quotes by Director Quotes

“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.”

“We don't even know who's in the Academy.”

“The only black battalion on Iwo Jima was a small munitions supply unit that came to the beach.”

“Naturally, 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.”

“That's where you can find things and modulate your performance and give the other actors something fresh to respond to. We've probably all worked with actors who when it's suddenly your close up, they get sleepy. I don't like that. It's selfish acting, and I won't tolerate it.”

“I slipped myself some pink Xannies/And danced around the house in all-over print panties.”

“People tend to relax when they're off camera. That's when they should be working the hardest.”

“Much like the hands of a clock go nowhere fast, anxious thoughts run us round-and-round without taking us anywhere!”

“Wayne's cool. I ran into him at my hangout back home, and he's just cool. I actually have this beat that I want him on, but I was too scared to get it to Clancy to get to them, but Wayne's cool.”

“What Trump is onto is, he's just saying what's on his mind. And sometimes it's not so good. And sometimes it's... I mean, I can understand where he's coming from, but I don't always agree with it.”

“I don't like to see a president who is just out campaigning all year long or for the last four years. I'd like to see somebody who's going in the office. In fact, I'd like to not see them because that way you'd be sure that they'd be working.”

“Dreams without goals, are just dreams and they ultimately fuel disappointment.”

“I keep working because I learn something new all the time.”

“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.”

“A lot of people are realizing they had the wool pulled over their eyes by Obama.”

“I know, as an actor, I don't like sharing everything with the director. And it's fine if they don't with me.”

“I was an Eisenhower Republican when I started out at 21 because he promised to get us out of the Korean War.”

“Comedy isn't necessarily all dialogue. Think of Buster Keaton: the poker face and all this chaos going on all around him. Sometimes it's a question of timing, of the proper rhythm.”

“Act on what you love, not from what you fear, and watch how fear fades as love grows.”

“I don't concern myself with award. I'd been to the party enough times to know it really didn't matter.”

“Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands.”

“There has to be something in every role that interests you.”

“You change as the years go by. The more knowledge you get, the more things change in your life and circumstances change.”

“Acting is an animal thing, not an intellectual thing.”

“The only reason I ever thought about retiring from the front part of the camera as opposed to the back is sometimes you think, "How many roles are there for someone my age?"”

“I think I'm cool. That's all that matters.”

“It's important for us to become aware of the fact that we are needful, for with that awareness also comes the sensing that we couldn't be needful if there weren't something to fulfill the need.”

“It would be great to be 105 and still making films.”

“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.”

“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."”

“If I am identified with my relationship, with my house, or with my money, I am doomed to suffer.”

“The only mistake that we can make as human beings is to be asleep, unaware of ourselves.”

“I guess maybe when you get past 70, other people start asking you how you feel.”

“To know that every moment — regardless of how it comes wrapped — is a gift greater than you can give yourself, is to be well on your way to a life without fear.”

“If we only knew how many times our seemingly clever comment cut straight into the heart of the person with whom we have just spoken, it is we who would bleed.”

“My mother always told me it wasn't polite to ask what people make.”

“I try to tell all the - not even the kids, even people older than me - to just be themselves. Don't wear what I wear 'cause I wear it; wear what you like.”

“Letting go, at its heart, is an act of agreement with Life.”

“The essence of higher instrumental music lays herein that one is able to express in tones that what one is unable to say in words.”

“Fall forward. Here's what I mean: Reggie Jackson struck out 2,600 times in his career - the most in the history of baseball. But you don't hear about the strikeouts. People remember the home runs. Fall forward. Thomas Edison conducted 1,000 failed experiments. Did you know that? I didn't either - because number 1,001 was the light bulb. Fall forward. Every failed experiment is one step closer to success.”

“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.”

“The only reason I'm acting in films I direct is to get the money to make them, quite frankly, it's not what I'm interested in doing.”

“It's a very confusing era that we're in.”

“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.”

“Never run from what you don't understand, as it will be waiting for you every time you come to a stop.”

“I had always planned when I started directing in 1970 that after a few years I'd get tired of looking at myself on the screen and say: "Hey, let's not do that any more." But then every once in a while something pops up. I'm not saying it won't happen again but probably the odds get less as you set yourself for roles that fit your age group.”

“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.”

“Things always look different from higher up.”

“Rushing around, hoping to find peace of mind anywhere other than within yourself, is like looking for your heart in someone else's body!”

“The language of tones belongs equally to all mankind, and melody is the absolute language in which the musician speaks to every heart.”