Clint Eastwood Quotations | Page 2

There are two kinds of people in this world. 'I' people and 'we' people. I've always tried to be a 'we' person.

Even people on the liberal side are starting to worry about going off a fiscal cliff.

I played characters with villainous aspect. But out-and-out villain? No.

I think our politicians could learn a lot from Mandela.

I guess I'm living in the present more than the past.

Some people feel that the world owes them a living.

You have to steal a lot. You have to have a criminal mentality to be a film director.

Actors know what actors are insecure about - and they're all insecure.

I hate to see anybody sink. I hate to see anybody lose their dream, lose their home, something like that.

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.

I do believe in the energy and the productivity of the American business world.

In the Bay Area, there was a resurgence of Dixieland jazz in the '40s - there was the Frisco Jazz Band, and Lu Watters and the Yerba Buena Jazz Band.

My dad was fiscally conservative, and I was influenced by that. He didn't believe in spending more than you had because it gets you into trouble.

As you get older, you're not afraid of doubt. Doubt isn't running the show. You take out all the self-agonizing.

Hoover was a patriot in his heart, but he definitely exceeded his power.

I guess any movie actor can become a role model for audiences out there who enjoy him.

As long as somebody finances you, can make a film and get it seen any place and in any language; then, hopefully, it's a success.

I like Italian movies. I was frequently there in the '60s, in Rome and the vicinity. It was a great period in life. I was very influenced by their stuff.

I always liked characters that were more grounded in reality.

I knew Billy Wilder socially and would have loved to work with him.

I like working. That's when I'm feeling my best. And the people around me know that. My wife knows that.

I think Pebble Beach is kind of a unique place on the planet.

The stronger the participation of the female characters, the better the movie. They knew that in the old days, when women stars were equally as important as men.

I'd always tried to resist playing the supervirility thing. I liked showing the vulnerability of age.

I tend to believe that audiences are relatively well-balanced people.

If somebody's dumb enough to ask me to go to a political convention and say something, they're gonna have to take what they get.

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.

It must be the Brit in me, because I like animals.

Movies are fun, but they are no cure for cancer.

'Mystic River' just smelled interesting to me. So I read it and liked it right away. Even the dialogue in it was great.

The craving for information is so huge now, and it can be marketed at such a rapid rate.

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

When you listen to Ray Charles, there's never any doubt whose voice that is.

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.

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.

You know when you're young and you see a play in high school, and the guys all have gray in their hair and they're trying to be old men and they have no idea what that's like? It's just that stupid the other way around.

There are a lot of conservative people, a lot of moderate people, Republicans, Democrats, in Hollywood. It is just that the conservative people by the nature of the word itself play closer to the vest. They do not go around hot dogging it.

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.

I will never win an Oscar, and do you know why? First of all, because I'm not Jewish. Secondly, I make too much money for all those old farts in the Academy.

'Unforgiven' is probably an example of a script that I liked right away but thought, 'This is great, but I'd like to do this when I'm older.' So I stuck it in the drawer for ten years and then took it out.

I'm not a reality-TV kind of guy. But it's almost like we're living in a reality show. Every day in this country, everybody keeps worrying about the deterioration of America, and it's like a big reality show.

I'm not afraid to look bad on the screen.

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.

I think 'Dirty Harry' was probably sensitive toward the victims of violent crime.

I became a Republican in 1951, the first year I could vote.

Society has made us believe you should look like an 18-year-old model all your life.

I still work out on a daily basis.

I've taken advantage of a few breaks that came along and moved along with them.

Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and that's what everybody needs to know.

I am a good listener. I think that came from my schooling.

I think everybody has something that they've been obsessed about in their lifetime.

I don't really get into a big intellectual analysis of why I am going to do a certain script or not.

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.

My wife used to be an anchorwoman in Arizona, so she knew John McCain, and she liked him, and I kinda liked him.

A lot of dumb pictures have made a lot of money, but that doesn't mean they're going to be anything cinema students will revel over in the future.

