Sylvester Stallone Quotations | Page 2

A lot of women read male magazines. Of course, a lot of guys read female magazines, but they've got another issue to deal with. But a lot of women read men's magazines and think, 'Oh, this is what these guys are thinking? Studying up on the enemy here.'

When I saw 'Hercules,' my mind just exploded because I was extremely thin; I was insecure. I literally ran out of the theatre and started lifting things, anything I could think of - milk crates. I'm still lifting things. It changed my life.

I wish I had thought of Velcro muscles myself. I didn't have to go to the gym for all those years, all the hours wedded to the iron game, as we call it.

On the sequel, you've lost the element of surprise. Usually, on the first one you may not go very, very deep into character; the second one you start to explore the character a bit more.

With a lot of comedians, one of their major attributes is that they look comedic, with a certain hangdog or manic expression. I look like the neighborhood bully. That doesn't elicit laughter.

I know people get upset and go, 'They're going to take away the assault weapon'. But who needs an assault weapon? Like, really, unless you're carrying out an assault.

Testosterone to me is so important for a sense of well-being when you get older.

It took me a long time to be convinced that marriage was right for me because I've come from a long line of broken marriages. My parents divorced, and I had two broken marriages myself.

That's what Rocky is all about: pride, reputation, and not being another bum in the neighborhood.

I respect a woman too much to marry her.

A lot of actors, and artists in general, never feel secure in love. They always feel everything's going to be taken away from them, professionally and personally; they're extremely emotional and volatile.

People that spend time in a foxhole - they're never going to find that relationship anywhere else again... Everything else pales next to that. When you think about the Second World War vets - more than even the Vietnam vets - there's a brotherhood.

Crunches are much more effective than regular sit-ups because they specifically target your upper abdominal muscles rather than your hip muscles. If you're not used to them, they can cause soreness a day or two later, but it's a 'cool' soreness. A badge of honor.

Characters I've played, they used to impact my paintings, like 80 percent of the time, and especially when I was doing an action film.

For 'Rocky II,' I got a torn pectoral muscle, I got all beat up inside, I had to have an operation to splice things back together.

I have a fear of heights that borders on mania.

I just fight in my movies, never in real life.

I love art more than anything in the world except for my family.

I loved 'Rocky' and 'Rambo', and am very proud of them.

I'm pretty spiritual; I believe a lot in the spirit of man.

I've had a lot of operations. I'm kind of like Franken-actor.

I've made a lot of career mistakes. A lot. Actually, a lot of personal ones, too.

I've never made a film that lost money.

Just because society says I'm old doesn't mean I am.

Movies are the work of a collective conscious. It takes 500-800 people on a movie to complete a vision.

Painting is as close as a person can get to actually capturing the heat of the moment.

People asked if I could have played the Terminator. Are you kidding? Not a chance, I never could have played the Terminator.

The day I can't walk is the day I quit movies.

The world will never come together and say, 'We are one.'

There aren't a lot of opportunities for that rite of passage that makes you a man. War is one of them, and violent sports are another.

There'll never be a 'Rocky IV.' You gotta call a halt.

When a parent loses a child, there is no greater pain.

When I tried to play characters that strayed from who I am it ended in disaster. People didn't expect me in comedies or musicals.

When I'm on a location, I pick a restaurant that's close and private and eat all my meals there.

When people meet me, they're often surprised - I talk a great deal.

When you're an actor, you're a slave to other people's visions.

Whenever I don't get injured, the film is a dud. I didn't bleed on 'Rhinestone.' I didn't bleed on 'Stop! Or My Mom will Shoot.'

I think kids growing up, if they were picked on and feeling inferior at 12, they're going to feel that way at 72. You just deal with it better. I'm serious.

From the time I got dressed in the back of a deflated, flat-tired, fish-smelling station wagon for Rocky. It's always been do it yourself, kind of like paper-clip it together.

People assume that 'The Expendables' is old school, but it's only old school because that's the way I know how to make an action film. It's pretty real.

When I tried to branch out into comedy, I didn't do very well at it, so I went back to doing what I do naturally well, or what the audience expects from me - action pictures.

If you look at people that have survived crashing in the mountains and lived up in the snow for 40 days - it's possible to do extraordinary feats.

You have to be really loyal to the people that supported you when you were coming up.

Certain characters, mostly heroes, have to be the straight silent type; that is part of the make-up.

I'm not right wing, I'm not left wing. I love my country.

I'm perceived to be this solitary character, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Some actors are brilliant character guys. They submerge.

Mike made a mistake making 'Rocky' and unleashing me to the public,

I am drawing on a lot of my feelings that are in sync with many people's feelings about facing the last chapter of their lives and how they want it to be written.

I expect it (criticism). I would do the same thing. My wife is the most critical. She said, 'This is ridiculous...' But you have two choices - not to do it or do it.

Rocky Balboa' is about everybody who feels they want to participate in the race of life, rather than be a bystander. You're never too old to climb a mountain, if that's your desire.

Rocky is basically on his own -- it's very touching. People that were in the first one that you didn't think much about are back, really minor characters are now major characters.

The press, by and large, are fantastic. We're talking about a small renegade group. They're stalkers, legalized stalkers.

We'll try to capture the essence of the first couple of films,

That's what Rocky is all about : pride, reputation, and not being another bum in the neighborhood.

I'm very, very humbled by that. There's a lot of competition out there.

If you think people are inherently good, you get rid of the police for 24 hours - see what happens.

there was a reluctance to go forward until everyone felt there was a script that echoed the kind of sincerity and values the first one had, and had some poignancy like the first one had.

