Quotes

Whatever luck I had, I made. I was never a natural athlete, but I paid my dues in sweat and concentration and took the time necessary to learn karate and become world champion.

It's the bullies who are afraid, are the ones that do all the fighting. It's not the secure kids that get out there and fight. It's the insecure kids. And when you develop that security in these youngsters and all of a sudden they have no reason to fight . . . This is to me the most gratifying thing I've ever been able to do.

Today, more than ever, the inspiration for the parts I play is found in you - our nation's men and women in uniform and the selfless contributions you make on a daily basis to keep our country safe and free. I salute you.

I haven't always been warmly welcomed for holding my conservative positions in Hollywood. Then again, I've never been very good at being politically correct either, on or off screen. So why start now?

For too many years I was in rebellion to God. Now I'm a rebel with a cause for God and for grassroots America. I no longer fit the mold. I'm not a liberal actor from Hollywood. I'm not politically correct, in my opinions or my practice. And though I'm concerned with what people think, I will not compromise the truth in any form to cater to others, even with religion and politics. Those who would merely brand me on the Right are oversimplifying and running from the real issue.

Alleged Chuck Norris Fact: "There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live." It's funny. It's cute. But here's what I really think about the theory of evolution: It's not real. It is not the way we got here. In fact, the life you see on this planet is really just a list of creatures God has allowed to live. We are not creations of random chance. We are not accidents. There is a God, a Creator, who made you and me. We were made in His image, which separates us from all other creatures.

Alleged Chuck Norris Fact: "Faster than a speeding bullet ... more powerful than a locomotive ... able to leap tall buildings in a single bound... yes, these are some of Chuck Norris' warm-up exercises." I've got a bulletin for you, folks. I am no superman. I realize that now, but I didn't always. As six-time world karate champion and then a movie star, I put too much trust in who I was, what I could do and what I acquired. I forgot how much I needed others and especially God. Whether we are famous or not, we all need God. We also need other people.

Alleged Chuck Norris Fact: "Chuck Norris' tears can cure cancer. Too bad he never cries. Ever." There was a man whose tears could cure cancer or any other disease, including the real cause of all diseases - sin. His blood did. His name was Jesus, not Chuck Norris. If your soul needs healing, the prescription you need is not Chuck Norris' tears, it's Jesus' blood.

[on Bruce Lee] Bruce Lee had bad eyesight and one leg that was shorter than the other. But he had a mental image of what he wanted, and he became the quintessential martial artist and the first Chinese superstar in American films.

There are a dozen death spots, another dozen paralyzing death spots, and many, many disabling spots on the body. We human beings are quite fragile, you know.

After years of learning to control my emotions in karate, I found it very difficult to reverse that process and fully express them. But I learn from my mistakes and develop more as an actor with each film role.

I don't initiate violence, I retaliate.

There has always been violence on the screen, and certain groups claim that some antisocial behavior can be traced to these violent films. I believe that's hogwash. The violence on television news programs is much more harmful because it's real. We all have the potential to be violent, but we must learn to control these impulses.

Any GOP candidate can be dissected to a point that he is railed for having liberal tendencies. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has waffled enough around his pro-abortion, pro-gay, pro-gun control views to recruit many Democratic supporters. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has flip-flopped so many times on issues of abortion, immigration and gay rights to make one wonder for what party he's running. Texas Representative Ron Paul's bent toward being an isolationist who wants to bring home every one of our 572,000 troops abroad makes the anti-terror, pro-military hairs on the back of my neck stand. Though Senator John McCain of Arizona is a friend and a true, decorated hero who I personally think would make an excellent vice president for Mike, he opposed the Bush tax cuts and co-authored legislation for comprehensive immigration reform that some believe jeopardizes national security and American sovereignty. And while former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson is also a friend, his record of consistently voting against tort reform, opposing the impeachment of Bill Clinton on perjury, supporting opponents of Ronald Reagan [Gerald Ford and James A. Baker] in 1976 and 1980, and failing to support federal constitutional amendments that would ban abortion and gay marriage doesn't exactly make him "the only true conservative." To be fair, even if Reagan himself were running today, he likely couldn't dodge liberal labeling, especially for his signing of the Immigration Control and Reform Act of 1986, which granted amnesty to aliens who resided in the U.S. since before 1982.

