Kirk Douglas
The learning process continues until the day you die.Collection: Learning
It's tough to make a movie about movies... We're all too close to it. But 'The Bad and the Beautiful' was very good.Collection: Movies
Fear is a terrible thing. It makes you do awful things.Collection: Fear
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.Collection: Smile
I have studied religion, and I have concluded that there is some power. We don't understand it.Collection: Religion
In order to achieve anything you must be brave enough to fail.
No matter how bad things are, they can always be worse. So what if my stroke left me with a speech impediment? Moses had one, and he did all right.
All my life, I have taken inventory at intervals. For example, when I became a movie actor and suddenly I had to deal with fame, money and playing so many roles, I lost myself. I said, 'Who am I?' And I wrote my first book to deal with that, 'The Ragman's Son.'
When you become a star, you don't change - everyone else does.
All children are natural actors, and I'm still a kid. If you grow up completely, you can never be an actor.
I guess I was a bad boy... Yes, yes, I've had lots of women in my life.
Fame is as much about luck as it is about talent, perhaps more.
I love talking to interesting people - people like O.J. Simpson, Andretti... I love champions. A champion has something special about him.
I didn't start out to be a movie star. I started out to be an actor.
When you reach 95, after you get over your surprise, you start looking back.
Fifteen years ago, I suffered a stroke, which caused me to lose my speech. Now, what does an actor who can't talk do? Wait for silent pictures to come back? I work with a speech therapist twice a week.
My mother, we were a very poor family. When I was a kid, we would be in our little room, and there would be a knock on the door almost every night with a hobo begging for food. Even though we didn't even have enough to eat, my mother always found something to give them.
If you want to know about a man you can find out an awful lot by looking at who he married.
Why can't a woman be more like a dog, huh? So sweet, loving, attentive.
Love has more depth as you get older.
I came from abject poverty. There was nowhere to go but up.
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.
People are composed of many things, and in my work, what influences me is the complexity of people - the chiaroscuro of dark and light. When I play a strong guy, I try to find, where is he weak? And, conversely, when I play a weak guy, where is he strong?
Now, what does an actor who can't talk do? Wait for silent pictures to come back?
If I have to speak in public, I am terrified.
When you have a stroke, you must talk slowly to be understood, and I've discovered that when I talk slowly, people listen. They think I'm going to say something important!
Acting is a youthful profession.
I never had any desire to be a film actor. I never thought I was the good-looking movie type, which I assumed they wanted.
What would my parents think about America if they arrived here today? Would they even want to come? I wonder.
I have been an actor for most of my life. When I started out, I didn't think about anything except what was good for me. Like many movie stars, I became all wrapped up in myself.
I have one computer that my wife gave me. All I know how to do, and I do it every day, is play Spider Solitaire. And I don't have a cell phone.
You know, you have to have some inner philosophy to deal with adversity.
Listen - pacemaker, crash, stroke. What does it mean? God doesn't want me now. That's all.
I know Italians and I like them. A lot of my father's best friends were Italians.
Too often, I have not been what I wanted to be; I've succumbed to pressures. Yes, I have. The things I've done that I liked, I've always done against advice.
You know, sometimes an interviewer will look at me and say - you're bright! They're actually surprised I might be bright.
I don't need a critic to tell me I'm an actor. I make my own way. Nobody's my boss. Nobody's ever been my boss.
Sometimes, the thing that ties you down sets you free.
If I thought a man had never committed a sin in his life, I don't think I'd want to talk with him. A man with flaws is more interesting.
Sometimes an interviewer will look at me and say, 'You're bright!' They're actually surprised I might be bright.
My first job was on Broadway. Then I went into the Navy. When I came out of the Navy, I went back to Broadway and a friend of mine, Lauren Bacall, was in Hollywood filming with Humphrey Bogart. She told one of her producers I was great in my play, and he saw it and cast me in 'The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'.
When I first came to Hollywood, the blacklist was just starting, and they were having hearings in Washington. What most people don't know is the judge of these hearings himself was later convicted of misappropriation. 'Spartacus' helped break the blacklist, because Spartacus was a real character.
I think religion has caused so much catastrophe in the world.
I was living in a terrible time when people were being accused of being communists, and they attacked the movie industry, especially the writers. People couldn't work if they were on the blacklist. The studios banned them. It was the most onerous period in movie history. I don't think we have ever had a period so dark as that.
I was not a very good Jew. I never practised what Judaism tells you to do, to teach your kids all about Judaism.
My four sons all knew I was a Jew, but they were allowed to be whatever they wanted to be. The only thing important to me was that they be good people who help other people, because all religion should try to make you a better person and a more caring person. Whenever religion does that for you, it's a good religion.
I'm an actor; I have made my living by acting, and I almost think I owe it to the public to express my feelings and not as a character on a screen but as myself.
I studied Judaism a lot. I studied religion in general, and I have never imposed my Judaism on my kids. They are what they want to be. I think... you must care for others. That's the correct religion, I think.
Virtue is not photogenic, so I liked playing bad guys. But, whenever I played a bad guy, I tried to find something good in him, and that kept my contact with the audience.
I didn't think I was so tough until I did 'Champion'; then I was a tough guy.