Quotes

I've finally gotten away from Burt Lancaster. My luck has changed for the better. I've got nice-looking girls in my films now.

Virtue is not photogenic. What is it to be a nice guy? To be nothing, that's what. A big fat zero with a smile for everybody.

I've made a career of playing sons of bitches.

In order to achieve anything you must be brave enough to fail.

I came from abject poverty. There was nowhere to go but up.

Making movies is a form of narcissism.

People are always talking about the old days. They say that the old movies were better, that the old actors were so great. But I don't think so. All I can say about the old days is that they have passed.

I have always told my sons that they didn't have my advantages of being born into abject poverty.

I think half the success in life comes from first trying to find out what you really want to do. And then going ahead and doing it.

Life is like a B-picture script! It is that corny. If I had my life story offered to me to film, I'd turn it down.

If you want to know about a man you can find out an awful lot by looking at who he married.

My kids never had the advantage I had. I was born poor.

I want my sons to surpass me, because that's a form of immortality.

If the good guy gets the girl, it's rated PG; If the bad guy gets the girl, it's rated R; and if everybody gets the girl, it's rated X.

[December 9, 2006] My name is Kirk Douglas. You may know me. If you don't . . . Google me. I was a movie star and I'm Michael Douglas' dad, Catherine Zeta-Jones' father-in-law and the grandparents of their two children. Today I celebrate my 90th birthday. I have a message to convey to America's young people. A 90th birthday is special. In my case, this birthday is not only special but miraculous. I survived World War II, a helicopter crash, a stroke, and two new knees. It's a tradition that when a "birthday boy" stands over his cake he makes a silent wish for his life and then blows out the candles. I have followed that tradition for 89 years but on my 90th birthday, I have decided to rebel. Instead of making a silent wish for myself, I want to make a loud wish for The World. Let's face it: The World is in a mess and you are inheriting it. Generation Y, you are on the cusp. You are the group facing many problems: abject poverty, global warming, genocide, AIDS and suicide bombers, to name a few. These problems exist and the world is silent. We have done very little to solve these problems. Now we leave it to you. You have to fix it because the situation is intolerable. You need to rebel, to speak up, write, vote, and care about people and the world you live in. We live in the best country in the world. I know. My parents were Russian immigrants. America is a country where EVERYONE, regardless of race, creed or age, has a chance. I had that chance. You are the generation that is most impacted and the generation that can make a difference. I love this country because I came from a life of poverty. I was able to work my way through college and go into acting, the field that I love. There is no guarantee in this country that you will be successful. But you always have a chance. Nothing should interfere with it. You have to make sure that nothing stands in the way. When I blow out my candles--90! . . . it will take a long time . . . but I'll be thinking of you.

I did four movies with [John Wayne]. We were a strange combination. He was a Republican and I was a Democrat. We argued all the time.

[on Michael Moore's interview with Charlton Heston in Bowling for Columbine (2002)] I cannot forgive the way he treated Charlton Heston. Even if I don't agree with much of Heston's politics, Chuck is a gentleman. He agreed to have an interview with Moore, and Moore took advantage of the situation and made Chuck look foolish. He had been invited to Heston's home and he was treated with courtesy. I winced when I saw the expression on Chuck's face change as he realized that he had been duped. And yet he remained a gentleman and dismissed the interloper with grace.

[on John Wayne] John Wayne was a star because he always played John Wayne. Frankly, he wasn't an excellent actor, but good heavens, what a star! It wasn't John Wayne who served the roles; the roles served John Wayne.

[on Linda Darnell] Linda Darnell is the most unspoilt star on the screen--and also the most beautiful.

[on Doris Day] That face she shows the world--smiling, only talking good, happy, tuned into God--as far as I'm concerned, that's just a mask. I haven't a clue as to what's underneath. Doris is just about the remotest person I know.

I've always believed virtue is not photogenic, and I think I've always been attracted to a part, uh, I'd rather play the *evil* character, most of the time, than the nice fella. And I think it really *bothered* my mother, because she would tell people, "You know, my son's not like that, he's really a nice boy!"

It isn't a manly profession. It's a childish profession. You couldn't be a complete, grown-up adult and be an actor . . . I mean, if I were a sophisticated adult, how could I say, "Here I am, fighting evil, represented by Yul Brynner"? You have to have a childish part of you! It's true! You know, I watch as my kids have grown up, I've watched, them, you know. Children are natural actors; they pretend they're cops and robbers, and I think all actors retain a certain amount of that within themselves. They have to, or they can't function as actors. And that's why they become self-deprecating. They think, well, it's not

[Senator Joseph McCarthy] was an awful man who was finding Communists all over the country. He blacklisted the writers who wouldn't obey his edict. The heads of the studios were hypocrites who went along with it. My company produced Spartacus (1960), written by Dalton Trumbo, a blacklisted writer, under the name Sam Jackson. Too many people were using false names back then. I was embarrassed. I was young enough to be impulsive, so even though I was warned against it, I used his real name on the screen.

[on the death of Tony Curtis]: Tony Curtis was one of the best-looking guys in Hollywood. He was often described as beautiful, but he was also a fine actor. I worked with Tony in The Vikings (1958) and in Spartacus (1960), and we were friends for a long time. What I will miss most about him is his sense of humor. It was always fun to be with him.

You have to leave your country to get a perspective, to see what makes America great. Now I can say that nowhere in the world is there a match for what we have in Hollywood.

When you become a star, you don't change. Everyone else does.

[on Paths of Glory (1957)] A truly great film with a truly great theme: the insanity and brutality of war. As I predicted, it made no money.

[asked to name his favorite director] I would NEVER do that. I've enjoyed working with [Billy Wilder[, [William Wyler], Joseph L. Mankiewicz], [Howard Hawks], [Elia Kazan]. I did three films with [Vncente Minnelli] and got nominated for two of them--but I could never name just one director.

