“I guess any movie actor can become a role model for audiences out there who enjoy him.”

The guys who won World War II and that whole generation have disappeared, and now we have a bunch of teenage twits.

You have to feel confident. If you don’t, then you’re going to be hesitant and defensive, and there’ll be a lot of things working against you.

I mean, I’ve always been a libertarian. Leave everybody alone. Let everybody else do what they want. Just stay out of everybody else’s hair.

Crimes against children are the most heinous crime. That, for me, would be a reason for capital punishment because children are innocent and need the guidance of an adult society.

Whether you like it or not, you’re forced to come to the realisation that death is out there. But I don’t fear death, I’m a fatalist. I believe when it’s your time, that’s it. It’s the hand you’re dealt.

Over the years, I realized there was a Republican philosophy that I liked. And then they lost it. And LIBERTARIANS had more of it. Because what I really believe is, let’s spend a little more time leaving everybody alone.

There’s a rebel lying deep in my soul.

Opinions are like a**holes, everybody has one.

No, I don’t have to practice that grunt. You just do it. Once you’re in character, you’re in character. You don’t sit there purposely thinking, Well, I’ll grunt here, or I’ll groan there.

My wife is my closest friend. Sure, I’m attracted to her in every way possible, but that’s not the answer. Because I’ve been attracted to other people, and I couldn’t stand ’em after a while.

It’s a hell of a thing, killing a man. You take away all he’s got and all he’s ever gonna have.

Go ahead, make my day.

Don Siegel last advice to me was ‘Don’t short yourself.’ He said the tendency is when an actor’s directing is to kind of you want to work on everybody else but you’re going to short yourself. He said, take the time to do a good job with yourself so that you’re satisfied with it.

My father had a couple of kids at the beginning of the Depression. There was not much employment. Not much welfare. People barely got by. People were tougher then.

As you get older you try to do things that please you more. You get a little more selfish. You start thinking I want to do things where I enjoy myself.

Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and that’s what everybody needs to know.

As an audience member, I like the sound of something that’s been written – I like it to sound written. And then, of course, you can’t do it without the musicians who can play it.

Trying to guess what the (mass) audience wants and then trying to satisfy that is usually a bad recipe for getting something good.

The main thing is to be satisfied with your work yourself. It’s useless to have an audience happy if you are not happy.

I think there are two ways to depict a family. One is what it’s really like, and one is what the audience would like it to be. Between you and me, I think the second one is what I would prefer.

There’s that process of writing it – then you come out of your room into the sunlight, and you now have to complete the circuit and make the connection finally with the audience.

I was born, so that the whole world could be a spectator Of my triumph or my doom.

I began to work the stage and get the audience into it. I also learned how to have fun out there. It is something I will never forget.

I never understood the need for a “live” audience. My music, because of its extreme quietude, would be happiest with a dead one.