Quotes
“My movies were the kind they show in prisons and airplanes, because nobody can leave.”
“Marriage is about the most expensive way for the average man to get laundry done.”
“You can only hold your stomach in for so many years.”
“I can sing as well as Fred Astaire can act.”
“Jay Leno is wonderful and a good friend, but it will always be the Carson show to a lot of people.”
“The moment you grab someone by the lapels, you’re lost.”
“I’ve always gotten along well with Texans. You’ve got to.”
“I haven’t been somebody who’s been smart about his money. There are a couple of actors who are quite brilliant with the way they’ve handled their money. But they’re not very good actors.”
“I don’t take myself seriously, and I think the ones that do, there’s some sickness with people like that.”
“I’m just trying desperately to hang on to my true friends. Like Jon Voight. We laugh all the time at how stupid we are.”
“I thought ‘Deliverance’ was a very good film. But it didn’t have the success financially that ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ did, although that film made more money than ‘Star Wars’ in the first week.”
“I’m not sure if I can swagger anymore, but I can limp with the best of them.”
“The stupidest thing I ever did was turn down ‘Terms of Endearment’ to do ‘Cannonball Run II.’ Jim Brooks wrote the part of the astronaut for me. Taking that role would have been a way to get all the things I wanted.”
“Frankly, it’s embarrassing to have a house filled with giant portraits of yourself.”
“I felt good when I did a stunt, and if it was really dangerous – like if I got out on a horse or a bull that was rank, or jumped out of this building on a bag – I felt great.”
“Sometimes I’m surprised people even know who I am.”
“People don’t understand the analogy of football and acting, but there’s a great deal of it that’s the same. You get dressed in the room, and you think you’ve got it all prepared, and later on in the game you wish you had put on more pads ’cause they’re just kicking the hell out of you. God almighty, I’ve been beat up by the best.”
“If I hadn’t been an actor, I would have been a coach, and I would have been a good one. All teaching is communicating.”
“I’m proud of ‘Deliverance’ because it was a very dangerous film to make, and they all said it couldn’t be done, and we did it. And Jon Voight and I are now like brothers.”
“Most guys with toupees overcompensate. They want too much hair. They end up piling it high, looking like a weird flower.”
“John Boorman was the best director I’ve ever had.”
“I’m going to retire hopefully like Cary Grant did. I’ll be on stage telling a story, everyone’s going to applaud and laugh, and then I’ll drop like a rock.”
“I hate prejudice of any kind, whether it be color or sexual preference.”
“It’s always possible to spend more money.”
“When you crash and burn, you have to pick yourself up and go on and hope to make up for it.”
“I realized very quickly that the public has a perfect right to tell you what they want to see.”
“I sometimes will be very shut off from everybody. I can be very pettish and sometimes not available when you need me. At those times, I’m very selfish and worrying about my own problems.”
“If I was as tough as I’m made out to be in movies, I wouldn’t have to worry.”
“To be successful in business, you have to be ruthless.”
“I’ve tried very hard to be thought of as a serious actor.”
“There are three stages of an actor’s career: Young, Old, and ‘You look good!'”
“Paul Newman is the personification of cool.”