James Cromwell Quotations

Pets are humanizing. They remind us we have an obligation and responsibility to preserve and nurture and care for all life.

What is magnificent about humans is when they decide to turn and stand. If they respond with non-violence on principle and hold their ground, they are really magnificent.

Often we're recreating what we think we're supposed to be as human beings. What we've been told we're supposed to be, instead of who we authentically are. The key about the creation of full self-expression is to be authentically who you are, to project that.

I'm an animal rights activist because I believe we won't have a planet if we continue to behave toward other species the way we do.

There is something intrinsically, systemically wrong with white, western culture, and if we don't fix it, it won't continue.

But if you really want to learn about life, get a cat. The way I think people should relate to animals is with a cat. Because the world is his.

I drove through the stockyards of Texas on a motorcycle. It doesn't let you escape what surrounds you and what it smells like and feels like - and what hit me was the realization that something that was alive and had feelings will suffer before a piece of it is placed on our plates.

We don't need to eat anyone who would run, swim, or fly away if he could.

The health of the planet is at stake, because the cruelty and the waste that accompanies the slaughter of billions of animals each year literally infects us all. We could consume healthy plant-based food produced at almost infinitely less cost. What does that say, really, about us and what we're doing... to animals and to ourselves?

The attitude we have towards our personal pets as opposed to the animals that suffer under the factory farm is hypocritical and delusional.

Until men learn to celebrate and operate on the feminine aspect of themselves and stop the oppression of women, children, the environment, other species, we don't have a world to live in. It's not a world that anyone chooses to live in.

During the run up to the Iraq War, Mike Farrell and I did get on television kind of frequently, but then they saw that that didn't work. They really couldn't bait us into being stupid, so they stopped. You know the mainstream media, corporate media, avoids ever giving anyone who has anything to say a platform, if they can possibly help it.

I think the relationship of indigenous people to their environment... that those were ethical omnivores.

When I did 'Babe' I wanted to talk about animal rights without going through some convoluted justifications about using animal products.

I have a film called 'A Lonely Place For Dying,' which is the most watched film on the Internet, over 3 million hits, more than any of Hollywood's films.

I started in theatre. I was at Cleveland and I went to London for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth.

The last part of life is a spiritual concern. You need to find a context to put your life into, that will allow you to go through it with as much grace and balance as possible, even if there is rebellion and adventure and exploration and resistance.

Anybody can call me Jamie, and you have to watch it when you call me James. Then there's going to be a problem.

I auditioned for 'Revenge Of The Nerds,' and I so did not want the picture. I didn't want it. I didn't want be in anything that had nerds anywhere.

I play an 89-year-old man whose wife has Alzheimer's in a movie called 'Still.' I play a World War II veteran, I acted with my son and it's called 'Memorial Day.'

I always change my words in everything I do. I make the language fit, because I know the character from the inside out. Often character actors are not in a position to do that, but I do it. I don't change any cue and I never change anybody else's lines, but I make my own words fit my mouth.

The Academy Awards were basically created by the industry to promote pictures. They weren't really to acknowledge the performances. Then it became sort of this a great popularity contest and now, it's an incredible show and it's seen all over the world.

You don't just one day say, 'That's it, I'm doing this, I'm going to throw all my shoes out and I'm not eating honey and I won't drive my car because there are animal bones in the tires' because you'd drive yourself around the bend.

'Barney Miller' was a lot of fun. I'm very fond of Abe Vigoda. Most - a lot of people on that cast - I really liked.

I was going to design sports cars, but my father came to my college to visit me. At the time he was making a picture in Sweden and he took me there with him. I got to see Ingmar Bergman's company and I thought, 'Gee, filmmaking is a lot more fun than sports cars,' so I decided to follow him and go into acting.

My first films were comedy, 'Murder By Death,' and 'The Cheap Detective.' But now they won't think of me as a comedian. Now, they think of me as a bad guy, and I can't do comedy.

I can't say I enjoy all TV ... I'm enjoying 'Six Feet' because I think it's beautifully written, and wonderfully acted and beautifully produced. I enjoy the odd piece of television,

I don't study films particularly. I plan to direct, but I'm not watching film - I watch the entire film to see how the story goes, but I don't say, 'Oh, so he does a slow pan here, or he pulls here, watch the crane shot, or look at the composition,' because it's got to be my eye.

I think the obligation of an artist is to make a difference in the world. That is what matters most to me. I think that artists are the leaders of the world because they do not have a connection to the industrial complex, the day-to-day short-term survival that most people are involved with.

'Jamie' is what my mother gave me, and that takes the onus off of being big. Somebody thinks, 'Oh, Jamie - how threatening can he be?'

