One day we will look back and realize that the Barack Obama Presidency was the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on the American people.
Participating in a gun buy-back program because you think that criminals have too many guns is like having yourself castrated because you think your neighbors have too many kids.
The reason I still work at this stage of life is because I enjoy learning something new each day.
They say all marriages are made in heaven, but so are thunder and lightning.
What I think the mentor gets is the great satisfaction of helping somebody along, helping somebody take advantage of an opportunity that maybe he or she did not have.
I take vitamins daily, but just the bare essentials not what you'd call supplements. I try to stick to a vegan diet heavy on fruit, vegetables, tofu, and other soy products.
I probably would have retired years ago if I hadn't found interesting things to do.
Every picture has its own demands, and every picture stimulates something within you to tell it a certain way. I don't know what that is; I don't think too much about that.
My wife used to be an anchorwoman in Arizona, so she knew John McCain, and she liked him, and I kinda liked him.
Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and that's what everybody needs to know.
Our modern society -- especially in the West, and especially now -- reveres youth.
I've taken advantage of a few breaks that came along and moved along with them.
I don't really get into a big intellectual analysis of why I am going to do a certain script or not.
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.
Stage actors are usually much more conscious of speaking up and making sure that everyone can hear in the back of the theatre; a film actor probably thinks of that a little less.
Longer Version:
Stage actors are usually much more conscious of speaking up and making sure that everyone can hear in the back of the theatre; a film actor probably thinks of that a little less. Unfortunately, there's a style of acting going round, especially with the younger actors, where they talk without even moving their lip. Maybe it's because my hearing probably isn't what it was 40 years ago but I'm sitting there going "What did they say"?
'Unforgiven' is probably an example of a script that I liked right away but thought, 'This is great, but I'd like to do this when I'm older.' So I stuck it in the drawer for ten years and then took it out.
I like Italian movies. I was frequently there in the '60s, in Rome and the vicinity. It was a great period in life. I was very influenced by their stuff.
As long as somebody finances you, can make a film and get it seen any place and in any language; then, hopefully, it's a success.
If you consider film an art form, as some people do, then the Western would be a truly American art form, much as jazz is.
Society has made us believe you should look like an 18-year-old model all your life.
My dad was a big admirer of Sergeant York stories from the First World War.
I think everybody has something that they've been obsessed about in their lifetime.
I liked Vittorio De Sica a lot, and I got to work with him once in a segment movie. He was a great director. He was a very charismatic character and a guy I watched a lot when he was directing.
A lot of dumb pictures have made a lot of money, but that doesn't mean they're going to be anything cinema students will revel over in the future.
I always thought of myself as a character actor. I never thought of myself as a leading man.
I loved the fact that Obama is multi-racial. I thought that was terrific, as my wife is the same racial make-up.
Other than obvious errors like forgetting a line, often I can't see any difference between take one and take 20.
When I'm a director, I look at myself the actor as a completely different person. It's somebody else up there, an actor playing a role. I keep myself out of it.
In past generations, people would try to play younger than they really are. My trick is, I don't try to play younger than I really am.
I'd always tried to resist playing the supervirility thing. I liked showing the vulnerability of age.
I will never win an Oscar, and do you know why? First of all, because I'm not Jewish. Secondly, I make too much money for all those old farts in the Academy.
In the Bay Area, there was a resurgence of Dixieland jazz in the '40s -- there was the Frisco Jazz Band, and Lu Watters and the Yerba Buena Jazz Band.
I'm not a reality-TV kind of guy. But it's almost like we're living in a reality show. Every day in this country, everybody keeps worrying about the deterioration of America, and it's like a big reality show.
There are two kinds of people in this world. 'I' people and 'we' people. I've always tried to be a 'we' person.
My dad was fiscally conservative, and I was influenced by that. He didn't believe in spending more than you had because it gets you into trouble.
You have to steal a lot. You have to have a criminal mentality to be a film director.
The fact is, violence is not only not a beautiful thing, but it's also very painful and not without consequences for the perpetrator as well as the victim.
I like working. That's when I'm feeling my best. And the people around me know that. My wife knows that.
I'm not a New Age person, but I do believe in meditation, and for that reason I've always liked the Buddhist religion. When I've been to Japan, I've been to Buddhist temples and meditated, and I found that rewarding.
When I was growing up, I wasn't an extrovert. If anything, I was an introverted kid and a very average pupil at school. I was very quiet.
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.
The craving for information is so huge now, and it can be marketed at such a rapid rate.
I'm interested in the fact that the less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudice.
You hear about actors being late and all that sort of stuff, but you never find that with an actor who's directed, because an actor who's directed understands all the problems your production is going through.
Liberals are not always so liberal with people who disapprove -- disapprove of their point of view.
I guess maybe when you get past 70, other people start asking you how you feel.
On 'Mystic River,' I had to cut my salary and everyone else's to get it made.
I want the troops from Great Britain and the U.S. to be successful, but by the same token, Afghanistan has always been a screw-up.
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'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.
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.
You can't stop everything from happening. But we've gotten to a point where we're certainly trying. If a car doesn't have four hundred air bags in it, then it's no good.
The U.S. military was segregated 'til the Korean War, and the blacks in World War Two were totally segregated.
I was an Eisenhower Republican when I started out at 21 because he promised to get us out of the Korean War.
I'm a movie maker, but I have the same feelings as the average guy out there.
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.
I hate to see anybody sink. I hate to see anybody lose their dream, lose their home, something like that.
I've always said the one advantage an actor has of converting to a director is that he's been in front of the camera. He doesn't have to get in front of the camera again, subliminally or otherwise.
When I was born, the economy wasn't in a great state; it was the Depression, and my father had to be quick to try and find work.
