Michael Douglas Quotations

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

We are all an extended family, and we are listening to you and understand how you embrace the condition of your school. ... It was very moving to hear you speak.

She is such a tremendous spokesperson for Britain in general, and Wales in particular, that it hurt to see how she was treated in this whole process.

I would be the villain. She'd have a different love interest.

I believe the community and regional biotechnology organizations and interests outside our universities might be aided by having a person familiar with university research activities and the mindset of university faculty members regarding the transfer of their intellectual work product into new technologies and economic development. That is a perspective I can offer, given my familiarity with both academic and corporate arenas.

Hello, Mr. Douglas, Mommy and Daddy will be right down.

helping a son step out of a shadow.

Sure, why not?. You close your eyes once in a while, put on a Richard Burton accent maybe - something from the home country, it gives a little variety, the spice of life.

We carried on like bandits, on-screen and off-.

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.

We would not want to rush into a closure if we can look at other criteria.

At the end of the day, we simply run out of people and time to drive the commercialization component.

The scene sprawled over a couple blocks; it was a very chaotic scene.

It was time to get out of the house.

The temper you saw on the set was his personality.

Tens of thousands of lives have been saved and millions more improved as a result of the decision and commitment of this man and the inspiration that he leads.

People seem to let their hair down a little bit and loosen their ties. And there is a lot of give and share that's going on both in front on the panels and behind.

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.

It's just a joy to see somebody finish his last act in such a graceful way,

It was a very different type of persona than Dad is normally known for,

It's usually very busy from spring onwards. Some weeks I've been doing three or four estimates a day. Most people generally like the area and the house they live in but just want more room.

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

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.

The biggest surprise was we found out Eva is one incredible shot. We used live ammo, and let me tell you, the girl can shoot a gun.

It's believable enough. We went through extensive training. Well, at least some training.

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

Even when you're acting with a producing hat, when you're in every scene, you're really conscious of trying to make everybody as good as they are, because ultimately you're trying to make the best movie possible.

Since Catherine [Zeta-Jones] and I got together, I've cut back dramatically. My priorities changed, and I still love acting and all that, but not as much as I love watching my two kids grow up.

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.

You have to make entertaining movies. But like a good meal, it's nice to have a little food for thought after you walk out of the theater rather than just wiling away a couple of hours.

For an actor, its great fun to play one of these hungry white sharks. Audiences love to hate them.

Never knew how poor I was until I started making money.

Every empire eventually falls.

Everybody knows about Las Vegas. It's a state of mind. Some people want to come with their kids and have a great weekend. Some people want to shop. Some people want to find hookers. Some people want to eat. Some people just want to gamble. It's a potpourri of decadence.

I am a Jew. Those are four words of pride. My Jewishness is as deep as my genes.

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.

I don't even know why, but my entire career is contemporary films. Entire career! There's no period movies - there's one - but there's no period movies, no special effects movies. I just do character studies and so, some of them are gonna bump into each other, but I love the challenge, with a good script. I love the challenge of playing not a very pleasant or attractive character that seduces an audience or wins an audience over by the end.

It's a phenomenon that I see with young actors - a lot of American speaking parts going to British actors.

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.

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.

Relationships are like bubbles – they’re fragile.

Money itself isn’t lost or made. It’s simply transferred from one perception to another.

The history of second-generation actors isn't great in our industry,

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

It's all about bucks, kid. The rest is conversation.

My brain cannot conceive how old my body is.

What's worth doing is worth doing for money.

A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place.

Players never die - they just try their luck at another table.

When I look at myself as a younger actor, I see what a tight ass I was. I had a pretty big shadow because of my father and the comparisons. I was self-conscious about that. Now I realize there was nothing to be worried about.

It's important to save your money. We need it for the long haul but too many Americans don't save and don't invest. It used to be that people would be proud of the fact that they were middle class. You'd have your church and buy a house and you had a car and everything else. Now, it's really, really tough. Everybody has financial issues except for the one percent.

Someone reminded me I once said, 'Greed is good.' Now it seems it's legal.

The hardest thing about sex scenes is that everybody is a judge. I don't know the last time you murdered somebody or blew anyone's brains out, but everyone has had sex and probably this morning, which means everyone has an opinion on how it should be done.

I'm questioning it. We're trying to get a lot of money for health and education and I'm wondering... You look at these gangs, and I look back at Prohibition. When we didn't allow alcohol, what did we have? We had gangs. We had big gangs. It's something that needs to be discussed a little more. It's an economic issue and a violence issue.

Chemotherapy takes its toll; the more you keep doing it, you lose your energy, and it gets more difficult to swallow.

I went into rehab to save my marriage, but I wound up saving myself.

I dont know about Brad Pitt leaving that beautiful woman to go hold orphans for Angelina. I mean how long is that going to last?

I thought I could never be the actor Dad was, so I avoided it for a while.

With little knowledge of what it meant to be a Jew, I found myself passionately defending the Jewish people. Now, half a century later, I have to defend my son. Anti-Semitism, I've seen, is like a disease that goes dormant, flaring up with the next political trigger.

Human Rights for everyone is the necessary foundation upon which all of us may build a world where everybody may live in peace and serenity and plenty.

My entire career is contemporary based, not by choice, but just by character. So, all the movies I've done, except for one in 40 years, are contemporary. But I never did an effects movie. So, I'm also a producer and I was really curious about how this whole thing went together.

We must unite to make nuclear weapons a horror of the past.

I have met with political leaders, legislators, and diplomats, seeking the next steps to press in reducing and eliminating the nuclear threat in this century. I have participated in public coalitions developing programmes for action to combat the global rash of small arms. All are trying and making a difference.

Out there is nothing but possibilities.

Basketball is great; no one in Europe seems to believe just how close the spectators can sit to the players.

Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies and cuts through to the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

That's why I'm such a big sports fan, with sports you can never guess what's gonna happen. Most movies you get halfway through and you can kind of guess the ending.

Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.

Greed is good! Greed is right! Greed works! Greed will save the U.S.A.!

Cigar smoking by it's very nature is much more reflective than interactive.

Cancer did not bring me to my knees, it brought me to my feet.

Suddenly you've worked yourself up to the top of the pecking order and you say to yourself, okay, this is going to be fun.

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.

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

Wherever arms flow, violence follows. Bullets replace ballots as the solution to political disputes.

Sometimes we spend more efforts with people that are strangers in terms of making an impression than the person that's closest to us. And you just got to remember not to take for granted that person that's closest to you.

If we confront anti-Semitism ... if we combat it individually and as a society, and use whatever platform we have to denounce it, we can stop the spread of this madness.