Top 133 Clint Eastwood Quotes

I don’t think I’ve met anyone with a stronger work ethic than Ray Charles.

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.

Drama usually has some sort of intense conflict.

Governor Romney has a great business background. He is extremely well educated. He has several degrees from Harvard, including, you know, business and including a law degree.

I do believe in the energy and the productivity of the American business world.

A lot of people are bored of all the political correctness.

If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.

If I’d had good discipline, I might have gone into music.

The guys who won World War II and that whole generation have disappeared, and now we have a bunch of teenage twits.

If you’re really satisfied with your position on something, you just say, ‘Hey;’ you just very calmly present something.

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.

The country has come a long way in race relations, but the pendulum swings so far back. Everyone wants to be so sensitive.

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 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?

Society has made us believe you should look like an 18-year-old model all your life.

I just think it is important that you realize, that you’re the best in the world. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican or whether you’re libertarian or whatever, you are the best. And we should not ever forget that. And when somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go.

On ‘Mystic River,’ I had to cut my salary and everyone else’s to get it made.

You have to steal a lot. You have to have a criminal mentality to be a film director.

Every story has its demands.

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.

Nowadays, politically, everybody is promising everything. That’s the only way you can get elected.

I’ve never met a genius. A genius to me is someone who does well at something he hates. Anybody can do well at something he loves – it’s just a question of finding the subject.

Movies were invented for Jimmy Cagney, and he was invented for the movies. A perfect match.

I would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we – we own this country. We – we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.

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.

I’m a mentor to anybody who’s interested.

At the major studios, you see people wanting to remake a TV series, wanting to make a sequel.

My dad was a big admirer of Sergeant York stories from the First World War.

Actors know, with me they aren’t going to be allowed to rehearse a scene for a couple of hours and then get away with doing 25 takes before we get it right. So they come with their full bag of tricks.

A lot of people are realizing they had the wool pulled over their eyes by Obama.

The less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudice.

This film cost $31 million. With that kind of money I could have invaded some country.

There’s no real excuse for being successful enough as an actor to do what you want and then selling out. You do it pure. You don’t try to adapt it, make it commercial.

You always want to quit while you are ahead. You don’t want to be like a fighter who stays too long in the ring until you’re not performing at your best.

In my career as a director, there’s always been some point where you get halfway through it, or three-quarters, and you go: ‘What is this thing all about, and why am I telling the story? Does anybody really care about seeing this?’ At that time you have to say: ‘OK, forget that and just go ahead.’

‘Mystic River’ just smelled interesting to me. So I read it and liked it right away. Even the dialogue in it was great.

There has to be something in every role that interests you.

I probably would have retired years ago if I hadn’t found interesting things to do.

I was always respectful of people who were deeply religious because I always felt that if they gave themselves to it, then it had to be important to them. But if you can go through life without it, that’s OK, too. It’s whatever suits you.

When you work with kids, especially, you want to be ready to turn the camera on at a moment’s notice.

I was an Eisenhower Republican when I started out at 21 because he promised to get us out of the Korean War.

I don’t like to see a president who is just out campaigning all year long or for the last four years. I’d like to see somebody who’s going in the office. In fact, I’d like to not see them because that way you’d be sure that they’d be working.

Fate pulls you in different directions.

Why am I a star? It can’t be because of looks.

If a person doesn’t change, there’s something really wrong with him.

Yes, I’m always – I’m always surprised when you make a film and you live with it a while and you put it out, you never dream that anybody is ever going to want to really see it.

My old drama coach used to say, ‘Don’t just do something, stand there.’ Gary Cooper wasn’t afraid to do nothing.

I have been trying to retire to the back of the camera for quite a few years, and in 1970, when I first started directing, I said, ‘If I could pull this off, I can some day move to the back of the camera and stay there.’

Society is at odds with itself.

I always thought of myself as a character actor. I never thought of myself as a leading man.

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.

I think there is a lot made out of age, and what age you feel.

I mean, I’ve always been a libertarian. Leave everybody alone. Let everybody else do what they want. Just stay out of everybody else’s hair.

I haven’t been very active in politics.

I knew Billy Wilder socially and would have loved to work with him.

Even people on the liberal side are starting to worry about going off a fiscal cliff.

I like a drama.

Everybody thinks making films back to back is a big deal but they did it all the time in the old days.

Crimes against children are the most heinous crime. That, for me, would be a reason for capital punishment because children are innocent and need the guidance of an adult society.

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 don’t believe in pessimism. If something doesn’t come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it’s going to rain, it will.

Winning the election is a good-news, bad-news kind of thing. Okay, now you’re the mayor. The bad news is, now you’re the mayor.

Movies are fun, but they are no cure for cancer.

As you get older, you’re not afraid of doubt. Doubt isn’t running the show. You take out all the self-agonizing.

I loved the fact that Obama is multi-racial. I thought that was terrific, as my wife is the same racial make-up.

If somebody’s dumb enough to ask me to go to a political convention and say something, they’re going to have to take what they get.

We are like boxers, one never knows how much longer one has.

It must be the Brit in me, because I like animals.

In school, I could hear the leaves rustle and go on a journey.

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.

The only black battalion on Iwo Jima was a small munitions supply unit that came to the beach.

Prime time for men is, say, 35 to 45. Then they level off and fall off.

There are certain age limits on police officers. They’d have retired me out at 65.

They say marriages are made in Heaven. But so is thunder and lightning.

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.

You have to feel confident. If you don’t, then you’re going to be hesitant and defensive, and there’ll be a lot of things working against you.

I became a Republican in 1951, the first year I could vote.

If you think it’s going to rain, it will.

I always liked characters that were more grounded in reality.