There's a computer fight between the reigning world champion and Balboa, and Balboa wins,

It's going great -- there's a lot of heart in it,

There might have been a period around 'Tango & Cash' when I was nearly fashionable. My problem is that my weight's always been changing for the movies I'm in.

I never started out to be an action actor. I was an ensemble actor. "Rocky" was an ensemble film. "F.I.S.T." was an ensemble. "Paradise Alley" was an ensemble.

I abused my body so much throughout my career that I am literally held together by glue. The stuff I took thickens the bones and reinforces the tendons.

Time is truly the great enemy. It's not the great healer, it's the great stealer.

Remember the mind is your best muscle...BIG ARMS can move rocks, but BIG WORDS can move mountains... Ride the brain train for success....

I keep trying to tell people. I said, at 40, 45, you're at that crossroads. You really are there. And it's not like you can have gain without pain, but this is it. The days are - like when I wrote this whole thing about, in the beginning of my first magazine. I said, "If you live to be 75 years old, that's 3,900 weekends. That's it."

If you think people are inherently good, you get rid of the police for 24 hours - see what happens.

The way to be successful in Hollywood is to be as obnoxious as the next guy.

I think I came along at an opportune time. I don't know if that would happen anymore, because the whole way of doing business in Hollywood has changed.

That's the hardest thing about doing sequels - you've lost the element of surprise.

We do two things in life: We race the clock and everything is a struggle. One way or not, it's a metaphorical battle all of the time.

No one's life is totally morbid. Even on a subtle scale there's little flashes of enlightenment and of happiness and joy.

Theater is like boxing - having the audience ringside. It's instant gratification. Or horrification.

I watch a lot of news, and I watch musical shows because I think the music of the young people is really their news reports. They let you know how their country is going through their eyes, and about their experiences in the everyday shock of growing up.

In Philadelphia, there's no delineation, they address me as Rocky, for real. They'll say things like: "Rocky, do you like this coat?" Or: "Rock, say hi to my sister." Or: "Yo Rock, I know a great restaurant." There's no Sylvester. Even the Mayor goes: "It's good to have Rocky here today."

Polo is like tennis - you literally have to live it.

Action film is really easy to do, you just get in a car and smash through things and it's called action. The real key is what happens between the action when it's quiet. Loud is easy. Quiet, real hard.

I just want to say that, all you do, no matter how bad your diet is, for the first six months or year, I just reduce the amount, even if it's horrible stuff. That you can deal with it.

When you're younger you just want to go out and make your mark in the world and doing that, quite often, the people that you love the most and the people you should be closest to suffer from estrangement. I'd be gone nine months a year, so how do you know anyone? When you come home you are a stranger.

Age is a state of old mind. It gets to a point where if you get old enough, you forget how old you are, and that's the best thing. And then you walk around kind of like in a fog.

It's great the way the old-time directors used to manipulate the hell out of you. You see someone dying and all of a sudden a ghost would come out and they go walking hand in hand up the stairway.

I think there's something about being a neophyte that's refreshing and hard to duplicate; it brings about real innovation. Innovation usually comes about through blind ignorance.

I try to tell people that just because you're buff and cut doesn't mean you're healthy.

I've always said that the artist dies twice. And the first death is the hardest which is the career death, the creative death. The physical death is an inevitability.

I really have very little aspirations about acting because I think that probably the best things have come and gone. I would like to focus on writing and directing. I love writing and directing even though writing can be incredibly painful and lonely. I get great satisfaction from doing it.

The idea of Rambo is kind of intriguing as a closing chapter. When you shoot a film as a sequel to do another sequel it's a whole other tone. But when you know it's the final chapter you try and put in there as much emotion, understanding and closure as you can. So, whereas Rocky is a lighter character and optimistic, Rambo is much darker.

Children are the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see at night. It hurts me to be away from them for a few hours. It really does. I love them and they're girls, so they know how to push my buttons. But I've learned a lot and I have to thank my wife for that.

Rocky would definitely run for councilman. Maybe mayor. But these people are actually most effective in the family unit. That's where they shine.

I don't fall into the physical manifestation of a man of letters. So I guess people assume the scripts are delivered to me under the door.

With writing, I think you have to be honest with yourself. I have a certain kind of writing; that is, I like to really embellish the human spirit. You have to write about something you have a feel for.

Making a movie is the same as an orchestra; it's moving all the different instruments and the sounds, the kinetic and the auditory and the visual all together. I'm probably the trombone.

Every generation, including mine, has to find their own heroes.

If you come into my house, I'm going to fight much more viciously to get you out than if we were on a neutral piece of land.

I'm a big believer that, in life, we can't succeed in everything. Most times, we lose.

I learned the real meaning of love. Love is absolute loyalty. People fade, looks fade, but loyalty never fades. You can depend so much on certain people, you can set your watch by them. And that's love, even if it doesn't seem very exciting.

No one will hit you harder than life itself. It doesn't matter how hard you hit back. It's about how much you can take, and keep fighting, how much you can suffer and keep moving forward. That's how you win.

It's funny because when Jason [Statham] was drowning I was filming with an iPhone. It may have been a bit insensitive but I just thought, "you know what, this was a magic moment". And I couldn't help him anyway because I didn't want to drown.

Eventually writing became more interesting to me than acting.

Going in one more round when you don't think you can that's what makes all the difference in your life.

I'm usually taken for a non-intellectual, a person of limited intelligence. I don't know why, but I figure it's because physically I don't look intelligent.