Kirk Douglas quotes

My mother and my father were illiterate immigrants from Russia. When I was a child they were constantly amazed that I could go to a building and take a book on any subject. They couldn't believe this access to knowledge we have here in America. They couldn't believe that it was free.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Mother #Children #Father

No matter how bad things are, they can always be worse. So what if my stroke left me with a speech impediment? Moses had one, and he did all right.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Optimism #What If #Matter

When you become a star, you don't change - everyone else does.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Change #Stars #Doe

In order to achieve anything you must be brave enough to fail.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Order #Brave #Failing

I don't need a critic to tell me I'm an actor. I make my own way. Nobody's my boss. Nobody's ever been my boss.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Boss #Needs #Actors

I never had any desire to be a film actor. I never thought I was the good-looking movie type, which I assumed they wanted.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Desire #Actors #Film

If I have to speak in public, I am terrified.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Speak

If I thought a man had never committed a sin in his life, I don't think I'd want to talk with him. A man with flaws is more interesting.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Men #Thinking #Interesting

Unfortunately, once I did learn to smoke, I couldn't stop. I escalated to two packs a day very quickly, and stayed that way for about ten years. When I decided to stop, I adopted the method that my father had used when he quit. He would carry a cigarette in his shirt pocket, and every time he felt like smoking, he would pull out the cigarette and confront it: "Who stronger? You? Me?" Always the answer was the same: "I stronger." Back the cigarette would go, until the next craving. It worked for him, and it worked for me.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Funny #Father #Years

Now, what does an actor who can't talk do? Wait for silent pictures to come back?
-- Kirk Douglas

#Waiting #Doe #Actors

Sometimes, the thing that ties you down sets you free.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Ties #Sometimes

What would my parents think about America if they arrived here today? Would they even want to come? I wonder.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Thinking #America #Parent

Love has more depth as you get older.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Depth

I know Italians and I like them. A lot of my father's best friends were Italians.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Father

I have one computer that my wife gave me. All I know how to do, and I do it every day, is play Spider Solitaire. And I don't have a cell phone.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Phones #Cells #Play

The learning process continues until the day you die.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Process #Learning Process

If you want to know about a man you can find out an awful lot by looking at who he married.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Men #Want #Awful

Virtue is not photogenic. What is it to be a nice guy? To be nothing, that's what. A big fat zero with a smile for everybody.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Smile #Zero #Nice

Listen - pacemaker, crash, stroke. What does it mean? God doesn't want me now. That's all.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Mean #Doe #Want

You know, you have to have some inner philosophy to deal with adversity.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Philosophy #Adversity #Deals

Acting is a youthful profession.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Acting #Profession

All children are natural actors, and I'm still a kid. If you grow up completely, you can never be an actor.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Children #Growing Up #Kids

Fame is as much about luck as it is about talent, perhaps more.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Luck #Talent #Fame

Fear is a terrible thing. It makes you do awful things.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Awful #Terrible

I came from abject poverty. There was nowhere to go but up.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Nowhere To Go #Poverty #Nowhere To Go But Up

I guess I was a bad boy... Yes, yes, I've had lots of women in my life.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Boys #Bad Boy

You haven't learned how to live until you've learned how to give.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Giving

The older you get, the more awards you get. So, if you live long enough, then you get all the awards eventually.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Awards #Long #Enough

My children didn't have my advantages; I was born into abject poverty.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Children #Poverty #Advantage

Obey the voice within - it commands us to give of ourselves and help others. As long as we have the capacity to give, we are alive
-- Kirk Douglas

#Inspiration #Helping Others #Voice

Streets crowded with people strolling, or sitting at outdoor cafes. And always, talking, gesturing, singing, laughing. I liked Rome immediately.Everybody was a performer.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Humorous #Rome #Talking

The only advantage I have found in being Jewish is that I can be openly anti-Semitic.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Advantage #Found #Anti Semitic

When you reach 95, after you get over your surprise, you start looking back.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Over You #Surprise #Get Over

Maybe there is no peace in this world. I don't know ... But I know as long as we live we must stay true to ourselves.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Inspirational #Long #World

Virtue is not photogenic.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Photography #Virtue #Photogenic

Being seventy has its advantages. I was outspoken before, but now what have I got to keep quiet about?
-- Kirk Douglas

#Age #Quiet #Outspoken

You have not learned to live until you have learned to give
-- Kirk Douglas

#Giving

I was living in a terrible time when people were being accused of being communists, and they attacked the movie industry, especially the writers. People couldn't work if they were on the blacklist. The studios banned them. It was the most onerous period in movie history. I don't think we have ever had a period so dark as that.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Dark #Thinking #People

My mother, we were a very poor family. When I was a kid, we would be in our little room, and there would be a knock on the door almost every night with a hobo begging for food. Even though we didn't even have enough to eat, my mother always found something to give them.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Mother #Kids #Night

A stroke is a very difficult thing. You get depressed. . . . What I found was this: the cure for depression is to think of others, to do for others. You can always find something to be grateful for.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Gratitude #Grateful #Thinking

Life is like a B-picture script. It is that corny. If I had my life story offered to me to film, I'd turn it down.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Movie #Life Is Like #Stories

I remember little things that break my heart. We were coming out of Michael's house one day, and he noticed my shoelaces were undone. He bent down and tied them. I almost cried. To me, it was such a gesture of love.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Love #Dream #Heart

The best wine comes from home, wherever it is.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Home #Wine #Best Wine

The biggest lie is the lie we tell ourselves in the distorted visions we have of ourselves, blocking out some sections, enhancing others. What remains are not the cold facts of life, but how we perceive them. That's really who we are.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Block #Lying #Vision

Now, why is it that most of us can talk openly about the illnesses of our bodies, but when it comes to our brain and illnesses of the mind we clam up and because we clam up, people with emotional disorders feel ashamed, stigmatized, and don't seek the help that can make the difference.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Emotional #Differences #People

Why can't a woman be more like a dog, huh? So sweet, loving, attentive.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Funny #Dog #Sweet

Since my stroke, I have begun to see so many miracles all around me. I look out of the window in my room: verdant grass, silver-tipped oak leaves, tall palm trees gentle swaying as they reach to the sky, masses and masses of roses. All colors, so many shapes, exquisite fragrances.
-- Kirk Douglas

#Color #Sky #Rose