Top 25 Sam Elliott Quotes

I don’t want to be known as a sex symbol. There’s a great stigma that goes with that tag. I want to be a Sam Elliott.

I was single-minded on what I wanted to do since I was like nine or ten.

My family is all from the Southwest. My great-great-grandfather was at the Battle of San Jacinto with Sam Houston.

I was one of the early guys from my generation to have hair on his face. Me and Tom Selleck, and I was first.

I’ve had those periods in my career when I was sitting around waiting for a phone call and had an agent who was doing the same thing rather than going out there to shake the bushes looking for a job for me. It’s a frustrating game, that’s the downside of this business – the rejection.

I think the people that most often cross a line are comedians. I think they relish that, and take pride in that on some level – at least, from what little I’ve seen and understand about people that do stand-up.

I grew up in Sacramento and spent a lot of time in the Saturday matinee. I just thought, ‘Wow.’ It’s that magic of sitting in a dark theater as a little kid. That was in the ’50s.

I was never afraid of hard work.

I really never had any thought about being a legitimate actor, like a stage performer. I wanted to make movies. I wanted to do television and make movies.

I think anytime you can affect people in general, in a positive way, then you’re a lucky individual.

My voice gets recognized before anything else. It’s always gotten attention. In choruses at church and school, I started as a tenor, moved to a baritone and finally became a bass. I knew then that my voice would be my instrument. Now if I want to hide, I just keep my mouth shut.

Looking back on the long haul in my career, little films, big films, TV, the Western thing has been really good to me.

My security comes from the fact that I’ve never done a job for money.

I think every actor’s dream is somebody writes something specifically for them.

I think I might have been a more interesting actor, had more of a career earlier on, if I had more formal preparation. When I see something ten years later that I was in I think, ‘Boy, would I love to do that over.’

It’s never going to get better than working opposite an actor like Jeff Bridges. That’s as good as it gets. I don’t even know what to refer to him as. He’s just a great guy. He’s iconic on his own merits.

I was in the cement end of the construction business, as a laborer. I was pouring concrete, and stripping forms off of set concrete, and pulling nails, and stacking plywood, and doing that kind of thing. I was in peak condition in those days.

I just went to see too many movies and I sat in too many dark matinees watching those old serials.

Nobody sets out to make a bad film – I shouldn’t say ‘nobody.’ Some people certainly don’t care.

I’m a four star general in this thing, and you don’t rise to the ranks of a four star general by hanging about the house being the perfect dad.

I’ve done films over the years that basically no one saw. And I’m thankful that some of them haven’t been seen.

I’ve been married one time and I have one daughter, who I love more than anyone in the world. And that’s where my world is.

It seemed like whenever a Western was going to get made, it came my way.

I did beef ads for about eight years because I love the people in that industry, and there are a lot of people who make their living in the beef world. Ranchers, primarily.

I’ll do anything. I’ll shave my head for the right job. I’m partial to my facial hair, I guess, but I also enjoy doing something where I look totally different, which is kind of the reason why I’ve always worn long hair. I can really change my look radically by getting rid of it.