1. “It takes tremendous discipline to control the influence—the power you have over other people’s lives.”
2. “I hate to see anybody sink. I hate to see anybody lose their dream, lose their home, something like that.”
3. “I think there is a lot made out of age, and what age you feel.”
4. “I keep working because I learn something new all the time.”
5. “There has to be something in every role that interests you.”
6. “Actors know, with me, they aren’t going to be allowed to rehearse a scene for a couple of hours and then get away with doing 25 takes before we get it right. So they come with their full bag of tricks.”
7. “Society has made us believe you should look like an 18-year-old model all your life.”
8. “What you put into life is what you get out of it.”
9. “We boil at different degrees.”
10. “I’m a mentor to anybody who’s interested.”
11. “You always want to quit while you’re 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.”
12. “Fate pulls you in different directions.”
13. “I like working. That’s when I’m feeling my best. And the people around me know that. My knows that.”
14. “Aging can be fun if you lay back and enjoy it.”
15. “I’m not afraid to look bad on the screen.”
16. “I guess, maybe when you get past 70, other people start asking you how you feel.”
17. “If a person doesn’t change, there’s something really wrong with him.”
18. “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.”
19. “God gave you a brain. Do the best you can with it. And you don’t have to be Einstein, but Einstein was mentally tough. He believed what he believed, and he worked out things, and he argued with people who disagreed with him. But I’m sure he didn’t call everybody jerks.”
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20. “I’m a movie maker, but I have the same feelings as the average guy out there.”
21. “It would be great to be 105 and still making films.”
22. “There’s a lot of great movies that have won the Academy Award, and a lot of great movies that haven’t. You just do the best you can.”
23. “I always liked characters that were more grounded in reality.”
24. “I have worked ever since I was 13.”
25. “I probably would have retired years ago if I hadn’t found interesting things to do.”
26. “It’s always appealing to play a character that has to overcome himself as well as an obstacle. It makes the drama so much deeper.”
27. “There’s no real excuse for being successful enough as an actor to do what you want and then selling out.”
28. “You do it pure. You don’t try to adapt it, make it commercial.”
29. “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?”
30. “Every movie I make teaches me something. That’s why I keep making them.”
31. “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.”
32. “I think kids are natural actors. You watch most kids; if they don’t have a toy, they’ll pick up a stick and make a toy out of it. Kids will daydream all the time.”
33. “You have to steal a lot. You have to have a criminal mentality to be a film director.”
34. “Everybody accuses me of moving fast when I direct a picture. I don’t move fast, but I just keep moving.”
35. “I’ve taken advantage of a few breaks that came along and moved along with them.”
36. “In past generations, people would try to play younger than they really are. My trick is, I don’t try to play younger than I really am.”
37. “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.”
38. “Let’s not go and ruin it by thinking too much.”
39. “Improvise, adapt, and overcome!”
40. “I’ve always felt that if I examine myself too much, I’ll find out what I know and don’t know, and I’ll burst the bubble. I’ve gotten so lucky relying on my animal instincts, I’d rather keep a little bit of the animal alive.”
41. “My whole life has been one big improvisation.”
42. “As you get older, you’re not afraid of doubt. Doubt isn’t running the show. You take out all the self-agonizing.”
43. “I’m a day-to-day-type person.”
44. “As I get older, I tend to put more into my family than I used to.”
45. “I’m interested in the fact that the less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudice.”
46. “I’ve had no problem harnessing anger.”
47. “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.”
48. “I’ve always been very liberal when it comes to people thinking for themselves.”
49. “I’m just a kid—I’ve got a lot of stuff to do yet.”
50. “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.”
51. “Respect your efforts, respect yourself.”
52. “The guys who won World War II and that whole generation have disappeared, and now we have a bunch of teenage twits.”
53. “There’s only one way to have a happy marriage and as soon as I learn what it is, I’ll get married again.”
54. “When you’re young, you’re very reckless. Then you get conservative. Then you get reckless again.”
55. “I do believe in self-help.”
56. “If I was not a dreamer, I would have achieved nothing.”
57. “I guess I’m living in the present more than the past.”
58. “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 have to let them go.”
59. “I tried being reasonable, I didn’t like it.”
60. “What’s it like to kill a man? Well, it’s g*dd*mn awful, that’s what it is. The only thing worse is getting a medal for killing some poor kid, some scared little gook just like you. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about it.”
61. “They say marriages are made in Heaven. But so is thunder and lightning.”
62. “Aren’t you gonna threaten me or something?”
63. “I hate your uptight regulation-spouting boy scout h*rs*sh*t. And I hate the little f*ck*ng creases in your pants. And I hate these f*ck*ng donuts.”
64. “I’m coming out. Any man I see out there, I’m gonna shoot him. Any b*tch takes a shot at me, I’m not only gonna kill him, but I’m gonna kill his wife, all his friends, and burn his damn house down.”
