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

-Morgan Freeman

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You're Not Going To

Morgan Freeman

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

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Your Best Posture Is Your Next Posture.

Not Only Do I Have To Live, Right, I Have To Get Some Cash For My Troubles - It's A Scary Thing, And People Need To Start To Think About The Messages That They Send In The Movies.

Every Job's A Challenge. The Challenge Is To Do It And Make It Look Right, Like You Belong There - Wherever That Is.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Working With Others

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

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

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

If You Want To See A Miracle, Be The Miracle

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

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

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

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

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

I Think You Have To Be Left-brained, To A Certain Extent, To Understand Science. I Can Talk About It, But I Can't Do It.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trying New Things

Learning New Things

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

I Believe It Doesn't Really Matter Where You Work As Long As You Work. Keep Sharpening Your Teeth.

I Was Lucky In That When The Opportunity Came, I Was Prepared To Meet It.

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

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

Finding Yourself

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ive Got A Lot Of Life Left In Me And I Want To Live It Doing Things I Like To Do.

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

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

The Odds Are Lousy That I Actually Said Something Attributed To Me.

I Was Very Lucky Once I Got Started With A Career. I Happened To Get Some Really Good Parts To Play With Some Really Good People To Play With.

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

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

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

I Seldom Get Into The Mood Of The Story. It's Acting. I Go In, I Act, I Quit. I Don't Take Anything Away From It.

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

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

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

I'm Married, I've Been Married To The Same Woman For - Well, I've Been With The Same Woman For Close To...long Enough To Fool Around.

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

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

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

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

Intimate Relationships

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

A Scientist Sounds Like A Scientist Because The Things That Come Out Of Their Mouth Don't Stumble, That's All. If They [said], "and The, Um, A Microwave, Uh," You Know, Then You Don't Sound Right, But If You Can Just Get It Out Without Stumbling Then You're Going To Sound Fine.

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

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

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

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

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

No One Is Really A Method Actor, Everyone Has Their Way Of Going About It, Preparing For It, But Method Is Preparation, It's What You Do To Prepare. So My Method Is To Read The Script. Some Actors' Method Is To Read The Script A Hundred Times And In The Doing Of It, To Immerse Themselves In As Much Of The Reality As Possible. Me, I Believe Strictly In Acting. If I Am Out Of Breath, I'm Out Of Breath. I Ain't Running Nowhere.

If Your Life Turns Out To Be Good And You Have A Tremendous Amount Of Luck In Your Life, It's A Good Thing To Turn Around And Make It Work For Others.

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

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

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

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

I Got My First Job As A Card-carrying Actor In New York In 1967. Before That, I Was A Very Desperate Wannabe.

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

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

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

Hey, If I Don't Have A Job, I Don't Know Why I Bother To Get Up. Any Time The Phone Rings, I'm Ready To Go. What Else Am I Going To Do? See, I've Never Retired. I Don't Even Know What It Means.

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

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

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

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

All You Have To Do Is Believe, Then You Will See Everything.

If You're Playing Somebody Who Is Not You, Then You Can Imagine That You Are That Person. You Can Feel Like He Feels, Move Like He Moves, Look Like He Looks - In Your Own Mind.

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

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

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

Heat And Humidity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let Me Tell You What Justice Is. Justice Is The Law. And That Man's Feeble Attempt To Lay Down The Principles Of Deceny.

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

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

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

I Would Never Complain That Hollywood Is Racist When I'm One Of The People Touted As A Welcome Entity There.

I Gravitate Towards Gravitas.

That's Your Job As The Actor, To Understand The Human Part Of The Character, To Make It Real.

I Go On Vacation Strictly To Relax - To Kick Back With A Good Book And Do Nothing Else But Read, Sleep And Eat.

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

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

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

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

You Know, The Ancient Egyptians Had A Beautiful Belief About Death. When Their Souls Got To The Entrance To Heaven, The Guards Asked Two Questions. Their Answers Determined Whether They Were Able To Enter Or Not. 'have You Found Joy In Your Life?' 'has Your Life Brought Joy To Others?'

