Kirk Douglas Quotes

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


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



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

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

5. Love has more depth as you get older.

6. 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.

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

8. You know, I've often thought if I were much older, I might not have done that, ... As you get older, you get more conservative, but I was still young enough to be a little bit impulsive. What got me was the hypocrisy.






9. It seems as if only now I really know who I am. My strengths, my weaknesses, my jealousies- it’s as if all of it has been boiling in a pot for all these years, and as it boils, it evaporates into steam, and all that’s left in the pot in the end is your essence, the stuff you started out with in the very beginning.

10. A Father. A Son. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

11. A Whale of a Tale.

12. I don't make things happen. All I do is write about them. ... The Big Carnival.

13. Because I love you, I will be checking up on you, ... You have honored me and I thank all of you.

14. If you want to see a star, don't go to Hollywood. Come to Palm Springs.

15. (But we are borne back to the father-son chat at the dinner table.) Was I a good father? ... You have ultimately been a great father. But fatherhood would not have been one of the highest parts of your résumé early on.

16. I thought he was brilliant. Whenever I see that picture, I don't see my son. I see that pathetic character.

17. I've finally gotten away from Burt Lancaster. My luck has changed for the better. I've got nice-looking girls in my films now.

18. 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.

19. I've made a career of playing sons of bitches.

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

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

22. Making movies is a form of narcissism.

23. 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.



24. I have always told my sons that they didn't have my advantages of being born into abject poverty.

25. My kids never had the advantage I had. I was born poor.

26. I want my sons to surpass me, because that's a form of immortality.

27. I did four movies with Wayne. We were a strange combination. He was a Republican and I was a Democrat. We argued all the time.

28. (on Burt Lancaster) John Wayne was a great star. But he always played Wayne. Anything else he didn't regard as manly. Now someone like Burt Lancaster is just the opposite. The living proof that you can be a sensitive actor and macho at the same time.

29. (on Linda Darnell) Linda Darnell is the most unspoiled star on the screen - and also the most beautiful.

30. I cannot forgive the way he treated Charlton Heston. Even if I don't agree with much of Heston's politics, Chuck is a gentleman. He agreed to have an interview with Moore, and Moore took advantage of the situation and made Chuck look foolish. He had been invited to Heston's home and he was treated with courtesy. I winced when I saw the expression on Chuck's face change as he realized that he had been duped. And yet he remained a gentleman and dismissed the interloper with grace. (On Michael Moore's interview with Charlton Heston in Bowling for Columbine -2002)

31. I think half the success in life comes from first trying to find out what you really want to do. And then going ahead and doing it.

32. (on John Wayne) John Wayne was a star because he always played John Wayne. Frankly, he wasn't an excellent actor, but good heavens, what a star! It wasn't John Wayne who served the roles; the roles served John Wayne.

33. My name is Kirk Douglas. You may know me. If you don't ... Google me. I was a movie star and I'm Michael Douglas' dad, Catherine Zeta-Jones' father-in-law, and the grandparents of their two children. Today I celebrate my 90th birthday. I have a message to convey to America's young people. A 90th birthday is special. In my case, this birthday is not only special but miraculous. I survived World War II, a helicopter crash, a stroke, and two new knees. It's a tradition that when a "birthday boy" stands over his cake he makes a silent wish for his life and then blows out the candles. I have followed that tradition for 89 years but on my 90th birthday, I have decided to rebel. Instead of making a silent wish for myself, I want to make a loud wish for The World. Let's face it: The World is in a mess and you are inheriting it. Generation Y, you are on the cusp. You are the group facing many problems: abject poverty, global warming, genocide, AIDS, and suicide bombers to name a few. These problems exist, and the world is silent. We have done very little to solve these problems. Now, we leave it to you. You have to fix it because the situation is intolerable. You need to rebel, to speak up, write, vote, and care about people and the world you live in. We live in the best country in the world. I know. My parents were Russian immigrants. America is a country where EVERYONE, regardless of race, creed, or age has a chance. I had that chance. You are the generation that is most impacted and the generation that can make a difference. I love this country because I came from a life of poverty. I was able to work my way through college and go into acting, the field that I love. There is no guarantee in this country that you will be successful. But you always have a chance. Nothing should interfere with it. You have to make sure that nothing stands in the way. When I blow out my candles - 90! ... it will take a long time ... but I'll be thinking of you. (9 December 2006)

34. (on Doris Day) That face she shows the world - smiling, only talking good, happy, tuned into God - as far as I'm concerned, that's just a mask. I haven't a clue as to what's underneath. Doris is just about the remotest person I know.

35. If the good guy gets the girl, it's rated PG; If the bad guy gets the girl, it's rated R; and if everybody gets the girl, it's rated X.

