Clint Eastwood

Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that's real power.

When I see a story I ask: is this something I'd like to be in? Is this something I'd like to see? And if I'd like to see it would I like to tell it?

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.

Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands.

Drama usually has some sort of intense conflict.

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 guess any movie actor can become a role model for audiences out there who enjoy him.

I've taken advantage of a few breaks that came along and moved along with them.

There's a lot of great movies that have won the Academy Award and a lot of great movies that haven't. You just do the best you can.

We are like boxers one never knows how much longer one has.

Nowadays politically everybody is promising everything. That's the only way you can get elected.

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.

I don't really get into a big intellectual analysis of why I am going to do a certain script or not.

I became a Republican in 1951 the first year I could vote.

I do believe in self-help.

If a person doesn't change there's something really wrong with him.

We boil at different degrees.

There are a lot of conservative people a lot of moderate people Republicans Democrats in Hollywood. It is just that the conservative people by the nature of the word itself play closer to the vest. They do not go around hot dogging it.

I always liked characters that were more grounded in reality.

The prospect of dating someone in her twenties becomes less appealing as you get older. At some point in your fife your tolerance level goes down and you realize that with someone much younger there's nothing really to talk about.

Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country and that's what everybody needs to know.

I was always respectful of people who were deeply religious because I always felt that if they gave themselves to it then it had to be important to them. But if you can go through life without it that's OK too. It's whatever suits you.

If I'd had good discipline I might have gone into music.

The less secure a man is the more likely he is to have extreme prejudice.

If you think it's going to rain it will.

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's a very confusing era that we're in.

I still work out on a daily basis.

I don't believe in pessimism. If something doesn't come up the way you want forge ahead. If you think it's going to rain it will.

My mother knew how to read music and everything. But I just kinda learned off of records. And so I was listening to records and I'd play 'em over and over.

Men must know their limitations.

I mean I've always been a libertarian. Leave everybody alone. Let everybody else do what they want. Just stay out of everybody else's hair.

It takes tremendous discipline to control the influence the power you have over other people's lives.

Aging can be fun if you lay back and enjoy it.

You have to feel confident. If you don't then you're going to be hesitant and defensive and there'll be a lot of things working against you.

Our modern society - especially in the West and especially now - reveres youth.

Plagiarism is always the biggest thing in Hollywood.

People love westerns worldwide. There's something fantasy-like about an individual fighting the elements. Or even bad guys and the elements. It's a simpler time. There's no organized laws and stuff.

I would just like to say something ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that you we - we own this country. We - we own it. It is not you owning it and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.

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.

I'm not a chick-flick enthusiast.

This film cost $31 million. With that kind of money I could have invaded some country.

The country has come a long way in race relations but the pendulum swings so far back. Everyone wants to be so sensitive.

A lot of people are realizing they had the wool pulled over their eyes by Obama.

A lot of people are bored of all the political correctness.

I've had moments when I've thought about somebody picked up the phone to call them and they are on the line already and I think that maybe there's some vibration some connection.

Of course we all know Biden is the intellect of the Democratic Party. Kind of a grin with a body behind it.

I'm not really conservative. I'm conservative on certain things. I believe in less government. I believe in fiscal responsibility and all those things that maybe Republicans used to believe in but don't any more.

I think being able to age gracefully is a very important talent. It is too late for me.

I was drafted during the Korean War.

Even people on the liberal side are starting to worry about going off a fiscal cliff.

I have a very strict gun control policy: if there's a gun around I want to be in control of it.

I tried being reasonable I didn't like it.

They say marriages are made in Heaven. But so is thunder and lightning.

And I think it's that time. And I think if you just step aside and Mr. Romney can kind of take over. You can maybe still use a plane. Though maybe a smaller one. Not that big gas guzzler you are going around to colleges and talking about student loans and stuff like that.

It's much more fun to play something you're nothing like than what you are... It's much easier to hide yourself in a character.

Overnight stardom can be harmful to your mental health. Yeah. It has ruined a lot of people.

I'm just a kid - I've got a lot of stuff to do yet.

You know when you're young and you see a play in high school and the guys all have gray in their hair and they're trying to be old men and they have no idea what that's like? It's just that stupid the other way around.

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.

I don't mind telling a dark side.

Everybody thinks making films back to back is a big deal but they did it all the time in the old days.

I'm interested in the fact that the less secure a man is the more likely he is to have extreme prejudice.

I just make the pictures and where they fall is where they fall. If somebody likes them that's always nice. And if they don't like them then too bad.

There's only one way to have a happy marriage and as soon as I learn what it is I'll get married again.

The craving for information is so huge now and it can be marketed at such a rapid rate.

Every story has its demands.

I haven't been very active in politics.

If you want a guarantee buy a toaster.

In school I could hear the leaves rustle and go on a journey.

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.

Society is at odds with itself.

I keep working because I learn something new all the time.

Whether you like it or not you're forced to come to the realisation that death is out there. But I don't fear death I'm a fatalist. I believe when it's your time that's it. It's the hand you're dealt.

I had three points I wanted to make: That not everybody in Hollywood is on the left that Obama has broken a lot of the promises he made when he took office and that the people should feel free to get rid of any politician who's not doing a good job. But I didn't make up my mind exactly what I was going to say until I said it.

My old drama coach used to say 'Don't just do something stand there.' Gary Cooper wasn't afraid to do nothing.

I'm a movie maker but I have the same feelings as the average guy out there.

Actors know what actors are insecure about - and they're all insecure.

As you get older you're not afraid of doubt. Doubt isn't running the show. You take out all the self-agonizing.

The innocence of childhood is like the innocence of a lot of animals.

President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.