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

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

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

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

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

Flip On The News And Watch How We Treat The Batman Theater Shooter And The Oregon Mall Shooter Like Celebrities. Dylan Klebold And Eric Harris Are Household Names, But Do You Know The Name Of A Single ‘victim’ Of Columbine?

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

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

If You're Comfortable On A Horse, You're Comfortable On A Horse. It's Like Being On A Motorbike.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fatigue, Discomfort, Discouragement Are Merely Symptoms Of Effort.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Different Experiences

Life Doesn't Offer You Promises Whatsoever So It's Very Easy To Become, 'whatever Happened To... ?' It's Great To Be Wanted. I Spent A Few Years Not Being Wanted And This Is Better.

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

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

When I Was A Teenager, I Began To Settle Into School Because I'd Discovered The Extracurricular Activities That Interested Me: Music And Theater.

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

That Is A Big Turn-on For Me, A Director Who Knows What He's Doing And What He Wants, And Knows When He's Gotten What He Wants.

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

I'm Not Digging Tunnels, I'm Not Building Buildings. My Work Is Not Hard, My Work Is Refreshing, My Work Is Pleasant. The More The Better. Lying Around And Getting No Job Is Debilitating.

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

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

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

Just That Working With Clint Again Is Like Coming Home.

I Avoid Seeing Myself While I'm Working On Role So I Won't See "me."

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

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

My Roots Were Pretty Far Removed From High Income. It's Interesting To Be Back There At The Level Of Income I Have Now, At This Stage In My Life.

Literacy Could Be The Ladder Out Of Poverty

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

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

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

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

Most Of The Time It's The Role. Sometimes It's The Story And Sometimes It Just The Paycheck. It's The Little Movies That Come Out As Stories Or The Fact That I Have Work To Go Out, You Know What I'm Saying, You Can Only Be Out So Long Without Work, You Start Getting Antsy.

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

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

Never Give Up The Ganja.

I Am Passionate About What Is Going On With The Oceans, Mainly Because We Are For Some Idiotic Reason, Really Screwing It Up. I Mean, We're Really Killing The Ocean. It's Like Putting Out The Sun. Without It, There Is No Us.

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

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

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

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

I Have Never Acted He Has Never Been Cast In A Romantic Lead Or Has Been Cast Opposite A Female Love Interest In Any Movie He Starred In.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Donald Trump Is The Honey Boo Boo Of Rich People.

I Don't Need Any More Press. I Get Enough When I Work, But Environmental Causes Is One Place Where You Can Get Me To Open My Mouth. And Put My Foot In It If Necessary. I Think The Only Thing I Do That Gives Me Any Bragging Rights In Terms Of Energy Conservation Is Sailing. Just Using Wind Power.

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

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

Early Childhood

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

Get Busy Livin' Or Get Busy Dyin'.

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

Working On Stage Is Really A Great Voice Developer.

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

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

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

I Hate The Word Homophobia. It's Not A Phobia. You Are Not Scared. You Are An Asshole.

Insanity Is Coasting Through Life.

I Like The Character Roles. Somewhere Back There I Really Came To The Conclusion In My Mind That The Difference Between Acting And Stardom Was Major. And That If You Become A Star, People Are Going To Go To See You. If You Remain An Actor, They're Going To Go And See The Story You're In.

Audiences Believe What You Believe. It's A Matter Of Believing Yourself. If I Believe Me, Then You've Got No Choice. None At All.

We Humans Are More Concerned With Having Than With Being.

So We Say, Oh, My Goodness; We Think We've Found Another Earth-like Planet. We Will Start Trying To Figure Out How To Get There. And I Have This Strong Belief That Whatever We Think We Can Do, Whatever We Can Dream, We Can Do.

The Best Way To Guarantee A Loss Is To Quit.

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

Acting Means Living, It's All I Do.

African American

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

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

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

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

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

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