Quotes from Kirk Douglas

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

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

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

The first time I had got an offer to come to Hollywood, I turned it down. I said, "No, I'm an actor of the stage.

With John Wayne, we argued all the time and we made four pictures.

I have been an actor for most of my life. When I started out, I didn't think about anything except what was good for me. Like many movie stars, I became all wrapped up in myself.

Being second generation in Hollywood is complicated: Success is expected, and yet the track record of the second generation is not great. Only a small group of us, like Jane Fonda, have succeeded.

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

Know what a loner is? He's a born cripple. He's a cripple because the only person he can live with is himself. It's his life, the way he wants to live. It's all for him.

My mother, we were a very poor family. When I was a kid, we would be in our little room, and there would be a knock on the door almost every night with a hobo begging for food. Even though we didn't even have enough to eat, my mother always found something to give them.

Acting is a youthful profession.

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

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.

Fifteen years ago, I suffered a stroke, which caused me to lose my speech. Now, what does an actor who can't talk do? Wait for silent pictures to come back? I work with a speech therapist twice a week.

I love talking to interesting people - people like O.J. Simpson, Andretti... I love champions. A champion has something special about him.

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.

The learning process continues until the day you die.

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

Life is like a B-picture script.

So they became superpatriots. And to prove themselves right-minded, they were more than willing to sacrifice the lives of others, even their fellow Jews. They were like the Vichy government in France, collaborators who held on to their influence and position at the expense of their fellow countrymen.

The biggest lie is the lie we tell ourselves in the distorted visions we have of ourselves, blocking out some sections, enhancing others. What remains are not the cold facts of life, but how we perceive them. That's really who we are.

The definition of an actor - someone who loves rejection.

We both fell in love -- with me.

All this only proves that you don't have to be a nice person to be extremely talented. You can be a shit and be talented and, conversely, you can be the nicest guy in the world and not have any talent. Stanley Kubrick is a talented shit.