James Caan Quotations

I went to a shrink once, but I caught him going to a fortune-teller so I quit.

One night I went over to get some dope from some Hollywood tough guy. After I left, my son Scott, who was only fifteen, went over with a baseball bat to kill him. I was laughing out of one eye and crying out of the other. I thought, Who am I kidding?

Showing up every day isn't enough. There are a lot of guys who show up every day who shouldn't have showed up at all.

My least favorite phrase in the English language is 'I don't care.'

Some guys say beauty is only skin deep. But when you walk into a party, you don't see somebody's brain. The initial contact has to be the sniffing.

I never saw my dad cry. My son saw me cry. My dad never told me he loved me, and consequently I told Scott I loved him every other minute. The point is, I'll make less mistakes than my dad, my sons hopefully will make less mistakes than me, and their sons will make less mistakes than their dads.

No matter what heights you achieve, even if you're Brad Pitt, the slide is coming, sure as death and taxes.

I think we have to believe in things we don't see. That's really important for all of us, whether it's your religion or Santa Claus, or whatever. That's pretty much what it's about.

I won't mention names, but in my career, the most talented people invariably are the easiest and nicest to get along with.

To get over my divorce, I got a prescription to live at the Playboy Mansion for a while.

I'm here instead of having shoulder surgery. But I'm not sure which is more painful.

You have to be very careful when you let someone win.

I always thought of myself as some sort of athlete until I started playing golf a couple years ago.

You're the only one who's closing your eyes at night. There's no one else who can do it for you.

I really believe that you grow up a certain way in New York. There's a New York morality, a sense of loyalty. You know how to win and lose. There's a thousand kids outside, you know who to push and who not to push. There's a sixth sense you develop just because it's New York.

People are always backing up when I'm just going to shake their hands.

I never rode a bull - I'm not that stupid.

I play a guy who believes he's a king. He's the most common man in the world; in fact his family, like his suits, are just make-up. It's about dysfunctional people and dysfunctional relationships.

My kid was a great baseball player. I thought I had it made. Front-row seats at Yankee Stadium. Then he turned sixteen and wanted to be a rapper.

There are a lot of guys in Hollywood who clap you on the back just a little too hard.

I've never been difficult to anybody or with anybody on a picture. Especially when you're in that nice status of hierarchy of actors and actresses who get to approve directors. Because once you make that choice, it's my belief that the director's boss.

I have nothing against these big CGI movies, but there are not enough of the other ones - the ones with stories about character that have a beginning, a middle and an end. I said that to a couple of studio heads and they said, 'That's novel.'

I remember at 16 years old, growing up in Queens, we were punks, but hey, when we went to the theater, we wore a shirt and tie! Similarly, I believe that to keep movie theaters in existence, they're gonna have to make 'em an event, have a couch, a table and drinks or something. Otherwise, there's no reason to get out of your bed!

It is that, but really, it's about how we don't recognise the little things in life, or appreciate the little things in life like belonging. A sense of belonging is a big thing today.

Saving a letter from an old friend doesn't exist anymore. Everything is texted or emailed.

Actors have bodyguards and entourages not because anybody wants to hurt them - who would want to hurt an actor? - but because they want to get recognized. God forbid someone doesn't recognize them.

People wonder why first-time directors can make a brilliant picture, then suck on the second one. It's because they're a little terrified the first time. So they listen to all the experts around them.

I loved 'Funny Lady' for whatever reason. People say they didn't know I could sing and dance. Well, nobody ever asks me - it's always, 'Punch this guy.'

When I played three-on-three with twenty-year-olds when I was fifty, I didn't care if the guy was six eight - I threw the elbow.

Joseph Russo is a dear friend of mine and I cannot express enough how pleased I am that your office has taken interest and is in pursuit of correcting this problem.

I was very fortunate in the '70s to work with the best actors, the best directors, the best cinematographers.

Will is extremely funny. The tights, though, they were a little vulgar. I just looked at the tights and there's nothing funny about them!

It was surprising for a picture called Elf. It was actually edgy. I think the nice thing about the film is that my mother laughed, my kids laughed, my friends laughed, and usually when they call something a family movie, I think, "uh-oh! I'll have to suffer through it.

I had my first puff on a joint when I was twenty-four and a half, and I was petrified. I thought I was gonna see elephants.

I'll bump into a guy in a bar, and he'll say, "I'm sorry, Sonny!" It's surreal.

I didn't turn the script down. It was the title. It didn't sound... right. From The Godfather to Elf? My agents told me: "We're sending you a script called Elf", and I said: "No you're not!

It's a very charming movie about the mob - a real stretch for me.

The most talented people are always the nicest.

I've been lucky. The critics never went out of their way to single me out for doing bad work.

Sometimes it seems like this is the choice - either kick ass or kiss ass.

Someone's always saying, "It's not whether you win or lose," but if you feel that way, you're as good as dead.

I don't think silicone makes a girl good or bad.

What's the difference between sex and love? I have four wives and five kids. I apparently don't know the difference.

What I do quite honestly and seriously and not in any way being humble is not as important as what the garbage collector does. People make actors important.

I never did anything else. In college I switched majors every two weeks, and acting was the only thing that held my interest.

Never stop asking yourself whether you can do things better. Keep testing every aspect of your business to the nth degree, and challenge every one of your assumptions. The tougher you are on yourself now, the tougher your business will be out there in the real world.

I'll see a beautiful girl walking up to me and I'll think, Oh, my God, I can't believe my good luck. But then she'll say, 'Where's your son?' or 'My mother loves you'.

I lost my passion for work. No, that's a negative statement. I just had a bigger passion for something else, for my son, and growing up with him.

There's a big difference between wanting to work and having to work. And I had to learn that the hard way. Now money is very important to me, because I ain't got it.

Sure, I want to be the best actor in the world. But my life is my family, my son, my friends. I don't know how anyone can find fault with that.

People say, 'Gee, you do a lot of mafia movies.' I think I've done two, out of 60.

Unless I love something or hate it, I don't want to deal with it.

Anyone of my generation who tells you he hasn't 'done Brando' is lying.

My acting technique is to look up at God just before the camera rolls and say, 'Give me a break.'

Success is the result of clear goal, unshakable confidence, proper planning, enthusiastic ACTION and consistent persistence.

I'm sort of a Walter Mitty. I got fewer brain cells than most people, so when I got friendly with cowboys, I started rodeoing. When I was calf-roping, there was something about the dirt that made me feel clean.

I had great, great times as a Little League coach. People were talking about me quitting acting, and they would say, What about your creative juices? Coaching is creative, because you could take a kid who thought he wasn't any good and, within four minutes, change his mind. And I didn't have to wait six months for them to put music to it.

There's nothing more boring than actors talking about acting.

Obstacles are only opportunities to succeed or fail; how we handle them determines what will happen.

Observe the masses and do the opposite

How good a Little League coach was I? I was a little hyper. One thing I learned was that talent comes from everywhere; it doesn't have to come just from the ghetto. But in Beverly Hills, because Daddy has a grocery store, the kids lack a lot of try.

The heroism of the role, ... was playing up the vulnerability of the role, and that was all Jimmy.