Ernest Borgnine Quotes

You get kicked around long enough, you become a professor of pain.

Everything I do has a moral to it.

I'm what you call a Depression sailor.

It was my mom who told me, "Ernie, if you make even one person happy with your smile or a funny thing you did every day, you'll have accomplished a great deal." And that's all I've ever tried to do.

I don't chart out the life histories of the people I play. If I did, I'd be in trouble. I work with my heart and my head, and naturally emotions follow.

Writers used to make such wonderful pictures without all that swearing, all that cursing. And now it seems that you can't say three words without cursing. And I don't think that's right.

If John Wayne were alive, he’d be rolling over in his grave!

Every time I step in front of a camera I feel young again. I really do. It keeps your mind active and it keeps you going.

It's not your word that matters, it's who you give it too.

Gary Cooper - the greatest listener in the world! And he used to answer in kind, which is wonderful because you don't see that anymore. People don't listen. They really don't.

The Navy has changed a great deal. Not that the officers of my day were bad, because I served under a lot of good officers, believe me. But there were a few bad ones, too.

I think we all have the urge to be a clown, whether we know it or not.

I wouldn't trade those 10 years for anything. The Navy taught me a lot of things. It molded me as a man, and I made a lot of wonderful friends.

Three quarters of producers don't even know who I am. The other quarter think I am dead.

You got to keep your hand in your craft, otherwise you can rot at the roots and first thing you know, you got nothing.

I got a job immediately after leaving high school; I was lucky - three dollars a week and all I could eat, working on a vegetable truck.

The Oscar made me a star, and I'm grateful. But I feel had I not won the Oscar I wouldn't have gotten into the messes I did in my personal life.

I call myself a character actor all my life. I've done a certain amount as a leading man, but character actors in my estimation - it's a lost art these days.