[on Sen. John McCain] If John takes over the presidency at seventy-two and he ages 3-to-1, how old will he be in four years? Eighty-four years old--and can he handle that kind of pressure in that job? That's why I didn't pick John to support, because I'm just afraid the Vice President will wind up taking over his job within that four-year presidency.

I've known John McCain for over twenty years. He's a man of integrity, but a lot of his social issues, I didn't lean toward. I'm not a Republican or Democrat. I'm conservative. Now that John has brought someone like Sarah Palin on the ticket, it makes me more confident that they could do a tremendous job in the White House.

My choice would be John McCain and Sarah Palin mainly because, with Sarah, I think she'd make a good president because she's a no-nonsense gal and she has much more experience than Barack Obama. Europe now is not infatuated with Barack Obama anymore. They are infatuated with Sarah Palin.

I admire those in the recent past who were able to represent a respectful conservatism in a liberal-leaning, show-business industry: men like Charlton Heston, John Wayne, James Stewart and Ronald Reagan. And I'm grateful for others today who have also stood for conservative values, incredible actors like Jim Caviezel, Mel Gibson and Jon Voight. Jon has recently stepped up to the plate for thousands of others who can't because they'd be cast aside by casting directors if their conservatism was even made known. Jon is taking the brunt end for them from critics who have no tolerance for actors on the right. These are the type of men who will go against the grain of the Hollywood status quo. These are the type of men who get the fact that entertainment isn't about playing party politics. These are the type of men who demonstrate what my hero and the stalwart conservative John Wayne once said, "Courage is being scared to death, and saddling up anyway."

I think we're heading down the wrong direction. We need to restore patriotism as the founders meant it to be. We need to restore our sense of stability, morality and our responsibility. I think we have drifted from that. We just need to get back like our founding fathers. I do a lot of reading about our founding fathers and on our history, you know. They had a vision for America that was not corrupted by greed and power and I think unfortunately many of our politicians have fallen into that trap.

I may run for president of Texas. That need may be a reality sooner than we think. If not me, someone someday may again be running for president of the Lone Star state, if the state of the union continues to turn into the enemy of the state. Anyone who has been around Texas for any length of time knows exactly what we'd do if the going got rough in America.

With The Expendables 2 (2012), you have a lot of hard language in there that means that young people won't be able to see it. I said, I don't do movies like that. I didn't do them in the past, I didn't do them on my TV series. I said, you have to cut out all the hardcore language or I can't do it. So they did, and Expendables is now a PG-13 film so kids can see it.

[on Silent Rage (1982)] It was about a psycho who couldn't die. It's amazing that out of all my films, it's the one that makes the most people come up to me and say, "Are you going to do a sequel?" I say: "What would I do? I tried every way in the world to kill that guy. Finally, I had to dump him down a well. There's nothing else I could do to him."

[on Invasion U.S.A. (1985)] That's the one I shot in Atlanta and Miami. I wrote that screenplay [after] I got the story out of a Reader's Digest, which talked about what would happen if terrorists came into our country and started blowing up schools and buses and airplanes - things that would isolate our transportation system. [It was like] 9/11. Of course, in the film it was the Russians who were trying to scare us into not leaving our homes. And I saved the day.

Code of Silence (1985) was my biggest critical success. I played a cop in Chicago, and Dennis Farina was one of my co-stars. It was probably the first movie where the critics really praised me. They called me the next John Wayne.

