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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.

-Clint Eastwood

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You Have To Go

Clint Eastwood

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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.

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

If I'd Had Good Discipline, I Might Have Gone Into Music.

I Pay Tribute To The Writing Always. The Writer Is A Creative Artist And The Director Is An Interpretive Artist And The Actors Are Interpretive. You Take Zero And Make It Into Something, That's Always Amazing To Me.

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.

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

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.

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

I Don't Like Showing The Technique. I Don't Like People Who Say, "here, I'm Going To Act, But First I Have To Bounce Off This Wall." If You Have To Bounce Off The Wall, Do It By Yourself. Don't Feature The Technique. My Old Drama Coach Used To Say, "don't Just Do Something, Stand There." Gary Cooper Wasn't Afraid To Do Nothing.

Most People Are Afraid Of Change, But If You Look At It As Something You Can Always Count On, Then It Can Be A Comfort.

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

Every Story Has Its Demands.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

There Are So Many Parallels In Society Today [with Era Of J. Edgar Hoover ] That You Can Use, Whether It's The Head Of A Studio Or The Head Of An Organization, A Major Newspaper, A Major Factory Or Company, Of People Who Stay Too Long, Maybe, And Overstay Their Usefulness.

You Take The Work Seriously, You Don't Take Yourself Seriously. You Keep That Straight And You'll Do Well The Rest Of Your Life.

Rest Of Your Life

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.

At Waco, Was There Really An Urgency To Get Those People Out Of The Compound At That Particular Time? Was The Press Going To Make It Look Heroic For The Bureau Of Alcohol, Tobacco, And Firearms? At Ruby Ridge, There Was One Guy In A Cabin At The Top Of The Mountain. Was It Necessary For Federal Agents To Go Up There And Shoot A 14-year-old In The Back And Shoot A Woman With A Child In Her Arms? What Kind Of Mentality Does That?

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.

You're As Young As You Feel. As Young As You Want To Be. There's An Old Saying I Heard From A Friend Of Mine. People Ask Him, "why Do You Look So Good At Your Age?" He'll Say, "because I Never Let The Old Man In." And There's Truth To That. It's In Your Mind, How Far You Let Him Come In.

I Can't Do That To Myself...

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.

My Whole Life Has Been One Big Improvisation.

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?

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

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

I'm Not A Chick-flick Enthusiast.

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.

There's A Rebel Lying Deep In My Soul.

I Don't Have Any Great Pickup Lines. I Was Never An Extrovert, So I Always Had To Have Someone Meet Me Halfway. If She Was Interested, We'd Come Together, And If Not ... When I Became A Movie Actor And Became Well-known, It Took Care Of Itself. Maybe That's Why I Became An Actor.

The Reason I Don't Retire Is That I Learn Something New Every Day. The Brain Has To Be Exercised The Same As The Rest Of The Body. It's About Expanding, Constantly Pushing Yourself.

It's A Hell Of A Thing, Killing A Man. You Take Away All He's Got And All He's Ever Gonna Have.

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

Learning Something New

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."

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 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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Where You Are In Life

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

A Lot Of People Are Realizing They Had The Wool Pulled Over Their Eyes By Obama.

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.

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.

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

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

When I Used To Be A Contract Player In 1954 At Universal, I Wasn't Getting Good Roles. I Was Getting One-liners, And Then I'd Be Gone. But I'd Hang Around; I'd Watch Guys. And When I Had Days Off, Which Was Most Days, I'd Go Down And Watch Other Sets While They Were Shooting. Watch Joan Crawford Or Whomever. Just Watch How They Worked And How The Director Handled Them. I Didn't Know Anything About Making Movies, And There's A Lot To Learn.

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

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

I Don't Mind Telling A Dark Side.

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

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."

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

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.

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

You Always Want To Quit While You Are Ahead. You Don't Want To Be Like A Fighter Who Stays Too Long In The Ring Until You're Not Performing At Your Best.

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.

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 Haven't Been Very Active In Politics.

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.

Tomorrow Is Promised To No One.

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

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.

Romney And Ryan Would Do A Much Better Job Running The Country, And That's What Everybody Needs To Know.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Fate Pulls You In Different Directions

Different Directions

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 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.

