Kirk Douglas Quotes - Page 2

You have not learned to live until you have learned to give

On a crowded bus in Israel, a mother was speaking to her son in Yiddish. An Israeli woman reprimanded her. "You should be speaking Hebrew. Why are you talking to him in Yiddish?" The mother answered, "I don't want he should forget he's a Jew."

When I produced Spartacus, the writer was Dalton Trumbo, who spent a year in jail because he would not answer McCarthy's questions about other people. He submitted the picture under the false name of Sam Jackson.

Now, why is it that most of us can talk openly about the illnesses of our bodies, but when it comes to our brain and illnesses of the mind we clam up and because we clam up, people with emotional disorders feel ashamed, stigmatized, and don't seek the help that can make the difference.

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.

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.

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.

We look for wine when we should be hunting bread.

Now, what does an actor who can't talk do? Wait for silent pictures to come back?

I came from abject poverty. There was nowhere to go but up.

Why can't a woman be more like a dog, huh? So sweet, loving, attentive.

Fear is a terrible thing. It makes you do awful things.

My mother once said, "A beggar must always give to another beggar that's worse off than he is." That has always stuck with me.

If you want to know about a man you can find out an awful lot by looking at who he married.

When you reach 95, after you get over your surprise, you start looking back.

Fame is as much about luck as it is about talent, perhaps more.

I'm concerned that the world is a mess. That's why when I wrote my last book, Let's Face It, I dedicated it to the younger generation because, let's face it, the world is in a mess. Right now, the young people will inherit that mess. I think we have to do everything we can.

You'll never see Spartacus in a (expletive) chair!

When you get old the worst thing is you lose so many friends. Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne. People who I loved to work with.

When you get to my age, you find that most of your dear friends are gone.

Michael [Douglas] was just leaving the TV series The Streets of San Francisco and he said, 'Dad, let me try it.' I thought, 'Well, if I couldn't make it...' So, I gave it to him and he got the money, the director and the cast. The biggest disappointment for me, I always wanted to play McMurphy. They got a young actor, Jack Nicholson. I thought, 'Oh God. He will be terrible.' Then I saw the picture and, of course, he was great in it! That was my biggest disappointment that turned out to be one of the things I'm most proud of because my son Michael did it. I couldn't do it, but Michael did it.

I have always been grateful that my Russian mother and father came to this country to give me a better chance, and I have had a better chance.

The older you get, the more awards you get. So, if you live long enough, then you get all the awards eventually.

Being seventy has its advantages. I was outspoken before, but now what have I got to keep quiet about?

Since my stroke, I have begun to see so many miracles all around me. I look out of the window in my room: verdant grass, silver-tipped oak leaves, tall palm trees gentle swaying as they reach to the sky, masses and masses of roses. All colors, so many shapes, exquisite fragrances.