I do believe in self-help.
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.
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.
I don't know how everybody else feels, but I just long for reality rather than these made-up things.
In 'Gran Torino,' I play a guy who's racially offensive. But he learned. It shows that you're never too old to learn and embrace people that you don't understand to begin with. It seems like nobody else got that message, I guess.
I think being able to age gracefully is a very important talent. It is too late for me.
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.
The reason I still work at this stage of life is because I enjoy learning something new each day.
I'm trying to preach the idea that if we don't pay attention to history we're destined to repeat it.
Men must know their limitations.
Improvise, Adapt and Overcome!
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 old drama coach used to say, 'Don't just do something, stand there.' Gary Cooper wasn't afraid to do nothing.
I'd say, go ahead, shoot your shot. More power to ya if you can come up with a different angle on the character.
I'm so glad for the dozens of times I haven't listened along the way.
You have to go with your instincts.
As you get older, you change certain things.
I could be the driver - the Uber guy saying, "I used to be in films years ago... ."
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 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.
In 'Changeling,' I tried to show something you'd never see nowadays - a kid sitting and looking at the radio. Just sitting in front of the radio and listening. Your mind does the rest.
I have been trying to retire to the back of the camera for quite a few years, and in 1970, when I first started directing, I said, 'If I could pull this off, I can some day move to the back of the camera and stay there.'
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'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.
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.
When I look back on my life, I don't have regrets about what I didn't do. If I'd become a musician, it could have ruined my life.
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.
I love stories about women.
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.
I tend to believe that audiences are relatively well-balanced people.
The fact is, violence is not only not a beautiful thing, but it's also very painful and not without consequences for the perpetrator as well as the victim.
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.
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.
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.
I like to direct the same way that I like to be directed.
I'm more focused on making a scene seem real as opposed to perfect.
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.
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.
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.
I just feel that I enjoy the work more than I ever have... or just as much certainly... I enjoy making films behind the camera equally to making them in front of the camera on all those years. I just enjoy it, that's all. I've been lucky enough to work in a profession that I have really liked and so I figured I'd just continue until someone hits me over the head and says "get out".
Acting is an animal thing, not an intellectual thing.
I haven't killed anybody all day. Help me keep it that way.
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.
I just don't like killing creatures.
President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.
Liberals are not always so liberal with people who disapprove - disapprove of their point of view.
Prime time for men is, say, 35 to 45. Then they level off and fall off.
It takes tremendous discipline to control the influence, the power you have over other people's lives.
We are like boxers, one never knows how much longer one has
To me, life is like the back nine in golf. Sometimes you play better on the back nine. You may not be stronger, but hopefully you're wiser. And if you keep most of your marbles intact, you can add a note of wisdom to the coming generation.
I'm a great supporter of transcendental meditation. I've been using it for almost 40 years now - and I think it's a great tool for anyone to have, to be able to utilize as a tool for stress. Stress, of course, comes with almost every business. I think there are enough studies out there that show that TM is something that could benefit anybody. It's a great system to use. Otherwise, why would I've been doing it for all these years, for almost half of my life?
Other than obvious errors like forgetting a line, often I can't see any difference between take one and take 20.
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.
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.
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."
I keep working because I learn something new all the time.
When you work with kids, especially, you want to be ready to turn the camera on at a moment's notice.
I'm not one of these guys who sits around saying, 'Gee, I mean, the person had a strange childhood and that's why he's doing this horrible thing. Poor Jeffrey Dahmer. He's just had a bad childhood and that's why he's eating people.' Wait a second! This person should be removed from the planet.
Nowadays, politically, everybody is promising everything. That's the only way you can get elected.
With people in high office, the old - you go into the extreme, which is absolute power and absolute power corrupts.