[2011, on Anne Hathaway] She's gorgeous! Wow! Where were you when I was making pictures?

[interview in "Ability" Magazine] You see, when a person becomes disabled, often their family starts thinking, "Oh dear, don't move, let me get that for you". Once I told my wife that I thought I wanted breakfast in bed the next morning, she said the old joke, "If you want breakfast in bed, sleep in the kitchen."

I can't tell you how many times someone has said, "I've heard you're such an S.O.B." I'll say, "Who said that?" - 90% of the time it's someone with whom I've never worked.

[In his autobiography] I think that . . . I am unfairly given credit for [son Michael Douglas (I)]' talents, as if he had only my genes. Diana [Michel's mother, Diana Douglas (I)] is a talented actress, and Michael has inherited from both of us. My wife and I see Diana and her husband, Bill Darrid, often . . . and have a pleasant relationship with them.

Why is it that often the people you do the most for resent you the most? Maybe you remind them of their weaknesses. The hell with them!

I'm too old to change. Like Popeye, "I yam what I yam." Love me or hate me, just don't be indifferent.

I've never tried to win popularity contests. I've always been blunt - never hesitated about expressing myself.

Let's face it--the world is a mess and the young people will inherit this mess. We should do all we can to help deal with it. That's why I wrote the book "Let's Face It" and dedicated to the young people. I try, with humor, to help them navigate through what lies ahead. But the reality is, he problems they face are not very funny.

We are the strongest country in the world. We are the richest. We must take self-inventory. We must look less into the stars and planets in the heavens and more into ourselves. What can we do to make our country better? To earn back the respect we used to have?

[1957, to interviewer Mike Wallace (I) regarding Wallace's statement, " . . . but you're reading somebody else's words. Somebody else is telling you what to do, where to go, how to stand, what to say"] Well, then, you don't understand what acting really is. And, of course, that would be quite a long conversation to go into. I mean, acting is an interpretive art. I mean, you may hear [Jascha Heifetz] play the violin. He didn't write the piece, but oh, how he plays it. That's what's wonderful. That's what an actor tries to do. He may not have written the piece, but what he wants to do is interpret it.

[in 2013] I often played the good cowboy on screen, riding in to save the day. Now everybody thinks he is a cowboy, too. That frightens me. We have become a cowboy country with too many guns. I cannot understand the people who are against some form of gun control. They should be the first to welcome a message on making it more difficult to get a gun. Many of them seem to propose more guns being available to everybody. Why? Are they interested in making more money for the gun manufacturers? Are they politicians who just want to oppose the president in anything he endorses? It's incomprehensible to me.

I never, ever thought I would live to be 100. That's shocked me, really. And it's sad, too. I miss Burt Lancaster - we fought a lot, and I miss him a lot. And John Wayne, even though he was a Republican and I was a Democrat.

I was not a tough guy. I just acted like one.

[son Michael Douglas (I)] didn't like me much after his mother and I got divorced. It was only when he started acting that we became close.

I don't know who any of the new stars are, and they probably don't know me.

I had been a ragamuffin kid of 15 coping with a neighborhood filled with gangs. Under my teacher's guidance, I became a different person. I'm eternally grateful. By today's standards, she would have gone to jail. I had no idea we were doing something wrong. Did she?

[statement for the release of Trumbo (2015)] As actors it is easy for us to play the hero. We get to fight the bad guys and stand up for justice. In real life, the choices are not always so clear. The Hollywood Blacklist, recreated powerfully on screen in Trumbo (2015), was a time I remember well. The choices were hard. The consequences were painful and very real. During the blacklist I had friends who went into exile when no one would hire them; actors who committed suicide in despair. My young co-star in Detective Story (1951), Lee Grant, was unable to work for 12 years after she refused to testify against her husband before the House Un-American Activities Committee. I was threatened that using a blacklisted writer for Spartacus (1960) - my friend Dalton Trumbo - would mark me as a "Commie-lover" and end my career. There are times when one has to stand up for principle. I am so proud of my fellow actors who use their public influence to speak out against injustice. At 98 years old, I have learned one lesson from history: It very often repeats itself. I hope that "Trumbo", a fine film, will remind all of us that the blacklist was a terrible time in our country, but that we must learn from it so that it will never happen again.

[in 2016] I've lived through the horrors of a Great Depression and two World Wars, the second of which was started by a man who promised that he would restore his country it to its former greatness. I was 16 when that man came to power in 1933. For almost a decade before his rise he was laughed at--not taken seriously. He was seen as a buffoon who couldn't possibly deceive an educated, civilized population with his nationalistic, hateful rhetoric. The "experts" dismissed him as a joke. They were wrong.

They say there is nothing new under the sun. Since I was born, our planet has traveled around it 100 times. With each orbit, I've watched our country and our world evolve in ways that would have been unimaginable to my parents - and continue to amaze me with each passing year. [2016]

I wanted to be an actor ever since I was a kid in the second grade. I did a play, and my mother made a black apron, and I played a shoemaker. After the performance, [my father] gave me my first Oscar: an ice cream cone.

America has never formally acknowledged and apologized for the unspeakable evil of slavery. So I am asking Republicans and Democrats alike to apologize to the American people. Our continued refusal to apologize for slavery still shames and divides our nation. It is past the time to heal. (13 July 2015)

I wanted to be an actor since I stepped in front of an audience to recite The Red Robin of Spring when I was in kindergarten. Something happened when I heard applause. I loved it. I still do.

In high school and St. Lawrence University, I won drama awards which further fueled my theatrical ambitions. Getting a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan was a dream come true. (5 November 2015)