Top 33 Kirk Douglas Quotes

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

I was not a very good Jew. I never practised what Judaism tells you to do, to teach your kids all about Judaism.

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

I didn’t start out to be a movie star. I started out to be an actor.

Listen – pacemaker, crash, stroke. What does it mean? God doesn’t want me now. That’s all.

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

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

Too often, I have not been what I wanted to be; I’ve succumbed to pressures. Yes, I have. The things I’ve done that I liked, I’ve always done against advice.

I didn’t think I was so tough until I did ‘Champion’; then I was a tough guy.

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

People are always talking about the old days. They say that the old movies were better, that the old actors were so great. But I don’t think so. All I can say about the old days is that they have passed.

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

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

I have studied religion, and I have concluded that there is some power. We don’t understand it.

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

My first job was on Broadway. Then I went into the Navy. When I came out of the Navy, I went back to Broadway and a friend of mine, Lauren Bacall, was in Hollywood filming with Humphrey Bogart. She told one of her producers I was great in my play, and he saw it and cast me in ‘The Strange Love of Martha Ivers’.

When you become a star, you don’t change – everyone else does.

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.

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

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.

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

Cancer does give you a new rejuvenation. I know what it’s like to be down. I lost a couple of good friends – Larry Hagman and Nick Ashford – who had the same type of cancer that I did, and that makes you think.

People are composed of many things, and in my work, what influences me is the complexity of people – the chiaroscuro of dark and light. When I play a strong guy, I try to find, where is he weak? And, conversely, when I play a weak guy, where is he strong?

Love has more depth as you get older.

Acting is a youthful profession.

It’s tough to make a movie about movies… We’re all too close to it. But ‘The Bad and the Beautiful’ was very good.

I know Italians and I like them. A lot of my father’s best friends were Italians.

I was conscious of my father’s fame from the time I was 6.

I studied Judaism a lot. I studied religion in general, and I have never imposed my Judaism on my kids. They are what they want to be. I think… you must care for others. That’s the correct religion, I think.

Virtue is not photogenic, so I liked playing bad guys. But, whenever I played a bad guy, I tried to find something good in him, and that kept my contact with the audience.

You know, sometimes an interviewer will look at me and say – you’re bright! They’re actually surprised I might be bright.

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.

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