Quotes from Kirk Douglas

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.

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.

When you have a stroke, you must talk slowly to be understood, and I've discovered that when I talk slowly, people listen. They think I'm going to say something important!

God bless Dad, he came to every one of my shows. I was bad, and I had horrible stage fright. My dad was so relieved - he'd say, 'You were terrible; this kid is not going to be an actor.' Finally, I did a play and he said, 'Son - you were really good.'

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.

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

When you get old the worst thing is you lose so many friends. Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne. People who I loved to work with.

When you get to my age, you find that most of your dear friends are gone.

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

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

I was living in a terrible time when people were being accused of being communists, and they attacked the movie industry, especially the writers. People couldn't work if they were on the blacklist. The studios banned them. It was the most onerous period in movie history. I don't think we have ever had a period so dark as that.

It seems as if only now I really know who I am. My strengths, my weaknesses, my jealousiesits 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 thats left in the pot in the end is your essence, the stuff you started out with in the very beginning.

I have always been grateful that my Russian mother and father came to this country to give me a better chance, and I have had a better chance.

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.

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.

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.

Acting is make-believe. I never believe I'm the character; I want you to believe.

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

Streets crowded with people strolling, or sitting at outdoor cafes. And always, talking, gesturing, singing, laughing. I liked Rome immediately.Everybody was a performer.

Being seventy has its advantages. I was outspoken before, but now what have I got to keep quiet about?