Just try not to ingest a lot of fats, and just try to eat carefully.
— Clint Eastwood
I always thought of myself as a character actor. I never thought of myself as a leading man.
Everybody accuses me of moving fast when I direct a picture. I don't move fast, but I just keep moving.
I'd always tried to resist playing the supervirility thing. I liked showing the vulnerability of age.
The U.S. military was segregated 'til the Korean War, and the blacks in World War Two were totally segregated.
In the Bay Area, there was a resurgence of Dixieland jazz in the '40s - there was the Frisco Jazz Band, and Lu Watters and the Yerba Buena Jazz Band.
I'm a day-to-day-type person.
Hoover was a patriot in his heart, but he definitely exceeded his power.
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?
I played characters with villainous aspect. But out-and-out villain? No.
There are two kinds of people in this world. 'I' people and 'we' people. I've always tried to be a 'we' person.
My dad was fiscally conservative, and I was influenced by that. He didn't believe in spending more than you had because it gets you into trouble.
When you work with kids, especially, you want to be ready to turn the camera on at a moment's notice.
Actors know, with me they aren't going to be allowed to rehearse a scene for a couple of hours and then get away with doing 25 takes before we get it right. So they come with their full bag of tricks.
It would be great to be 105 and still making films.
I've always been very liberal when it comes to people thinking for themselves.
I'm not really a Hollywood person. Not that I don't like L.A., but I'm just a Northern California guy.
I guess maybe when you get past 70, other people start asking you how you feel.
There's a rebel lying deep in my soul.
At the major studios, you see people wanting to remake a TV series, wanting to make a sequel.
When you're young, you're very reckless. Then you get conservative. Then you get reckless again.
I will never win an Oscar, and do you know why? First of all, because I'm not Jewish. Secondly, I make too much money for all those old farts in the Academy.
It's always fun to talk about jazz.
I was an Eisenhower Republican when I started out at 21 because he promised to get us out of the Korean War.
I don't like to see a president who is just out campaigning all year long or for the last four years. I'd like to see somebody who's going in the office. In fact, I'd like to not see them because that way you'd be sure that they'd be working.
I'm not afraid to look bad on the screen.
I've always felt that if I examine myself too much, I'll find out what I know and don't know, and I'll burst the bubble. I've gotten so lucky relying on my animal instincts, I'd rather keep a little bit of the animal alive.
I loved the fact that Obama is multi-racial. I thought that was terrific, as my wife is the same racial make-up.
I've always said the one advantage an actor has of converting to a director is that he's been in front of the camera. He doesn't have to get in front of the camera again, subliminally or otherwise.
Other than obvious errors like forgetting a line, often I can't see any difference between take one and take 20.
The guys who won World War II and that whole generation have disappeared, and now we have a bunch of teenage twits.
I don't think I've met anyone with a stronger work ethic than Ray Charles.
The fact is, violence is not only not a beautiful thing, but it's also very painful and not without consequences for the perpetrator as well as the victim.
Why am I a star? It can't be because of looks.
I like a drama.
Movies are fun, but they are no cure for cancer.
Prime time for men is, say, 35 to 45. Then they level off and fall off.
The only black battalion on Iwo Jima was a small munitions supply unit that came to the beach.
I read every book there was on jazz, about the original players - King Oliver, Buddy Bolden and all those groups. At one time I was fairly well schooled in that... I could tell you who played where and when, historically, way before my time.
I'm not a regrets-type person.
On 'Mystic River,' I had to cut my salary and everyone else's to get it made.
The stronger the participation of the female characters, the better the movie. They knew that in the old days, when women stars were equally as important as men.
I've had no problem harnessing anger.
I'm not a reality-TV kind of guy. But it's almost like we're living in a reality show. Every day in this country, everybody keeps worrying about the deterioration of America, and it's like a big reality show.
I want the troops from Great Britain and the U.S. to be successful, but by the same token, Afghanistan has always been a screw-up.
'Mystic River' just smelled interesting to me. So I read it and liked it right away. Even the dialogue in it was great.
I have been trying to retire to the back of the camera for quite a few years, and in 1970, when I first started directing, I said, 'If I could pull this off, I can some day move to the back of the camera and stay there.'
You have to steal a lot. You have to have a criminal mentality to be a film director.
When I was a kid, I thought movies just came from air. I thought they just appeared.
When I'm a director, I look at myself the actor as a completely different person. It's somebody else up there, an actor playing a role. I keep myself out of it.
