I played characters with villainous aspect. But out-and-out villain? No.
I think 'Dirty Harry' was probably sensitive toward the victims of violent crime.
I'm not a chick-flick enthusiast.
President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.
Movies were invented for Jimmy Cagney, and he was invented for the movies. A perfect match.
Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and that's what everybody needs to know.
I was drafted during the Korean War. None of us wanted to go... It was only a couple of years after World War II had ended. We said, 'Wait a second? Didn't we just get through with that?'
I'm not a New Age person, but I do believe in meditation, and for that reason I've always liked the Buddhist religion. When I've been to Japan, I've been to Buddhist temples and meditated, and I found that rewarding.
I've never met a genius. A genius to me is someone who does well at something he hates. Anybody can do well at something he loves - it's just a question of finding the subject.
I think being able to age gracefully is a very important talent. It is too late for me.
You always want to quit while you are ahead. You don't want to be like a fighter who stays too long in the ring until you're not performing at your best.
If I'd had good discipline, I might have gone into music.
I keep working because I learn something new all the time.
I always liked characters that were more grounded in reality.
If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.
Everybody accuses me of moving fast when I direct a picture. I don't move fast, but I just keep moving.
Nowadays, politically, everybody is promising everything. That's the only way you can get elected.
The innocence of childhood is like the innocence of a lot of animals.
I've always been fascinated with the stealing of innocence. It's the most heinous crime, and certainly a capital crime if there ever was one.
Everybody is idealistic when you're a kid.
I don't think I've met anyone with a stronger work ethic than Ray Charles.
There's no real excuse for being successful enough as an actor to do what you want and then selling out. You do it pure. You don't try to adapt it, make it commercial.
Plagiarism is always the biggest thing in Hollywood.
Crimes against children are the most heinous crime. That, for me, would be a reason for capital punishment because children are innocent and need the guidance of an adult society.
When I was a kid, I thought movies just came from air. I thought they just appeared.
The country has come a long way in race relations, but the pendulum swings so far back. Everyone wants to be so sensitive.
Aging can be fun if you lay back and enjoy it.
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.
You are always hoping that movie audiences are interested in characters and interested in story values rather than just mindless special effects. But you never know.
It would be great to be 105 and still making films.
In school, I could hear the leaves rustle and go on a journey.
When you're young, you're very reckless. Then you get conservative. Then you get reckless again.
There are two kinds of people in this world. 'I' people and 'we' people. I've always tried to be a 'we' person.
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.
I just think it is important that you realize, that you're the best in the world. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican or whether you're libertarian or whatever, you are the best. And we should not ever forget that. And when somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go.
When you work with kids, especially, you want to be ready to turn the camera on at a moment's notice.
I became a Republican in 1951, the first year I could vote.
I don't really get into a big intellectual analysis of why I am going to do a certain script or not.
I'm interested in the fact that the less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudice.
Man becomes his most creative during war.
When you listen to Ray Charles, there's never any doubt whose voice that is.
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 a big admirer of Sergeant York stories from the First World War.
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.
I love stories about women.
I guess maybe when you get past 70, other people start asking you how you feel.
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.
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.