[on The Way of the Dragon (1972)] Yeah, that was amazing. Bruce had left for Hong Kong to pursue his movie career, and I didn't hear from him for a couple of years. Then he called me out of the blue and asked if I would be his opponent in this new movie, which he was directing, as well. He said, "I'm going to do this big fight scene in the Colosseum in Rome - a fight to the death, like two gladiators." And kiddingly I went, "Well, who wins, Bruce?" And he said, "I win; I'm the star of this movie." I said, "Oh, I see." Because I held the world title then, I said, "So you want to beat the world champion?" And he said, "No, I want to kill the world champion." I said, "Oh ... OK."

[on The Delta Force (1986)] That was a good one, too, because it was a privilege to work with Lee Marvin. He was an incredible guy, a real macho guy. He was known for criticizing everybody - all his co-stars - and he never said nice things. Then they interviewed him right after we did Delta Force and asked him about me. He said: "I liked him. He was a cool guy." So I thought, "Thank goodness."

[on Hero and the Terror (1988)] That was shot here in Los Angeles. It was a scary movie. The bad guy was a monster, a huge guy. It was OK, but it wasn't one of my favorites.

[on Top Dog (1995)] It was interesting working with a dog - even though they always say, "Never work with dogs or children." This dog was incredibly smart. I was doing a scene where the dog and I were running, and we both had our marks to land on. I ran up and looked - and missed my mark by two or three feet - but the dog landed right on his. And they said, "Chuck, if a dog can land on his, you can sure as heck land on yours!"

I have to say I'm proud of them all. My favorite? That's a tough one because each has a special [meaning] to me. The Missing in Action films were very special because they were really the ones that [took] me to a higher level [where I was] more in demand. They helped spearhead my career. Of course, Code of Silence (1985) is special because it was a critical success. And Lone Wolf McQuade (1983) was a fun film.

Listen, you've got to be 21 to be smoking a cigar in the first place. And smoking a cigar is an experience, not like smoking a pack of cigarettes every day. A cigar is for relaxation. I do enjoy cigar smoking and I'm old enough to smoke. Anything done in excess is going to be bad for you, whether it's eating, drinking or whatever. The key to enjoying cigar smoking is moderation. I'm not going to hide out in some back room and tell the world that I don't smoke cigars. I'm not going to lie about it.

I don't approve of athletes or celebrities who say that they don't want to be a role model for children. The kids still look up to them, and the least they can do is not allow their lives to go in a negative direction. They have a responsibility to children whether they like it or not. And I think they should adhere to that responsibility.

I think kids today need someone to emulate, because a lot of times they don't have that at home. Kids have to find it elsewhere. And a lot of kids today look in a negative direction. They look up to drug addicts, gang members, because they don't have positive role models.

After I did Good Guys Wear Black (1978), the critics said it was the worst acting in the history of movie making. But people went to see that movie, and I think it was because the lead character was a strong, positive, heroic role model. A guy who was pretty much in the same category as Walker. A guy who fights against whatever injustices there may be and uses his abilities as a martial artist to do it. My concepts haven't changed much over the years. But we must be doing something right, because every week about a billion people around the world are watching Walker, Texas Ranger (1993).

Success in show business is misleading. You can be here today and gone tomorrow. One day they want to see you, the next day they could care less. That's the way it is. You never know when that day is gonna come when people say, 'I've seen all I want to see of that guy.' I started later in life. I was 36 before I got into the film business and at that time I had already achieved a modicum of success in the martial arts world. So when I went into films I was already pretty centered. Understanding the philosophy of life means that success can be very fleeting and you just do the best you can. Work as hard as you can and just see what happens with all that. If it's successful, great. If it's not, move on. I've never really let the pressure get to me.

[On spending time with his mother]: I really love and value spending time with my mom, Wilma Norris Knight. There are no words to describe my feelings toward her.

[Crediting his 100-year-old mother for much of his success]: Mom has been an example of perseverance and faith her whole life. She's also endured the deaths of her two husbands, a stepson, two grandchildren, and my younger brother Wieland in the Vietnam War. She's had cancer repeatedly and has gone through roughly 30 different surgeries for a host of issues - and yet she's still here to tell about it.