I was one of the early guys from my generation to have hair on his face. Me and Tom Selleck, and I was first.
— Sam Elliott
I'm a sixth-generation Texan, even though I was born in California.
Nobody sets out to make a bad film - I shouldn't say 'nobody.' Some people certainly don't care.
I grew up in Sacramento and spent a lot of time in the Saturday matinee. I just thought, 'Wow.' It's that magic of sitting in a dark theater as a little kid. That was in the '50s.
You know, I know a lot of lifeguards. Both my parents were lifeguards at a lake in El Paso, Texas. I was a lifeguard in a swimming pool in Portland, Ore. And I have known and met and befriended a number of oceangoing lifeguards in California where I live.
It seemed like whenever a Western was going to get made, it came my way.
I've had those periods in my career when I was sitting around waiting for a phone call and had an agent who was doing the same thing rather than going out there to shake the bushes looking for a job for me. It's a frustrating game, that's the downside of this business - the rejection.
I've done films over the years that basically no one saw. And I'm thankful that some of them haven't been seen.
I did beef ads for about eight years because I love the people in that industry, and there are a lot of people who make their living in the beef world. Ranchers, primarily.
Making movies is never going to get better than working on a Coen brothers project.
Hugh Grant is the main man. He's the number one romantic comedy man in the world.
I don't want to be known as a sex symbol. There's a great stigma that goes with that tag. I want to be a Sam Elliott.
I'm a four star general in this thing, and you don't rise to the ranks of a four star general by hanging about the house being the perfect dad.
Any of these Vietnam vets that have been there and know the deal, they don't feel that any Hollywood endeavor about the Vietnam era has ever gotten it right yet.
My voice gets recognized before anything else. It's always gotten attention. In choruses at church and school, I started as a tenor, moved to a baritone and finally became a bass. I knew then that my voice would be my instrument. Now if I want to hide, I just keep my mouth shut.
I spent a lot of time growing up in Oregon after I left California. Spent a lot of time in the woods.
I was never afraid of hard work.
I was in the cement end of the construction business, as a laborer. I was pouring concrete, and stripping forms off of set concrete, and pulling nails, and stacking plywood, and doing that kind of thing. I was in peak condition in those days.
My dad worked for the Fish and Wildlife Service, and he worked for the Department of Interior, you know, like the federal government. And consequently, I was outdoors a lot in my lifetime.
My family is all from the Southwest. My great-great-grandfather was at the Battle of San Jacinto with Sam Houston.
I think every actor's dream is somebody writes something specifically for them.
My security comes from the fact that I've never done a job for money.
I'll do anything. I'll shave my head for the right job. I'm partial to my facial hair, I guess, but I also enjoy doing something where I look totally different, which is kind of the reason why I've always worn long hair. I can really change my look radically by getting rid of it.
I truly loved Jason Reitman. I was there on his first film, 'Thank You For Smoking,' and I'd go work with him to do anything.
I think I might have been a more interesting actor, had more of a career earlier on, if I had more formal preparation. When I see something ten years later that I was in I think, 'Boy, would I love to do that over.'
I just went to see too many movies and I sat in too many dark matinees watching those old serials.
The opportunity, number one, to work with Ang Lee is an amazing thing for me.
I've been married one time and I have one daughter, who I love more than anyone in the world. And that's where my world is.
I'm not a hunter, but I've been around guns all my life. I'm a great shot.
I really never had any thought about being a legitimate actor, like a stage performer. I wanted to make movies. I wanted to do television and make movies.
The two things that I wanted in my life were to have a movie career and to be married, to have a family. And it's an embarrassment of riches that I've got both.
My western heritage runs deep.
Looking back on the long haul in my career, little films, big films, TV, the Western thing has been really good to me.
I understand lost love, and I think that can destroy a man more than anything if it was a deep love that is lost somehow.
I think the people that most often cross a line are comedians. I think they relish that, and take pride in that on some level - at least, from what little I've seen and understand about people that do stand-up.
It's never going to get better than working opposite an actor like Jeff Bridges. That's as good as it gets. I don't even know what to refer to him as. He's just a great guy. He's iconic on his own merits.
I'm picky, very picky. I wanted to be an actor since I was nine years old, and I figured that was only one way to ever have any longevity, and that's to be careful about what kind of work you do.
I've spent my entire career on horseback or on a motorcycle. It boxes you in, the way people perceive you. I read a lot of scripts. Most of 'em go to other actors.
I was single-minded on what I wanted to do since I was like nine or ten.
I think anytime you can affect people in general, in a positive way, then you're a lucky individual.
