Very Active In Politics.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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."

I Just Make The Pictures And Where They Fall Is Where They Fall. If Somebody Likes Them, That's Always Nice. And If They Don't Like Them, Then Too Bad.

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

As A Movie Actor, Once You've Become Known, You're Observed All The Time So You Don't Get The Chance To Observe Anymore. You Still Get A Taste Of Life But It's Not Quite The Same And There's Something To Be Said For A More Anonymous Life.

The More Time You Have To Think Things Through, The More You Have To Screw It Up.

In Recent Times It Just Seems That Women Have Been Relegated To Either Romantic Roles Or Fluff Pieces. So The Appeal, For Me, Is To Make A Picture About A Real Woman.

There's A Rebel Lying Deep In My Soul.

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.

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

I Became A Republican In 1951, The First Year I Could Vote.

If A Person Is Confident Enough In The Way They Feel, Whether It's An Art Form Or Whether It's Just In Life, It Comes Off---you Don't Have Anything To Prove; You Can Just Be Who You Are.

Do Ya' Feel Lucky, Punk?

I Was Drafted During The Korean War.

I Don't Watch A Lot Of Films. I'm Usually Involved In Making Them.

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.

I Have A Small Child. Being A Parent Takes A Lot Of Time. People Always Ask Me, "what Movies Have You Watched Lately?" I Tell Them, "finding 'nemo' ... 'shrek'.

The Country Has Come A Long Way In Race Relations, But The Pendulum Swings So Far Back. Everyone Wants To Be So Sensitive.

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

Let's Take The Work Seriously, And Not Ourselves Seriously.

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.

Men Must Know Their Limitations.

Don Siegel Last Advice To Me Was 'don't Short Yourself.' He Said The Tendency Is When An Actor's Directing Is To Kind Of You Want To Work On Everybody Else But You're Going To Short Yourself. He Said, Take The Time To Do A Good Job With Yourself So That You're Satisfied With It.

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.

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.

Even People On The Liberal Side Are Starting To Worry About Going Off A Fiscal Cliff.

Go Ahead, Make My Day.

Plagiarism Is Always The Biggest Thing In Hollywood.

A Good Man Always Knows His Limitations.

My Father Had A Couple Of Kids At The Beginning Of The Depression. There Was Not Much Employment. Not Much Welfare. People Barely Got By. People Were Tougher Then.

Every Man Has Got To Know His Limitations.

To Me Cinema Can Be A Much More Friendly World If There's A Lot Of Things To Choose From.

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.

Stage Actors Are Usually Much More Conscious Of Speaking Up And Making Sure That Everyone Can Hear In The Back Of The Theatre; A Film Actor Probably Thinks Of That A Little Less. Unfortunately, There's A Style Of Acting Going Round, Especially With The Younger Actors, Where They Talk Without Even Moving Their Lip. Maybe It's Because My Hearing Probably Isn't What It Was 40 Years Ago But I'm Sitting There Going "what Did They Say"?

You Change As The Years Go By. The More Knowledge You Get, The More Things Change In Your Life And Circumstances Change.

Always Keep Your Ego In Check And Not Be Afraid To Listen. Listening Is A Great Art Form.

I'm Suffering From Oxygen Deprivation. It's Overwhelming Watching Your Career Go By.

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 Don't Wanna Need You Because I Can't Have You.

Improvise, Adapt And Overcome!

It's Hard To Tell What Will Stimulate Curiosity Nowadays Because Looking At Some Of The Things That Do Excite People, You Kind Of Go, "ohh, Ok. So This Hasn't A Chance." But We Made It Anyway. I Think If People See The Picture, They'll Find A Lot Of Parallels To Today, Ever Since 9/11 And Everything, That Kind Of Fear That's Going On In Disturbance Of The Country.

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.

I'm Just Naturally Gravitating Towards Different Things. As You Mature, Different Subject Matters. And As You're Older, You Can't Play As Many Parts, Or You Shouldn't Be Playing The Parts That You Used To Play. But Also There's The Opportunity To Play Parts That You Couldn't Have.

Everybody Thinks Making Films Back To Back Is A Big Deal But They Did It All The Time In The Old Days.

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

I Don't Look At My Life Too Much. I'm Always Looking Forward, Not Backward.

Looking Forward

Everybody Puts Importance In Money On A Film Set.

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

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

Things Always Look Different From Higher Up.

Fate Pulls You In Different Directions

Different Directions

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

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.

I Keep Working Because I Learn Something New All The Time.

Never Stop Learning

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.

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.

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

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Kingman Brewster, Jr.

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