Being a good actor isn't easy. Being a man is even harder. I want to be both before I'm done.

The only greatness for man is immortality.

But you can't show some far off idyllic conception of behavior if you want the kids to come and see the picture. You've got to show what it's really like, and try to reach them on their own grounds.

I think the one thing this picture shows that's new is the psychological disproportion of the kids' demands on the parents. Parents are often at fault, but the kids have some work to do, too.

I want to be a Texan 24 hours a day.

Studying cows, pigs and chickens can help an actor develop his character. There are a lot of things I learned from animals. One was that they couldn't hiss or boo me.

The gratification comes in the doing, not in the results.

I also became close to nature, and am now able to appreciate the beauty with which this world is endowed.

When an actor plays a scene exactly the way a director orders, it isn't acting. It's following instructions. Anyone with the physical qualifications can do that.

To grasp the full significance of life is the actor's duty; to interpret it his problem; and to express it his dedication.

Being a good actor isn't easy. Being a man is even harder. I want to be both before I'm done.

If a man can bridge the gap between life and death, if he can live on after he's dead, then maybe he was a great man.

There is no way to be truly great in this world. We are all impaled on the crook of conditioning.

Trust and belief are two prime considerations. You must not allow yourself to be opinionated.

Being an actor is the loneliest thing in the world. You are all alone with your concentration and imagination, and that's all you have.

Only the gentle are ever really strong.

To me, acting is the most logical way for people's neuroses to manifest themselves, in this great need we all have to express ourselves.

To my way of thinking, an actor's course is set even before he's out of the cradle.

Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today.

An actor must interpret life, and in order to do so must be willing to accept all the experiences life has to offer. In fact, he must seek out more of life than life puts at his feet.

An actor should be judged by his performance only.

Death can't be considered because, if you're afraid to die, there's no room in your life to make discoveries.

I don't want anything seventy-thirty. Fifty-fifty's always good enough for me. I don't want to have to give anybody seventy; I don't want anybody to give me seventy. I want fifty.

I used to fly around quite a bit, you know? I took a lot of unnecessary chances on the highways. And I started racing, and now I drive on the highways, I'm extra cautious because no one knows what they're doing half the time. You don't know what this guy is going to do or that one.

My purpose in life does not include a hankering to charm society.

Racing is the only time I feel whole.

The only way to make a scene realistic is to do it the way you know it would really happen.

You try to be yourself, do only what you've always done and like to do, and right away, you're tagged as an oddball.

An actor's course is set even before he's out of the cradle.

Dream as if youll live forever live as if youll die today.

If a man can bridge the gap between life and death if he can live on after hes dead then maybe he was a great man.

Dream as if youll live forever. Live as if youll die today.

Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today.

My favorite actor is Wallace Beery.

I've been a very lucky actor.

I don't think I could be happy as an actor if there was a tyrant on the set.

When I was starting to get noticed as an actor in the 1970s for something other than the third cowboy on the right who ended up dying in every movie or episode, Burt Reynolds was the biggest star in the world.

Most parts that can be played by one actor can equally well be played by another, but not this.

I think, frankly, that I'm a better director than I was an actor.

I knew an actor's career goes up and down and back up again. Your standing in this business can't be your whole identity; otherwise, you're doomed.

I don't think any actor feels comfortable watching themselves in movies. You must be very narcissistic. The problem with your own opinion of yourself is that contrary to the normal spectators, when you watch a film you are in, you only watch yourself.

I don't think there has been any increase in sophistication in the audience. When people are aware of a concept that's easy to understand, and there's an actor who will attract them to the theater and it's a movie that's funny three-quarters of the time, it will be successful.

I never dreamed about being an actor, because that was out of reach. Coming from a small town that was big in farming, and also big in clothing factories, you don't dream about being a professional football player or an actor.

My goal was always to be recognized as a good actor but no one was interested in that, simply because society just wants to warm towards your appearance. This is the great blemish of society.

If you really do want to be an actor who can satisfy himself and his audience, you need to be vulnerable.

To be honest with you, when I got into this I never thought about reviews. I never thought about what people would say about me. I was just a young guy who was excited to become a comedian and an actor and I just wanted to get to do what I got to do.

It was very natural for me to want to disappear into dark theater, I am really very shy. That is something that people never seem to fully grasp because, when you are an actor, you are meant to be an exhibitionist.

I think that I've still not been successful at playing the role of the retired actor, and I'd like to work on that.

And once you cease to be a real person, you stop being a good actor.