Quotes from Sterling Hayden

Out of 35 pictures I made, 30 were ridiculous.

I don't call myself a writer, much as I'd love to be. An author, maybe - the novel 'Voyage' made $870,000. Writer, no. Nor am I an actor. I was never on the stage.

In fact, there are only two things in this world that I'm crazy about, boats arid women.

I don't remember even having spoken a piece in Sunday school.

Wind is to us what money is to life on shore.

There's is not enough money in Hollywood to lure me into making another picture with Joan Crawford. And I like money.

The years thunder by, The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.

A sailing ship is no democracy; you don't caucus a crew as to where you'll go anymore than you inquire when they'd like to shorten sail.

When they saddle the leading man with violence it makes the characters look weak. If a man is a heroic type he doesn't have to resort to violence. How many successful men in the world have to settle problems with their fists?

I feel sometimes as though I've never grown up. And that's great, because it means there are still possibilities. Nothing's free. You pay for whatever you get. But that's OK, because you can't be cheated.

I've been offered the role of Franklin Roosevelt, and I wouldn't presume to undertake it.

You can measure a man's capacity by the depth of his mistakes.

To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest.

I was surprised when they sent me to Hollywood, Then I thought as soon as they discovered my 14 fathom greenness, I'd be out on my ear. But everything kept going.

Actually, I wish I did nothing but write. Acting takes a lot of heat off of me monetarily but it puts a lot of beat on me emotionally.

When I was a kid and getting paid to stand in front of a camera. I used to spend a lot of my time just laughing inside about the whole thing. It wasn't real to me. I couldn't act and I damn well knew it. I kept expecting someone to see the joke and call the whole thing off at any moment. Fortunately, no one ever did.

I brag like hell when I'm confident of what I'm doing. Back when I was sailing ships for a living, I would take a schooner up to San Francisco - I had my master's certificate at 22 - and I would tell myself, 'There isn't a man in the world can do this better 'n I can.' And I meant it.

I ran away to sea. I know that only happens in fiction. But it's what I did.

I was navigator on the Gloucester schooner 'Gertrude L. Thebaud' in the International Fisherman's race. That's a big thing in New England - the race, I mean. A Boston newspaper man covered it, and saw me on board. For a long time I wished he hadn't! He wrote a piece saying I ought to be in motion pictures.

Once I tried to do Jack London's 'Sea Wolf' as a picture. I wanted to film most of the scenes at sea but ran into opposition from those who wanted studio sets.

I am an expert in loneliness and have wandered around a great deal.

Wind to a sailor is what money is to life on shore.

I always hated acting but I kept on acting.

It's a presumptuous thing to write one's autobiography, but this is really an effort in the deepest sense to explore the struggle of a tortured individual to be himself in a hostile society.