Hillary Clinton Has Made A Lot Of Dough Out Of Being A Politician. I Gave Up Dough To Be A Politician. I'm Sure That Ronald Reagan Gave Up Dough To Be A Politician.

Go Ahead, Make My Day.

They've Got This Crazy Actor Who's 82 Years Old Up There In A Suit. I Was A Mayor, And They're Probably Thinking I Know How To Give A Speech, But Even When I Was Mayor I Never Gave Speeches. I Gave Talks.

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!

You See, In This World, There's Two Kinds Of People, My Friend - Those With Loaded Guns, And Those Who Dig. You Dig.

I Don't Write. I Usually Look For Material By Other People. Sometimes I Change Things Or Adapt Things But I Don't Write From Scratch. I Wish I Had That Ability.

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

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"?

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

Never Stop Learning

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.

Self-respect Leads To Self-discipline.

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.

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.

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

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 Still Work Out On A Daily Basis.

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.

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

If You've Done What You Intended And If Nobody Tampered With It, Then It's Yours. And If People Don't Like It, Then They Just Don't Agree With You On That Subject Matter, And That's Life.

I Think As You Get Older, You Find You Can Play More Things Because You're Moving To A Different Category. You Play A Certain Thing As A Younger Man, Playing Action Roles Like I Did. Then I Moved Out, And I Kept Trying To Do Different Things All The Time.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Society Is At Odds With Itself.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

I Like The Inspiration Of The First Take.

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.

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

There's Nothing Like A Nice Piece Of Hickory.

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

You Should Never Give Up Your Inner Self.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

When Anybody Gives You An Award, It Could Be Wrong. You’ve Just Got To Bear That It Mind And Go Ahead And Enjoy It. Like Morgan Says, It’s A Pat On The Back, So Great You’ll Take It And Then Move On.

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

I Was Drafted During The Korean War.

I Do Believe In Self-help.

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

First, I Blow A Hole In Your Face; Then I Go Back Inside, And Sleep Like A Baby... I Guarantee You.

I Always Like To Try Different Things, Different Genres; Stories That Have A Dramatic Element And Can Generate Conflict Which I Find Appealing; Where The Characters Have To Overcome Obstacles. That Kind Of Thing Is Challenging.

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

You Have To Feel Confident. If You Don't, Then You're Going To Be Hesitant And Defensive, And There'll Be A Lot Of Things Working Against You.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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?"

I'd Say People Get To Work And Start Being More Understanding Of Everybody - Instead Of Calling Everybody Names, Start Being More Understanding. But Get In There And Get It Done. Kick Ass And Take Names. And This May Be My Dad Talking, But Don't Spend What You Don't Have.

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.

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.

Opinions Are Like A**holes, Everybody Has One.

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

I've Never Been On A Movie Where They Play Five-dollar Friday. I Must Not Be Very Observant.

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

Acting Is An Animal Thing, Not An Intellectual Thing.

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

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

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.

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

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.

It's Always Fun To Talk About Jazz.

I'm Interested In The Fact That The Less Secure A Man Is, The More Likely He Is To Have Extreme Prejudice.

If You Don't Pay Attention To History, You're Destined To Repeat It.

A Man's Just Gotta Know His Limits

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.

Drama Usually Has Some Sort Of Intense Conflict.

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.

You Have To Go With Your Instincts.

I've Never Met A Genius. A Genius To Me Is Someone Who Does Well At Something He Hates. Anybody Can Do Well At Something He Loves - It's Just A Question Of Finding The Subject.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Take Your Work Seriously, But Don't Take Yourself Seriously

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.

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?

What I Think The Mentor Gets Is The Great Satisfaction Of Helping Somebody Along, Helping Somebody Take Advantage Of An Opportunity That Maybe He Or She Did Not Have.

Are You Going To Pull Those Pistols Or Whistle Dixie?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Once A Man Has Some Money, Peace Begins To Sound Good To Him.

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

Looking Forward

I Don't Know How Everybody Else Feels, But I Just Long For Reality Rather Than These Made-up Things.

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