I’ve kind of fashioned my life after a Slinky. Bend me in a million shapes, and eventually I’ll spring back to what I originally was.
I’m more focused and have a greater sense of challenge, because I constantly feel the weight of time.
I’m a patriot of the heart.
A lot of guys don’t want to admit that they have a propensity for generosity and for violence.
I tend to think of action movies as exuberant morality plays in which good triumphs over evil.
I think audiences have hit the wall with CGI and special effects. They have seen so many over-the-top events that they can’t suspend disbelief.
And if I look at my icebox, there’s no way I’m sitting there looking like Gandhi. I mean, I don’t have crickets in there and little green rice. No, I mean it’s a pretty liberal icebox. It’s all in there.
I have all kinds of chest injuries; I tore my vein during ‘Rocky II’ and had 60 stitches. If you’ve seen ‘Rocky Balboa,’ you’ll know how bad they look.
Every morning, I crawl out of bed. I sit there and think, ‘Do I really need this?’ And I drag myself to the gym in my garage. It’s not fun. I hate it. I work out alone. Weights.
Crunches are much more effective than regular sit-ups because they specifically target your upper abdominal muscles rather than your hip muscles. If you’re not used to them, they can cause soreness a day or two later, but it’s a ‘cool’ soreness. A badge of honor.
A lot of women read male magazines. Of course, a lot of guys read female magazines, but they’ve got another issue to deal with. But a lot of women read men’s magazines and think, ‘Oh, this is what these guys are thinking? Studying up on the enemy here.’
I was an insecure kid. Once I saw ‘Hercules’ with Steve Reeves, it completely changed my life. If I had never gone to that film, I wouldn’t be here today.
I was an ambitious child and I tended to be scatterbrained. If I was at school and saw a bird outside the window I wanted to follow it. I was adventurous.
A lot of actors, and artists in general, never feel secure in love. They always feel everything’s going to be taken away from them, professionally and personally; they’re extremely emotional and volatile.
I think kids growing up, if they were picked on and feeling inferior at 12, they’re going to feel that way at 72. You just deal with it better. I’m serious.
I try to combine in my paintings cinematic feeling, emotional feeling, and sometimes actually writing on the page to combine all the different elements of communication.
Polo is like tennis – you literally have to live it.
On the sequel, you’ve lost the element of surprise. Usually, on the first one you may not go very, very deep into character; the second one you start to explore the character a bit more.
Nothing’s harder than writing. There’s no comparison. With directing, you can bounce a lot of ideas around. There’s tremendous support – you’ve got editors and sound mixers. With writing, it’s all you, and it’s just crippling when people tear up your pages.
My life has always been chaotic. From the time I got dressed in the back of a deflated, flat-tired, fish-smelling station wagon for Rocky. It’s always been do it yourself, kind of like paper-clip it together.