When you’re starting out as an actor, there isn’t much food around. I was lucky to have a hit pretty early on. I didn’t starve too long.
Typecasting is a good thing. It’s good to be known for what you do.
You can tell when you’re in a hit.
I’m not bragging but my movies have grossed well over a billion dollars.
It’s all about commerce. Movies are not made like paintings, where you can make them for free and put them at the side. Movies are supposed to make money.
I’m lucky to be in this business. I’m very grateful.
Underneath all the skin, we’re all the same.
I’m somebody who’s really contributed to culture. Popular culture.
Show business has never been my everything. It’s a means; it’s not the end. It’s a means to the end. I want and have always wanted freedom. That was always my goal, to not have a boss, to not have anybody tell me what to do. Luckily, as an actor, I got that.
Unless you’re Jack Lemmon or Cary Grant, there are few guys who can do comedy and drama.
I’ve made a lot of people a lot of money, and I’ve made a lot of people really happy. I’ve entertained millions and millions of people.
The allure of Hollywood is huge when you don’t know anything. You don’t know the knives behind the smiles.
Wanting to work is a luxury; having to work is not. If you’re an artist, an actor, and you don’t have to work, then you do work that you wanna do.
There are 100,000 actors in the Screen Actors Guild. Only 2,000 of them make more than $75,000 a year.
A career is a series of ups and downs, of comebacks.
In show business, you can’t make a living. You can only make a fortune, but you can’t make a living.
There’s tons of waste on every film. It really doesn’t matter the budget, as long as it hits a bull’s-eye.
My thoughts were to become a dentist when I first went to Albany State. I didn’t know where I would end up, but I knew I’d be happy, and I knew I would have a nice life. That was always my goal, to have a nice, happy life. That’s, to me, being rich.
When you have nothing to lose, the sky’s the limit.
Sometimes it’s good to miss a bus. It might be the wrong bus.
You’re never really playing yourself. You’re always acting. It’s an illusion that you’re really playing yourself. The only time I’m playing myself is when I’m at home!