I try to please myself. I don't try to anticipate what people want to see.
— Kevin Costner
I like American history.
I was sucked into this vortex of a very conservative upbringing.
I don't have a seller's remorse about how I've lived.
I like four-hour movies.
I want to live forever, and I know I won't. I'm not afraid of dying. I'm only afraid of one thing: not being able to raise my kids.
There's real drama in performing live. You never know how it's going to be.
I wait and take on projects that I think can work.
If you think of 'Liberty Valance' or 'The Searchers,' there are moments in there that you'll never, ever forget... And it does not matter what century you are from.
Failure doesn't kill you... it increases your desire to make something happen.
Lincoln was the greatest speaker and he was ridiculed for how he looked, you know?
I think these movies are as much for people of that time as for people who weren't born. For people who weren't born, they see how leaders must act under a crisis situation, not trying to be re-elected or not trying to check polls, that they go from their gut check.
I am not a cynic.
When I make a film I'm away from home for two to three months. So I want my kids to look at my films one day and say, I love his movies, I love his choices-because he loved them.
I don't think I'd have been as good as Bruce was. He was a better JFK than I would have been.
We still live with this unbelievable threat over our heads of nuclear war. I mean, are we stupid? Do we think that the nuclear threat has gone, that the nuclear destruction of the planet is not imminent? It's a delusion to think it's gone away.
I work for the public, for the people who are paying to go to the cinema, rather than for the critics.
You just do the things that you love and see if other people can like them too.
You're this rat in the American maze, working your way towards the cheese, which is a job.
I've always known that I'm a little out of vogue.
You have to try to dismiss the loudness of cynicism. It's certainly going to come.
I'm in a position where whatever I do, I can get my head handed to me. I'm in a position to fail because there is a whole group of people out there who want me to fail. It's a weird vibe.
When I see my children, and when I see the people who value me, I know how lucky I am.
I split my time between Santa Barbara and Aspen. I live on a pretty fast horse.
I think there's true drama in the formation of everything that we know and are standing on the shoulders of.
I'm a big fan of dreams. Unfortunately, dreams are our first casualty in life - people seem to give them up, quicker than anything, for a 'reality.'
We stand our best chance of leaving a legacy to those who want to learn, our children, by standing firm. In matters of style, hey, swing with the stream. But in matters of principle, you need to stand like a rock.
I'm glad movies aren't going to please everybody, they can't. But what they have to be is recognisable. I don't equate myself with a master painter, but I think you can recognise my films.
There are a lot of things that come to bear on movies now that I don't think are good for movies. They're trying to appeal to the biggest demographic and, when they do that, you sometimes flatten out.
I like when my face tingles, when the hair on the back of my neck stands up.
I'm proud of all the movies I've made. They're not sequels, they're not franchises. And the reason I pick my films carefully is that I don't want to spit on my life. I like to think of myself as more than that.
I believe people who go into politics want to do the right thing. And then they hit a big wall of re-election and the pettiness of politics. In the end, politics gets in the way of the business of people.
I'm getting those familiar feelings, and I'm just going to enjoy the process of getting to know someone again.
Money isn't a major motivating force in my life. Nor is my profession. There are other things that I care more about than being an actor.
I am a really writer-oriented actor.
I had a difficult time hearing my own inner voice about what I wanted to be in this life, because there were all these perfect examples of what a man actually does. The notion is that he goes to college, gets married and provides. That's what a man does.
I don't give up. I'm a plodder. People come and go, but I stay the course.
If you're going to tear down a hero, you should never forget that you're tearing down someone else's hero. You're tearing down somebody else's son. You might have to face her one day.
If you're willing to tell somebody that you love them, are you also willing to say you're sorry? You need to, even when you think you're in the right.
I haven't lived a perfect life. I have regrets. But that's from a lifetime of taking chances, making decisions, and trying not to be frozen. The only thing that I can do with my regrets is understand them.
When I do a Western, I often wonder what I would have really done in that situation.
I know I have this level of celebrity, of fame, international, national, whatever you want to call it, but it's a pretty surreal thing to think sometimes that you're in the middle of another famous person's life and you think to yourself, 'How the hell did I get famous? What is this some weird club that we're in?'
You have to decide if you're going to wilt like a daisy or if you're just going to go forward and live the life that you've been granted.
I've had some movies that have been ridiculed, but that's OK with me. I don't feel that really defines me. Should I change who I am to be popular?
President Kennedy was willing to go to war. He was not a coward. The man had been in war and so had Ken O'Donnell. He was ready to protect this nation, but he was not ready for a military solution just because it was being rammed down his throat.
We all have that burning question about what happens if we lose somebody we love, especially if we lose them tragically. We wonder what fear was going on, we wonder if we could have reached out and touched them, held their hand, looked in their eyes, been there.
I stand up for what I believe. I don't know if it's always paid off for me, because I've been ridiculed and humiliated.
If you don't understand your limitations you won't achieve much in your life.
I think there are good men and women in all decades. We've grown cynical. And look at what we do to all our heroes: Churchill, FDR, Kennedy, they all had affairs. But heroic things happen every day.
I don't think I ever take huge risks, though I'm not scared of doing so.
