Top 110 Michael Douglas Quotes

The so-called ‘last golden age,’ in the 1970s, most of those movies were independent films.

Most of the stories I read are about my Hollywood pedigree.

The message from national security experts and citizens around the world is clear: The only way to eliminate the global nuclear danger is to eliminate all nuclear weapons.

The people who work in Wall Street still look up to Gordon Gekko. He’s sort of a guru.

I’m impressed with the people from Chicago. Hollywood is hype, New York is talk, Chicago is work.

A lot of actors get concerned about their own image, even going so far as to rewrite a movie to best serve that image. All I want to do is be in good movies.

Our economy is increasingly dependent on the success and integrity of the financial markets.

I don’t think tongue cancer is the best cancer for an actor.

Celebrity gets you access to world leaders.

The message from national security experts and citizens around the world is clear: The only way to eliminate the global nuclear danger is to eliminate all nuclear weapons.

I’ve taken blame about being a bad father – if being a bad father is working your butt off trying to create a career at one time.

I have nothing against her, and in fact I’m very fond of my first wife. But we should have ended that marriage eight or 10 years earlier.

I thought I could never be the actor Dad was, so I avoided it for a while.

My own parents divorced when I was six. I was raised with my brother Joel by our mother on the East Coast, visiting my father in Los Angeles during holidays. When your parents are divorced, you don’t know anything else, do you?

I don’t know about Brad Pitt leaving that beautiful woman to go hold orphans for Angelina. I mean how long is that going to last?

I believe there is a spirit within us, which we nurture based upon our efforts and what we bring to the world. But it doesn’t come from the outside; it comes from the inside.

I enjoy provocative things that are questionable.

My memories of Las Vegas were all with my father when I was, like, a teenager. He was best friends with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, and we’d come up and see the shows and go backstage afterwards and have dinner together. It was one of my first educations about stars and how they really are back stage.

When you are a celebrity, nothing remains secret for very long.

My dad was a movie star. Having that name was good and bad. People think it’s a silver spoon. It’s not.

The one thing that men and women have in common – they both like the company of men.

Cancer didn’t bring me to my knees, it brought me to my feet.

I have hardly ever worked with the same director twice. But when you have worked with a director before, you understand his behavior.

Sometimes we spend more efforts with people that are strangers in terms of making an impression than the person that’s closest to us. And you just gotta remember not to take for granted that person that’s closest to you.

A lot of actors get concerned about their own image, even going so far as to rewrite a movie to best serve that image. All I want to do is be in good movies.

For an actor, it’s great fun to play one of these hungry white sharks. Audiences love to hate them.

In ‘Wall Street,’ Charlie Sheen carried that movie.

I grew up on the East Coast and was going to go to an Ivy League School, but at the last minute I decided to be a hippy. It was the protest movements on the war, peace movements were going on at our university. It was a fantastic time.

When you’re making pictures out of heartfelt passion, it hurts when someone calls them a calculated business move.

Capitalism is part of our system, but it’s not for the faint of heart.

My father did 90-plus films. He was Spartacus!

People are goofy about the movie business, so you end up counting on friends you knew before you were successful. It is harder to make new friends because you are a little more cautious.

My marriage and my families come certainly before my career.

Sometimes we spend more efforts with people that are strangers in terms of making an impression than the person that’s closest to us. And you just gotta remember not to take for granted that person that’s closest to you.

All the pictures I do are contemporary. I’ve sort of discovered I haven’t really been into science fiction or period pictures. And so, in that vein, psychological thrillers play a big part.

Learning patience was not an easy lesson.

I don’t wish ill will on anybody.

I haven’t played a lot of nice guys.

I come from a tough stock.

There’s nothing like a family crisis, especially a divorce, to force a person to re-evaluate his life.

I went into rehab to save my marriage, but I wound up saving myself.

During my first marriage, my career was the most important thing in my life.

I think the quality of television, given the amount of time you have, how short you have, is proportionally so much better than most movies.

My daughter is a horseback rider, so I try to watch her ride; we take holidays together.

When I go on a holiday to a tropical place, I’ll spray tan before I go.

My mother is Bermudan, so I had a lot of memories when I was a kid, used to go down to Bermuda a lot.

My mother and father met at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He was a senior and she was a junior, and their marriage didn’t last very long.

It took me too long to realise that if you go to a marriage counsellor to resolve problems, it’s in his interest to keep the marriage going.

If your work isn’t exciting, doesn’t stir the emotions, where’s the challenge? Where’s the progress if you always play it safe?

I guess there are some women who like older men, but it’s a smaller group.

When you’re making pictures out of heartfelt passion, it hurts when someone calls them a calculated business move.

The quality of health care in Canada is excellent.

If your work isn’t exciting, doesn’t stir the emotions, where’s the challenge? Where’s the progress if you always play it safe?

There’s nothing like a family crisis, especially a divorce, to force a person to re-evaluate his life.

I was there the night John Lennon was shot, three blocks away. It left a lasting impression on me.

To me, Bermuda is a real family spot.

I love kids, and I love having had this second chance to have a family.

Sometimes art imitates life.

The one thing that men and women have in common – they both like the company of men.

I don’t wish ill will on anybody.

Serious is when they tell you, ‘You’ve got cancer.’ Cancer is serious, but then the rest of it is not.

Control is what gives you privacy.

The arts are a celebration of life.

I’ve always been somebody who, when I started a picture, never knew what the next picture would be.

I think sometimes in relationships, ladies like having a man who takes care of them, nurtures them. If you can’t find it in a man your own age, you find it in somebody who is older.

When you are a celebrity, nothing remains secret for very long.

‘Wall Street’ was a very important movie for me in terms of my career. I won an Oscar, and then the film ‘Fatal Attraction’ came right after it.

Of course I feel blessed that I have a wife that is 25 years younger.

Actresses have more fear of being disliked. I, on the other hand, revel in it.

Women are now very comfortable to have babies into their late 30s. You can be a father in your 50s. I’m not saying it’s for everybody, and I think people have to get their own life secure before they take on the responsibility of a partner and children.

Religion has certainly been shoved down my throat.

I enjoy provocative things that are questionable.

I guess there are some women who like older men, but it’s a smaller group.

Control is what gives you privacy.

I’ve always liked Tina Turner.

Like a lovely orchid, or anything else that’s nurtured, marriage prospers and grows, but if it’s ignored, it withers.

I’m a risk-taker. Most of my career has not been a joyful experience, but it has been challenging. I like the dangers.

There is something about seeing rhinos and lions running free that excites you. It’s not that you feel afraid; it’s more like you’re liberated by seeing them.

I had a great stepfather.

Directing talent is very nebulous. You know, it’s not in front of you like an actor’s performance.

You just have to know what your responsibility is to the movie, and live up to that, and be considerate of the other actors in the scene… I have never been competitive in that way – I always want my leading ladies to be as good as they possibly can be.

Kids know. They know everything. I would err on the side of pretty much sharing everything.

Do you know what absolute happiness is? For me, it is to wake up my kids in the morning – these little pieces of innocence – to wake them and find they’re so happy to see me! It is unequivocal love, no question about it.