Quotes by Clint Eastwood

"I tried being reasonable, I didn't like it."

"I keep working because I learn something new all the time."

"Our modern society - especially in the West, and especially now - reveres youth."

"There's only one way to have a happy marriage and as soon as I learn what it is I'll get married again."

"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."

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

"What you put into life is what you get out of it."

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

"The innocence of childhood is like the innocence of a lot of animals."

"Men must know their limitations."

"I think kids are natural actors. You watch most kids; if they don't have a toy, they'll pick up a stick and make a toy out of it. Kids will daydream all the time."

"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."

"I had three points I wanted to make: That not everybody in Hollywood is on the left, that Obama has broken a lot of the promises he made when he took office, and that the people should feel free to get rid of any politician who's not doing a good job. But I didn't make up my mind exactly what I was going to say until I said it."

"I think being able to age gracefully is a very important talent. It is too late for me."

"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."

"There's a lot of great movies that have won the Academy Award, and a lot of great movies that haven't. You just do the best you can."

"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."

"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."

"Fate pulls you in different directions."

"Society is at odds with itself."

"Let's put it this way: there wouldn't be much point in me attending a high-school reunion now because there wouldn't be anybody there. We'd struggle to raise a quorum."

"And I think it's that time. And I think if you just step aside and Mr. Romney can kind of take over. You can maybe still use a plane. Though maybe a smaller one. Not that big gas guzzler you are going around to colleges and talking about student loans and stuff like that."

"You know when you're young and you see a play in high school, and the guys all have gray in their hair and they're trying to be old men and they have no idea what that's like? It's just that stupid the other way around."

"President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."

"I was drafted during the Korean War."

"I haven't been very active in politics."

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

"People love westerns worldwide. There's something fantasy-like about an individual fighting the elements. Or even bad guys and the elements. It's a simpler time. There's no organized laws and stuff."

"Whether you like it or not, you're forced to come to the realisation that death is out there. But I don't fear death, I'm a fatalist. I believe when it's your time, that's it. It's the hand you're dealt."

"My uncle played rugby, and my dad played football, and they used to argue which game was the roughest - and everybody agreed rugby was. It's a great team sport, and to be successful, every person has to play in the same level."

"The prospect of dating someone in her twenties becomes less appealing as you get older. At some point in your fife, your tolerance level goes down and you realize that, with someone much younger, there's nothing really to talk about."

"I have a very strict gun control policy: if there's a gun around, I want to be in control of it."

"It takes tremendous discipline to control the influence, the power you have over other people's lives."

"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."

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

"I still work out on a daily basis."

"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."

"If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster."

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

"There's a rebel lying deep in my soul."

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

"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."

"I'm not really conservative. I'm conservative on certain things. I believe in less government. I believe in fiscal responsibility and all those things that maybe Republicans used to believe in but don't any more."

"You should never give up your inner self."

"Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that's real power."

"Comedy isn't necessarily all dialogue. Think of Buster Keaton: the poker face and all this chaos going on all around him. Sometimes it's a question of timing, of the proper rhythm."

"There are a lot of conservative people, a lot of moderate people, Republicans, Democrats, in Hollywood. It is just that the conservative people by the nature of the word itself play closer to the vest. They do not go around hot dogging it."

"Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands."

"Overnight stardom can be harmful to your mental health. Yeah. It has ruined a lot of people."

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

"My mother knew how to read music and everything. But I just kinda learned off of records. And so, I was listening to records and I'd play 'em over and over."