The big secret in acting is listening to people.
If you work for a living, why do you kill yourself working?
Having the critics praise you is like having the hangman say you've got a pretty neck.
When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk.
I've learned that life is very tricky business: Each person needs to find what they want to do in life and not be dissuaded when people question them.
Recipe? Recipe? We don' need no stinkin' recipe.
The richest man is the one with the most powerful friends.
I always end up being the evil one, and I wouldn't hurt a fly.
No, I never thought of it in those terms. I used to go into agents' offices and they'd have pictures of these handsome movie men and I knew I'd never be up there. I'm a journeyman actor. I didn't think about stardom.
I don't act to live. I live to act.
I never dreamed I would do Westerns.
But Clint I love, because Clint was my mentor. I knew nothing about making an Italian movie.
In the book, I tell the story of seeing old movies when I was young and acting out scenes at home. Now I get scripts, and I act them out.
John Huston was a superb master. He knew how to make good films. I did three things with him. One is called Independence. It plays in Philadelphia, for free. It's been playing there for 25 years.
So I wanted to show what I did with the money. So I got red silk shirts, beautiful hats, wonderful saddles, a great horse, and two gold teeth. So that was the way I did it.
Well, I was getting a lot of money then, and I wasn't getting any Hollywood films, so I just did those. I'd always do a play in between. Whenever I ran low on funds, I'd always rush off to do a movie somewhere.
One thing changes every evening: It's the audience, and I'm working my magic. I'm always learning from it.
Even if I don't want to slow down, I'm slowing down.
My first Western was called The Magnificent Seven.
My wife says that stage acting is like being on a tightrope with no net, and being in the movies, there is a net - because you stop and go over it again. It's very technical and mechanical. On stage you're on your own.
Everyone thinks acting is easy. It's far from easy, but it's the most gratifying thing I do.
I always wanted to tell stories and act.
I've never lost my appetite for acting; it's innovative and challenging.
I'd come out of the army after five years as a medic. I was a medical administrator and we ran hospitals, and I was a Captain in the Army at the end, in 1945.
Well, I go to the theater today, and its curtain - there is no curtain in this play; the lights go down and go up - and we start. And I live this character for two hours. There are only two of us in the play. And It's a complete experience.