65. “These fruitcake little ones, with the g*dd*mn pinky sh*t! Nobody eats that sh*t!”
66. “I don’t think it’s nice, you, laughing. You see, my mule doesn’t like people laughing. He gets the crazy idea you’re laughing at him. Now if you apologize, like I know you’re going to, I might convince him that you really didn’t mean it.”
67. “I reckon so. The money’s still available, ain’t it?”
68. “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.”
69. “Well, we’re not just gonna let you walk out of here.”
70. “I don’t want to need you, ’cause I can’t have you.”
71. “There’s always the possibility that some *ssh*l* will be offended. Isn’t there?”
72. “What? I thought you were dead. No such , I guess.”
73. “The only people who want to live to 100 are 99-year-olds.”
74. “Sergeant, you get that contraband stokey out of my face, or I’ll shove it up your *ss so far you’ll have to set fire to your nose to light it.”
75. “Internet! Who needs it?”
76. “I thought it was more important to be somebody out there than the damn failure I was here at my own home.”
77. “Are you sure you’re Mexican? You’re acting like you’re under The Fuhrer or something.”
78. “I love you, Mary, but not as much as tomorrow.”
79. “What would happen if I gave up my job for you?”
80. “It’s just time is all. I could buy everything, but I couldn’t buy time.”
81. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for everything.”
82. “It’s his men who shot up the car, why don’t you send him the bill?”
83. “Sweetheart, if there’s any justice on this planet, they’ll never make you give back that red dress.”
84. “Well, maybe I vowed to never again let my career come between me and a woman.”
85. “You know what the worst day of my life was? The day Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. I was probably the only person in America who wanted to commit suicide that day.”
86. “Yeah, next time you see me, I’ll be texting my brains out!”
87. “The old dreams were good dreams, they didn’t work out, but glad I had them.”
88. “I’ll make life takers and heartbreakers out of them, sir.”
89. “I’ve been called a lot of things, but never funny.”
90. “Okay, you did two things wrong. First, you asked a question, and second, you asked another question.”
91. “Don’t call me buddy, pal, or sweetheart.”
92. “With all due respect, sir, you’re beginning to bore the hell out of me.”
93. “Dying ain’t much of a living, boy.”
94. “Everybody’s got a right to be a sucker once.”
95. “You want to play the game, you’d better know the rules, love.”
96. “What are you pointing the gun at the suitcase for? It’s dead already.”
97. “I’ve killed everything that walks or crawls at one time or another. And I’m here to kill you, Little Bill, for what you did to Ned.”
98. “I have strong feelings about gun control. If there’s a gun around, I want to be controlling it.”
99. “In this world, there’s two kinds of people, my friend. The ones with loaded guns and the ones who dig. You dig.”
100. “If I was half as ugly as you, Sergeant Major, I’d be a poster boy for a prophylactic.”
101. “No, I’m not okay. I’m sick, I’m tired, and I’m armed too, so be careful.”
102. “I’m warning you—you mess around and I’ll put the cuffs on you. You talk dirty, I gag you. You run, I’ll shoot ya. My name is Shockley and we’ve got a plane to catch. Let’s go.”
103. “Wake me up if we crash into the mountain. I wouldn’t want to miss that.”
104. “Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn’t have messed with? That’s me.”
105. “Nobody calls me mister with my boots off.”
106. “‘Bout time this town had a new sheriff.”
107. “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.”
108. “These people who are making a big deal out of gay marriage, they go on and on with all this b*llsh*t about ‘sanctity.’ Don’t give me that sanctity crap! Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want.”
109. “Aging can be fun if you lay back and enjoy it.”
110. “If you ever go to a music session, you’ll notice that the musicians can sit down and start playing right away, and everyone knows what to do. Of course they’re reading it, but the conductor can tweak little things, and you can take that back to directing motion pictures.”
111. “Some people feel that the world owes them a living.”
112. “There’s plain few problems that can’t be solved with a little sweat and hard work.”
113. “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 airbags in it, then it’s no good.”
114. “If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.”
115. “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?”
116. “Sometimes, if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands.”
117. “Every story has its demands.”
118. “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.”
119. “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.”
120. “Let’s put it this way—there wouldn’t be much point in me attending a high school reunion now because there wouldn’t be anybody there. We’d struggle to raise a quorum.”
121. “I’m not a regrets-type person.”
122. “Men must know their limitations.”
123. “Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that’s real power.”
124. “We are like boxers, one never knows how much longer one has.”
125. “Remember, tomorrow is promised to no one.”
126. “Whether you like it or not, you’re forced to come to the realization that death is out there. But I don’t fear death, I’m a fatalist.”
127. “You should never give up your inner self.”
128. “I don’t mind telling the dark side.”