When you’re pushed, killing is as easy as breathing.
The world meets nobody halfway. When you want something, you gotta take it.
People don’t realize that when they ‘throw out’ their back, it’s often because of weak abs. These muscles are essential for lower-back strength and good posture.
Good action films – not crap, but good action films – are really morality plays. They deal in modern, mythic culture.
To be really artful, though, you have to be subjective and so singular.
For ‘Rocky II,’ I got a torn pectoral muscle, I got all beat up inside, I had to have an operation to splice things back together.
Early on everyone should do, every time they do a big film, they should do a little film. It really does keep you grounded.
Clothing is the first step to building a character.
Art is the ability to communicate through an intermediary and to convey one’s feelings through an isolated object. It’s inspiration and incubation. Putting my subjective feelings into an objective form and then on to you for a subjective interpretation.
Characters I’ve played, they used to impact my paintings, like 80 percent of the time, and especially when I was doing an action film.
Certain characters, mostly heroes, have to be the straight silent type; that is part of the make-up.
Boxing is sort of an inevitability. We know they are going to be pounding each other.
No one’s life is totally morbid. Even on a subtle scale there’s little flashes of enlightenment and of happiness and joy.
All young men want to prove themselves.
I believe an artist dies twice. The first time, it’s just terrible – I’ve been there when the phone isn’t ringing for years.
In fact, every day I’ll read a chapter of some art book. I don’t know why. It’s just a habit.
I love art more than anything in the world except for my family.
I know I’m incredibly unpredictable, and that’s the only thing I’m sure of.
I know I can’t play funny roles in movies. I tried, and it didn’t work.
Children are the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see at night. It hurts me to be away from them for a few hours. It really does. I love them and they’re girls, so they know how to push my buttons. But I’ve learned a lot and I have to thank my wife for that.