Michael Douglas Quotes

1. There's nothing like a family crisis, especially a divorce, to force a person to re-evaluate his life.


2. A lot of actors get concerned about their own image, even going so far as to rewrite a movie to best serve that image. All I want to do is be in good movies.

3. Actresses have more fear of being disliked. I, on the other hand, revel in it.

4. Everything's so repressive now - it's the No generation. You can't do anything, you can't eat anything, you have to abstain.

5. For an actor, it's great fun to play one of these hungry white sharks. Audiences love to hate them.




6. I don't know about Brad Pitt leaving that beautiful woman to go hold orphans for Angelina. I mean how long is that going to last? I mean, don't ask me what happened with Renée Zellweger. I don't know how you get married for four months. And Julia (Julia Roberts) with Lyle (Lyle Lovett).

7. I'm impressed with the people from Chicago. Hollywood is hype, New York is talk, Chicago is work.







8. It's difficult for me to meet women because my crowd is much older. I know that for some of the young women I do meet, a relationship with me can be envisioned as a benefit to their career.

9. I've always tried to kind of stretch my wings as an actor and do things that are different.





10. When you're making pictures out of heartfelt passion, it hurts when someone calls them a calculated business move.

11. The one thing that men and women have in common - they both like the company of men.






12. I'm not a big filmophile. I don't watch movies a lot for a hobby. I spend all my time watching sporting events. Because, opposed to movies, you can never tell how they're going to end.

13. (on wife Catherine Zeta-Jones) She is not only beautiful but also very deep and we understand each other extremely well. I love her above all. Catherine is the woman of my life. A dream.

14. Revenge is a very good motivation if you can direct it. It's healthy. Very healthy.

15. I was there the night John Lennon was shot, three blocks away. It left a lasting impression on me. It motivated me to do whatever I could to lobby for small-arms control.

16. I admire Albert Finney very much, his performances always look so effortless. And of course, my good friend Jack Nicholson, who lives life to the full, and who never ever does things by halves. He's a real hero!

17. Actors are paid to be selfish and self-involved.

18. King of California (2007) was just, I thought, a really great, fresh, original kind of script. I loved the tone, the mix of tragedy, comedy, and drama, and that it was a good part. Kind of a challenge, and I was excited to work on it.

19. Having a little girl is incredible. I tell you it's an insight. I think guys who have sisters have a big advantage, understanding the female psyche.

20. Wonder Boys (2000) was a huge disappointment personally. I loved the movie and we didn't even get critically acknowledged as far as awards go. I thought it was a f** king disgrace. I'll be honest - it really hurt my confidence. It was a punch in the gut. In fact, it was my father who helped me through it. His favorite movie is Lonely Are the Brave (1962). Nobody saw that when it came out, nobody's seen it since. My father's disappointment in that movie helped me get over mine.

21. (1980) The exciting thing about making movies today is that everything is up for grabs. And you had better grab.


22. My life does take a bit of work. I certainly know how much guys like Catherine (Catherine Zeta-Jones), and well deserved. She's fantastic and beautiful inside and out, she's a talented, talented actress, really good mom and a heck of a wife.

23. (1998) I create challenges by the roles I take. I'm sort of proud of the fact that I'm not really typecast. People are always trying to get a handle on what you do. With me either it's my sex trilogy - Fatal Attraction (1987), Basic Instinct (1992) and Disclosure (1994) - or my businessman trilogy - Wall Street (1987), The Game (1997) and this picture I'm doing now called A Perfect Murder (1998). I've been fortunate that, within those categories, I've been able to choose different types of roles, and I am proud that the audience has been able to accept me in whatever type of role I play. They are not the typical "movie star" roles. They're more ambivalent characters. Sometimes they are morally depraved. They are not the outright positive type of images that you attribute to selecting a "star" type role. And the pictures themselves are more oddball. I've been very fortunate in that area, too. I've taken chances and so far the audiences have basically condoned those choices. They have allowed me to do those different types of roles. I do pictures for myself, because I figure if I like them, some other crazy people out there might like them, too. You know, once you've gained your confidence and done some bizarre, strange films with some roles that have been successful, it gives you the confidence to go out there and take more chances.

24. When you are a second-generation success, you are provided for. And that certainly was a big opportunity. But you don't have that "rags-to-riches story", which is always a much more dramatic story to plot. Your success is not one that is as easily accepted by the people outside. Or they don't really have an appreciation of what you have accomplished. As a producer, my successes came fairly early in my career; as an actor, they came much later. Winning the Academy Award for Wall Street (1987) really helped me to finally overcome that "second generation" thing. It's hard for people, no matter how generous and gracious they are, to really allow you any slack. They say: "Oh it must have been hard to be Kirk Douglas' son," but they don't really want to accept it. You grow up in this business and all that means is that you don't get the joy of succeeding. If you succeed, it's expected. If you look around you can see that there are hardly any second-generation people that have succeeded at all. It's a minefield of disasters, of broken careers and self-destruction out there. The public's perception is that you didn't have to do anything. So if you succeed, it's just assumed. If you don't get success, you're an asshole like everybody else.

25. (on "Inside the Actors Studio" (1994), answering an actor's question about whether to move from NYC to L.A.) Don't go to L.A. unless there's work. It's one of the most frustrating and depressing places to be an actor. The problem is that it has no center. I would try to do something here first.




26. When my daughter Carys wants to get married I'll be as rough with the guy as Catherine's (wife Catherine Zeta-Jones) dad was when he checked me out. He gave me the once over and then some.

27. Times have changed and sex sells. Around 1990, I voluntarily went into rehab because I was drinking too much and some smart ass editor said: "Oh another boring story about an actor going to rehab. Let's give him sex addiction." Then it became "Self-confessed sex addict!"




28. As soon as I met Catherine (Catherine Zeta-Jones) I told her I wanted to have babies with her, and the moment I found out that she had the same birthday as me - tadaah! Then when I discovered she loved golf, I realized all my fantasies had come true. I've lucked out at this time in my life. I just lucked out. I'm so impressed by her intelligence, sense of humor and work ethic.

29. Those British film certificates explained in full: "Oh, I get it, it's simple. PG means the hero gets the girl, 15 means that the villain gets the girl, and 18 means everybody gets the girl."






30. From the moment I met Catherine (wife Catherine Zeta-Jones) and we formed our family, I was a new man, very different from the one I used to be. This is the result of my everyday life with her, of the intense love we have for each other, of the great need for each other that we have, and of the great respect that we have for one another. There is a time when you become sarcastic, you lose the passion, and, when you are blessed again, and you have the fortune to love somebody the way I love my wife, you understand that you have to nurture your partner and not take everything for granted. What a marvelous gift!

31. There was a lot of tabloid journalism about my supposed sex addiction. Bullshit. It's all bullshit. I mean, come on, I never pretended to be a saint. But give me a break.






32. (Being single) is pretty good. It's a nice sense of irresponsibility.

33. It so amazes you how much stage fright you get. I've been in front of cameras all my life, but that first tee, standing over that ball that's not even moving, it's scarier than doing a movie.

34. We did the first one as good as you can. You can't make the special effects any better. There was no reason to do it. They offered it to me years ago, and I just saw no reason to do it.







35. Actors have always done well playing the bad guys in movies. Audiences enjoy bad guys because through these characters, normal people are able to experience, vicariously, what its like to be vicious, nasty, and amoral. Kindness is not rewarded very much as far as drama is concerned.

36. I hear this thing about how calculated business decisions have influenced my choice of pictures. But it's just not true.


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