I was told by my agent that a number of big stars won't work with anyone two inches taller than them and most of them are under six feet, so you have to be prepared to have trouble.

Television goes into people's homes, and it reaches them on a very personal level. When you're sitting in your home after a day's work, and you've chosen to watch a show like 'ER,' you're very vulnerable. ... It's a very provocative and engaging and deeply thoughtful show.

It's our children and our children's children who will be affected by this technology, and it is up to us to stop it. I hope you will join us.

It's wonderful because you get all this heat, ... Everybody says, 'Why, is it going to open? Is it going to be good? Are there bad parts in it?' And now they're all talking, so that's wonderful.

The kids know me from 'Babe,' but usually it is 'L.A. Confidential' that people remember, which was the second film I did. I have worked with some really good people and the films that I've done for the most part have been good.

I love the whole process. I loved being in Australia. I loved the crew,

I don't know how many parts I've lost because a lot of the politics in California are very conservative, and I'm fairly outspoken. I always tried to get as much politics in as I could, because I do believe in class struggle, and I think that's what's left out.

I'm a character actor. Nobody's ever seemed to think of me as a leading man. I'm 6'6''. I've got a big nose. I'm gangly. I've got crooked teeth. That's certainly not Brad Pitt. I'm still around and alive, so if they need older guys, I guess they're thinking of me.

Every day is perfect because there's no other day! As a friend of mine said, "Ride the horse in the direction it's going." When you do that, you realize that every moment, every breath, every sound, every encounter is a gift. You bloody well better enjoy it.

Authority is the assumption that someone else knows better than you.

There are reasons to have rules and regulations. That I understand. Authority is a different thing. Authority is to maintain its own position by increasing its power and domination over those people it is supposedly protecting.

My friends joke because I will take my clothes off, at the drop of a hat.

What happens when you're naked is that people get that you're really just a human being. There are parts of it that are pretty appalling, and there are parts that are okay. That's what it looks like. If you can embrace and accept what people look like in the altogether, it's not so difficult to accept them with their clothes on.

Usually, I'm the kind of actor where you show me once or twice, I can do it. I don't do it creatively, but I know how to do the process.

First lead [in a movie] requires a different approach like trying not to give it all away in the first scene. It is a skill, a learned skill.

My definition of a character actor is - they never get the girl.

The kids know me from 'Babe,' but usually it is 'L.A. Confidential' that people remember, which was the second film I did. I have worked with some really good people and the films that I've done for the most part have been good.

I prefer to have playback, but sometimes, you can't have that under most circumstances. First, it is expensive because you need a playback operator and secondly, it threatens a lot of directors. I only watch my performance. I see what is necessary for me so that I can see it right at the moment and I can fix it. That appeals to me a great deal.

The risks of transporting deadly nuclear waste, the environmental justice impacts and the long-term health effects of both these projects are untenable...We cannot afford to be silent on these important issues.

Once a film is shot, the thing that mostly happens is that I go see all the things I would have fixed in my performance and sometimes, very rarely, I see a moment that surprise me and I go, "Oh, that's not bad. That was nice."

Jamie' is what my mother gave me, and that takes the onus off of being big. Somebody thinks, 'Oh, Jamie - how threatening can he be?

I say a lot of things I shouldn't say.

All of them - my father, mother, step-mother, and grandmother - were all wonderful actors and performers and they are an inspiration to me, both in their craft and in their humanity.

As a character actor, I've learned that you have to watch yourself because nobody else is watching. Nobody is concerned with you.

Barney Miller' was a lot of fun. I'm very fond of Abe Vigoda. Most - a lot of people on that cast - I really liked.

The person is a mystery. What I'm playing is the person so I really get to tell you and show you and communicate to you who I think the real person is and that real person is me. The most important thing is to play the human being you are creating, which is my job.

It's a wonderful thing as time goes by, to be with someone who looks into your face when you've gotten old and still sees what you think you look like.

For my entire career, I wanted to be a director. When I was in the theater, it was very difficult to get directing jobs, and I fell into the acting by default. I got in the habit of accepting whatever came my way. Not things that I disagreed with, though. It's not like I had aspirations - well, I did have aspirations to play Hamlet, which I ended up doing.

If a kid ever realized what was involved in factory farming, they would never touch meat again.

Studios are run by those who are way too old or mostly young, who don't think creatively.

I was so moved by the intelligence,sense of fun and personalities of the animals I worked with on Babe that by the end of the film I was a vegetarian.

Pigs may not be as cuddly as kittens or puppies, but they suffer just as much.

I don't look like a leading man, whatever they look like. It's changing a little.

A vital film that needed to be made at this point in history and has been made magnificently.