Clothing is the first step to building a character.
— Sylvester Stallone
I love art more than anything in the world except for my family.
Every time I've failed, people had me out for the count, but I always come back.
Painting is as close as a person can get to actually capturing the heat of the moment.
You are what you leave behind.
I think I'm a much better painter than an actor.
The day I can't walk is the day I quit movies.
You know you've been around when they start to remake your own movies when you're still alive.
My life has always been chaotic. From the time I got dressed in the back of a deflated, flat-tired, fish-smelling station wagon for Rocky. It's always been do it yourself, kind of like paper-clip it together.
Certain characters, mostly heroes, have to be the straight silent type; that is part of the make-up.
At the end of the day, 'Rocky' is a love story, and he could never have reached the final bell without Adrian.
I wish I had thought of Velcro muscles myself. I didn't have to go to the gym for all those years, all the hours wedded to the iron game, as we call it.
When I was a kid, my mother used to feed me mashed-potato sandwiches, brussel sprout sandwiches; my brain cells were starving from lack of food. I'll eat anything. I'll eat dirt.
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.
I've never made a film that lost money.
When you're scared, when you're hanging on, when life is hurting you, then you're going to see what you're really made of.
A lot of actors, and artists in general, never feel secure in love. They always feel everything's going to be taken away from them, professionally and personally; they're extremely emotional and volatile.
I know people get upset and go, 'They're going to take away the assault weapon'. But who needs an assault weapon? Like, really, unless you're carrying out an assault.
It took me a long time to be convinced that marriage was right for me because I've come from a long line of broken marriages. My parents divorced, and I had two broken marriages myself.
I am not the richest, smartest or most talented person in the world, but I succeed because I keep going and going and going.
Movies are the work of a collective conscious. It takes 500-800 people on a movie to complete a vision.
Jesus is the inspiration for anyone to go the distance.
I'll always have this blue-collar connection. For every guy, there is an opportunity to be a lot better than he thought he could be. We can't all be the star of the team, but we can be a star in our life.
There'll never be a 'Rocky IV.' You gotta call a halt.
The trouble with remakes is that people fall in love with the original. It's like peanut butter. If you try to change the taste of peanut butter, you're in trouble.
Whenever I don't get injured, the film is a dud. I didn't bleed on 'Rhinestone.' I didn't bleed on 'Stop! Or My Mom will Shoot.'
I consider myself something of a raconteur. I have a rather audacious sense of humour.
People that spend time in a foxhole - they're never going to find that relationship anywhere else again... Everything else pales next to that. When you think about the Second World War vets - more than even the Vietnam vets - there's a brotherhood.
The action movies changed radically when it became possible to Velcro your muscles on. It was the beginning of a new era. The visual took over. The special effects became more important than the single person. That was the beginning of the end.
When I'm on a location, I pick a restaurant that's close and private and eat all my meals there.
I want to turn my attention to movies about love relationships. Exploring the female psyche - there ought to be some interesting discoveries there. Love stories. If you do it right, people want to hear romantic dialog.
I could start a war in 30 seconds. But some countries spend 100 years trying to find peace. Just like good manners, peace has to be learned.
I was an insecure kid. Once I saw 'Hercules' with Steve Reeves, it completely changed my life. If I had never gone to that film, I wouldn't be here today.
Don't be gullible, use life before it uses you. Understand there are no free lunches, and for every action you take, there's a reaction.
I try to combine in my paintings cinematic feeling, emotional feeling, and sometimes actually writing on the page to combine all the different elements of communication.
Life is more than sunglasses and hit movies. Reality - that's the main event.
I believe any success in life is made by going into an area with a blind, furious optimism.
Early on everyone should do, every time they do a big film, they should do a little film. It really does keep you grounded.
Quite often in acting, you have to play a certain part; you cannot speak as much as you want to speak.
Just because society says I'm old doesn't mean I am.
When life hits you pretty hard, you can go into a dark corner.
I'm not just painting for painting's sake. I want to be truthful.
I have all kinds of chest injuries; I tore my vein during 'Rocky II' and had 60 stitches. If you've seen 'Rocky Balboa,' you'll know how bad they look.
When people meet me, they're often surprised - I talk a great deal.
People asked if I could have played the Terminator. Are you kidding? Not a chance, I never could have played the Terminator.
There's a natural law of karma that vindictive people, who go out of their way to hurt others, will end up broke and alone.
I have a fear of heights that borders on mania.
You know what I think happened? After 'Rocky,' I was almost set up in the eyes of the media to make a flop.
'Rocky' represents the optimistic side of life, and 'Rambo' represents purgatory.
I have tons of regrets, but I think that's one of the reasons that push people to create things. Out of their angst, their regret, comes the best from artists, painters and writers.