36. It isn't a manly profession. It's a childish profession. You couldn't be a complete, grown-up adult and be an actor. ... I mean, if I were a sophisticated adult, how could I say: "Here I am, fighting evil, represented by Yul Brynner"? You have to have a childish part of you! It's true! You know, I watch as my kids have grown up, I've watched, them, you know. Children are natural actors; they pretend they're cops and robbers, and I think all actors retain a certain amount of that within themselves. They have to, or they can't function as actors. And that's why they become self-deprecating. They think, well, it's not "enough".

37. I've always believed virtue is not photogenic, and I think I've always been attracted to a part, uh, I'd rather play the evil character, most of the time, than the nice fella. And I think it really bothered my mother, because she would tell people: "You know, my son's not like that, he's really a nice boy!"

38. Give your children lots of rope. Allow them to make their own mistakes. Don't give them too much advice. Each child is different; you have to respect that. It's a crapshoot: You roll the dice, and you see what happens.

39. The more I've studied the Torah, the less religious I've become, the more spiritual. We Jews are taught to read Hebrew, but we don't know what the hell we're reading. At Yom Kippur services, I was reading the English translations, and it came to me: There's so much adoration of God, but God doesn't need us to sing his praises. He just wants us to be better people.

40. Muslims follow Muhammad to reach God. Christians follow Jesus. Jews follow Moses. But it's all the same God.

41. Everybody has an ego.

42. I never wanted to be a movie actor. I started out on the stage. The first time I was invited out here, I turned it down. Then Michael was born and I needed money, so I came. Sometimes, the thing that ties you down sets you free.

43. The learning process continues until the day you die.

44. 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.

45. When I kiss my sons on the mouth, people look at me oddly. They look at closeness as a weakness. But a boy needs physical closeness with his father as well as with his mother.

46. 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.

47. Mistakes that are perceived as mistakes are often not mistakes at all.

48. One big disappointment in my life was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I bought the rights to the book, but no one wanted to make it into a movie. So I paid to have it made into a Broadway play. There was one line in there that was so beautiful. McMurphy is trying to help all these people on the ward. There was a sink, and he tried to lift it out of the wall, but he couldn't. He tried really hard, but it wouldn't budge. As he was leaving the room, with all the guys watching, he turned around and said: "But I tried, goddammit, I tried!" Sometimes I think I should have that as my epitaph.

49. Politics has become a dirty word.

50. Not long ago, I was playing golf, and I said to my partner, "Let those old geezers tee off first." And my partner says, "Kirk, those old geezers are fifteen years younger than you."



51. There must be things in life that you can never master. Golf is one of them.

52. Age is in the mind. I've survived a helicopter crash and back surgery. I have a pacemaker. I had a stroke that almost made me commit suicide. But I tell myself, I have to continue growing and functioning. That's the only antidote for age.

53. Maybe when you die, you come before a big, bearded man on a big throne, and you say: "Is this heaven?" And he says: "Heaven? You just came from there."

54. Religion has killed millions of people. Something must be wrong.

55. I don't like goody-goodies.

56. The only people who can destroy Israel are the Jews. They are a stiff-necked people, very divisive. It's hard for them all to get along. There's this joke where the president of Israel is talking to the president of America, and he says: "I know it's hard to be the president of a quarter of a billion people, but how would you like to be the president of five million presidents?"

57. Thinking of other people takes you away from constantly thinking of yourself.

58. All the movements now are encouraging women to be stronger. I'd like to be in a movement for men to be weaker. The right to be weak, the right to be passive, the right to do nothing.

59. I never stop to savor a victory. When victory is inevitable, I've already left.

60. Senator McCarthy was an awful man who was finding Communists all over the country. He blacklisted the writers who wouldn't obey his edict. The heads of the studios were hypocrites who went along with it. My company produced Spartacus, written by Dalton Trumbo, a blacklisted writer, under the name Sam Jackson. Too many people were using false names back then. I was embarrassed. I was young enough to be impulsive, so even though I was warned against it, I used his real name on the screen.

61. The definition of an actor - someone who loves rejection.

62. The mortality rate of studio executives is about the same as second lieutenants in Vietnam.

63. (on the death of Tony Curtis): Tony Curtis was one of the best-looking guys in Hollywood. He was often described as beautiful, but he was also a fine actor. I worked with Tony in "The Vikings" and in "Spartacus", and we were friends for a long time. What I will miss most about him is his sense of humor. It was always fun to be with him.

64. You have to leave your country to get a perspective, to see what makes America great. Now I can say that nowhere in the world is there a match for what we have in Hollywood.

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