John Garfield Quotations

I always wanted to be in the limelight, and I found I could get it by being on the stage. That was the beginning of everything for me.

I believe the more successful an actor becomes, the more chances he should take. An actor never stops learning.

Today, for the good of my own health and because I love my family more than anything, I am checking myself into a rehabilitation center to help me in my battle with alcoholism and its unhealthy interaction with pain medications I have been prescribed for many years,

When I think back, the neighbors were always sayin', 'Oh, that poor Julie, that poor orphan.' I loved it. The Italians would invite me in for dinner - it was an Italian neighborhood mostly. Oh, I loved it.

When an actor doesn't face a conflict, he loses confidence in himself. I always want to have a struggle because I believe it will help me accomplish more.

There are many films in which minority groups are caricatured to the point where truth is all together lost. There are many more films, good in general, but untrue in their presentation of the Negro's life as totally divorced from the Caucasian's or the Caucasian's from the Negro.

To my surprise, I discovered that I could act, and I liked it even better than boxing.

Early Tuesday morning, I was stopped outside my home for driving under the influence of alcohol. I have always taken full responsibility for my actions and pledge that I will cooperate completely with law enforcement officials,

I wanted the attention I missed at home, so I became the leader of a gang. That way, I got attention and was recognized as being important. It wasn't a bad gang - you know, in poor districts in New York, there's a gang to every block. We never robbed at the point of a gun; we'd steal potatoes from a grocery store, or crackers.

There was no convincing me that a stepmother could be anything but a wicked ogre, and I acted accordingly.

There was a revolution going on at home. Why didn't I earn some money? Why didn't I do something practical, like chicken farming?

I lived in a bad neighborhood. I knew so many things a boy shouldn't know. I did so many things a boy shouldn't do.

I know a playwright with a forty-thousand-dollar house in Beverly and he's miserable.

I didn't learn anything about acting until I joined the Group Theatre. They taught me an entirely new approach, an entirely new technique.

I did a lot of jobs when I was a kid - paper boy, grocery boy, all those things. I guess maybe I got a point of view then.

Reading is important.

England has been praised for turning out intelligent, adult pictures whereas Hollywood has been severely censured for turning out junk. I don't think criticism is a valid one because, in defense of Hollywood, we have censorship problems England doesn't have. I'm not speaking of the license to do sexy stuff. I'm speaking of the license to present adult ideas and viewpoints, which we lack and which means in turn that many of our pictures lack intelligent content.

With my brains and your looks, we could go places.

Must I tell the story of my life again?