Sam Elliott

I've spent my entire career on horseback or on a motorcycle. It boxes you in, the way people perceive you. I read a lot of scripts. Most of 'em go to other actors.

I don't want to be known as a sex symbol. There's a great stigma that goes with that tag. I want to be a Sam Elliott.

I was single-minded on what I wanted to do since I was like nine or ten.

I've spent my entire career on horseback or on a motorcycle. It boxes you in, the way people perceive you.

It's never going to get better than working opposite an actor like Jeff Bridges. That's as good as it gets. I don't even know what to refer to him as. He's just a great guy. He's iconic on his own merits.

I read a lot of scripts. Most of 'em go to other actors.

I'll do anything. I'll shave my head for the right job. I'm partial to my facial hair, I guess, but I also enjoy doing something where I look totally different, which is kind of the reason why I've always worn long hair. I can really change my look radically by getting rid of it.

Hugh Grant is the main man. He's the number one romantic comedy man in the world.

I truly loved Jason Reitman. I was there on his first film, 'Thank You For Smoking,' and I'd go work with him to do anything.

I think I might have been a more interesting actor, had more of a career earlier on, if I had more formal preparation. When I see something ten years later that I was in I think, 'Boy, would I love to do that over.'

The opportunity, number one, to work with Ang Lee is an amazing thing for me.

I'm picky, very picky. I wanted to be an actor since I was nine years old, and I figured that was only one way to ever have any longevity, and that's to be careful about what kind of work you do.

I'm a four star general in this thing, and you don't rise to the ranks of a four star general by hanging about the house being the perfect dad.

I just went to see too many movies and I sat in too many dark matinees watching those old serials.

Making movies is never going to get better than working on a Coen brothers project.

Any of these Vietnam vets that have been there and know the deal, they don't feel that any Hollywood endeavor about the Vietnam era has ever gotten it right yet.

I think anytime you can affect people in general, in a positive way, then you're a lucky individual.