Our modern society – especially in the West, and especially now – reveres youth.
Plagiarism is always the biggest thing in Hollywood.
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.
If you’re afraid to take risks in anything in life, it’s just boredom.
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.
Actors know what actors are insecure about – and they’re all insecure.
My whole life has been one big improvisation.
There’s a rebel lying deep in my soul.
Politicians have to make unpopular decisions. Schwarzenegger is going to understand the nature of his job. I wish him good luck, he’s going to need it. It’s going to be difficult for him.
Every movie I make teaches me something. That’s why I keep making them.
Nobody looks like they did when they were 20, so why not take advantage of the fact that you’re changing, emotionally as well as physically?
When you’re young, you’re very reckless. Then you get conservative. Then you get reckless again.
When you’re making a film you start living with it, and I find myself sitting down and figuring out a sound or melody that would go with a film, or a particular period. It’s not brain surgery, you just kind of feel it along.
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.
There are two kinds of people in this world. ‘I’ people and ‘we’ people. I’ve always tried to be a ‘we’ person.
People have lost their sense of humor. In former times, we constantly made jokes about different races.
I’m more focused on making a scene seem real as opposed to perfect.
I don’t see myself as conservative, but I’m not ultra-leftist. You build a philosophy of your own. I like the libertarian view, which is to leave everyone alone. Even as a kid, I was annoyed by people who wanted to tell everyone how to live.
My wife and I are both Libertarian; she was a Democrat and I was a Republican, and we both met in the middle somewhere.
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.