A war is a horrible thing, but it's also a unifier of countries.

As I get older, I tend to put more into family than I used to.

I always thought of myself as a character actor. I never thought of myself as a leading man.

I kind of make a film for myself to sort of express myself.

I loved the fact that Obama is multi-racial. I thought that was terrific, as my wife is the same racial make-up.

I played a little basketball. Some football in junior high.

I think there is a lot made out of age, and what age you feel.

If you consider film an art form, as some people do, then the Western would be a truly American art form, much as jazz is.

Movies were invented for Jimmy Cagney, and he was invented for the movies. A perfect match.

My dad was a big admirer of Sergeant York stories from the First World War.

Other than obvious errors like forgetting a line, often I can't see any difference between take one and take 20.

Our modern society - especially in the West, and especially now - reveres youth.

Prime time for men is, say, 35 to 45. Then they level off and fall off.

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

When I do a picture and it's 90% black, like 'Bird,' I use 90% black people.

When I was a kid, I thought movies just came from air. I thought they just appeared.

When you work with kids, especially, you want to be ready to turn the camera on at a moment's notice.

Why am I a star? It can't be because of looks.

Governor Romney has a great business background. He is extremely well educated. He has several degrees from Harvard, including, you know, business and including a law degree.

Every picture has its own demands, and every picture stimulates something within you to tell it a certain way. I don't know what that is; I don't think too much about that.

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.'

My mother knew how to read music and everything. But I just kinda learned off of records. And so, I was listening to records and I'd play 'em over and over.

I liked Vittorio De Sica a lot, and I got to work with him once in a segment movie. He was a great director. He was a very charismatic character and a guy I watched a lot when he was directing.

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.

In my career as a director, there's always been some point where you get halfway through it, or three-quarters, and you go: 'What is this thing all about, and why am I telling the story? Does anybody really care about seeing this?' At that time you have to say: 'OK, forget that and just go ahead.'

When I'm a director, I look at myself the actor as a completely different person. It's somebody else up there, an actor playing a role. I keep myself out of it.

As much as I love the Western genre, I figured if I kept doing those, I'd eventually run out of steam on that, and that would've been the end of it.

At the major studios, you see people wanting to remake a TV series, wanting to make a sequel.

I am certainly not politically affiliated with Mr. Obama.

I've always said the one advantage an actor has of converting to a director is that he's been in front of the camera. He doesn't have to get in front of the camera again, subliminally or otherwise.

When I did 'Bird,' it was a surprise to some people, first because I wasn't in it and second because most of the films I'd been doing were cop movies or westerns or adventure films, so to be doing one about Charlie Parker, who was a great influence on American music, was a great thrill for me.

Yes, I'm always - I'm always surprised when you make a film and you live with it a while and you put it out, you never dream that anybody is ever going to want to really see it.

I'd like to be a bigger and more knowledgeable person 10 years from now than I am today. I think that, for all of us, as we grow older, we must discipline ourselves to continue expanding, broadening, learning, keeping our minds active and open.

Harry Callahan: I know what you're thinking. Did he fire six shots or only five? Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk?

Half of them are suicides or accidents, Martha. Don't exaggerate.

I was a fan of Hilary's from 'Boys Don't Cry' and I saw her in 'Insomnia,' where she was good, but she didn't have a very deep part.

I saw Sidney Lumet out there, who's 80, and I thought, 'I'm just a kid,'

Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that's real power.

Don't look at me like I've gotten old or something like that.

I'm past doing one chin-up more than I did the day before. I just kind of do what I feel like.

I like to direct the same way that I like to be directed.

Politicians have to make unpopular decisions. Schwarzenegger is going to understand the nature of his job. I wish him good luck, he's going to need it. It's going to be difficult for him.

Everybody's got a right to be a sucker ... once.

I love every aspect of the creation of motion pictures and I guess I am committed to it for life.

I never considered myself a cowboy, because I wasn`t. But I guess when I got into cowboy gear I looked enough like one to convince people that I was.