Kirk Douglas Quotes

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

In order to achieve anything you must be brave enough to fail.

Virtue is not photogenic.

Streets crowded with people strolling, or sitting at outdoor cafes. And always, talking, gesturing, singing, laughing. I liked Rome immediately.Everybody was a performer.

I guess I was a bad boy... Yes, yes, I've had lots of women in my life.

You haven't learned how to live until you've learned how to give.

Life is like a B-picture script! It is that corny. If I had my life story offered to me to film, I'd turn it down.

The only advantage I have found in being Jewish is that I can be openly anti-Semitic.

Obey the voice within - it commands us to give of ourselves and help others. As long as we have the capacity to give, we are alive

My kids never had the advantages I had. I was born poor.

All children are natural actors, and I'm still a kid. If you grow up completely, you can never be an actor.

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.

Know what a loner is? He's a born cripple. He's a cripple because the only person he can live with is himself. It's his life, the way he wants to live. It's all for him.

A stroke is a very difficult thing. You get depressed. . . . What I found was this: the cure for depression is to think of others, to do for others. You can always find something to be grateful for.

When you become a star, you don't change - everyone else does.

We look for wine when we should be hunting bread.

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.

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

What would my parents think about America if they arrived here today? Would they even want to come? I wonder.

The learning process continues until the day you die.

You know, you have to have some inner philosophy to deal with adversity.

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.

No matter how bad things are, they can always be worse. So what if my stroke left me with a speech impediment? Moses had one, and he did all right.

I'm a loner clear down deep to my guts.

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

The first thing I look for in a woman is warmth-femininity. It's got nothing to do with a pretty face.

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

Life is like a B-picture script.

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

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

If I thought a man had never committed a sin in his life, I don't think I'd want to talk with him. A man with flaws is more interesting.

I bought the book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I paid to have it made into a play and I played in it for six months. I came back and I tried to make it into a movie, without success.

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

Maybe there is no peace in this world. I don't know ... But I know as long as we live we must stay true to ourselves.

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

Sometimes, the thing that ties you down sets you free.

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

I felt [It Runs in the Family] it was a picture that, after I'm gone, my family would like to see it. It was a wonderful mixture of people in my family.

Acting is a youthful profession.

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

Love has more depth as you get older.

I have one computer that my wife gave me. All I know how to do, and I do it every day, is play Spider Solitaire. And I don't have a cell phone.

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

I have a great respect for actors like Clint Eastwood, who's a wonderful director. I think two pictures that I directed were not successful, so I decided not to make any more.

I directed two films, not very successfully, and after that, I went back to being an actor and a producer.

The best wine comes from home, wherever it is.

I never had any desire to be a film actor. I never thought I was the good-looking movie type, which I assumed they wanted.

If I have to speak in public, I am terrified.

My children didn't have my advantages; I was born into abject poverty.

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.