Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that's real power.

I have a very strict gun control policy: if there's a gun around, I want to be in control of it.

There's a rebel lying deep in my soul.

What you put into life is what you get out of it.

They say marriages are made in Heaven. But so is thunder and lightning.

If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.

I will never win an Oscar, and do you know why? First of all, because I'm not Jewish. Secondly, I make too much money for all those old farts in the Academy.

Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands.

I think being able to age gracefully is a very important talent. It is too late for me.

I tried being reasonable, I didn't like it.

Men must know their limitations.

President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.

There's only one way to have a happy marriage and as soon as I learn what it is I'll get married again.

I don't believe in pessimism. If something doesn't come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it's going to rain, it will.

We boil at different degrees.

I was drafted during the Korean War. None of us wanted to go... It was only a couple of years after World War II had ended. We said, 'Wait a second? Didn't we just get through with that?'

I knew Billy Wilder socially and would have loved to work with him.

The less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudice.

Crimes against children are the most heinous crime. That, for me, would be a reason for capital punishment because children are innocent and need the guidance of an adult society.

I'm not really conservative. I'm conservative on certain things. I believe in less government. I believe in fiscal responsibility and all those things that maybe Republicans used to believe in but don't any more.

Drama usually has some sort of intense conflict.

When you're young, you're very reckless. Then you get conservative. Then you get reckless again.

You should never give up your inner self.

God gave you a brain. Do the best you can with it. And you don't have to be Einstein, but Einstein was mentally tough. He believed what he believed. And he worked out things. And he argued with people who disagreed with him. But I'm sure he didn't call everybody jerks.

I loved the fact that Obama is multi-racial. I thought that was terrific, as my wife is the same racial make-up.

I've always been fascinated with the stealing of innocence. It's the most heinous crime, and certainly a capital crime if there ever was one.

If you think it's going to rain, it will.

Whether you like it or not, you're forced to come to the realisation that death is out there. But I don't fear death, I'm a fatalist. I believe when it's your time, that's it. It's the hand you're dealt.

I became a Republican in 1951, the first year I could vote.

I do believe in self-help.

I've always been very liberal when it comes to people thinking for themselves.

I'm not one of these guys who sits around saying, 'Gee, I mean, the person had a strange childhood and that's why he's doing this horrible thing. Poor Jeffrey Dahmer. He's just had a bad childhood and that's why he's eating people.' Wait a second! This person should be removed from the planet.

I mean, I've always been a libertarian. Leave everybody alone. Let everybody else do what they want. Just stay out of everybody else's hair.

When I did 'Bird,' it was a surprise to some people, first because I wasn't in it and second because most of the films I'd been doing were cop movies or westerns or adventure films, so to be doing one about Charlie Parker, who was a great influence on American music, was a great thrill for me.

'Unforgiven' is probably an example of a script that I liked right away but thought, 'This is great, but I'd like to do this when I'm older.' So I stuck it in the drawer for ten years and then took it out.

The prospect of dating someone in her twenties becomes less appealing as you get older. At some point in your life, your tolerance level goes down and you realize that, with someone much younger, there's nothing really to talk about.

A war is a horrible thing, but it's also a unifier of countries.

There's a lot of great movies that have won the Academy Award, and a lot of great movies that haven't. You just do the best you can.

I'm not a New Age person, but I do believe in meditation, and for that reason I've always liked the Buddhist religion. When I've been to Japan, I've been to Buddhist temples and meditated, and I found that rewarding.

My uncle played rugby, and my dad played football, and they used to argue which game was the roughest - and everybody agreed rugby was. It's a great team sport, and to be successful, every person has to play in the same level.

When I was growing up, I wasn't an extrovert. If anything, I was an introverted kid and a very average pupil at school. I was very quiet.

When I do a picture and it's 90% black, like 'Bird,' I use 90% black people.

The U.S. military was segregated 'til the Korean War, and the blacks in World War Two were totally segregated.

And I think it's that time. And I think if you just step aside and Mr. Romney can kind of take over. You can maybe still use a plane. Though maybe a smaller one. Not that big gas guzzler you are going around to colleges and talking about student loans and stuff like that.

My whole life has been one big improvisation.

I've had moments when I've thought about somebody, picked up the phone to call them and they are on the line already, and I think that maybe there's some vibration, some connection.

They've got this crazy actor who's 82 years old up there in a suit. I was a mayor, and they're probably thinking I know how to give a speech, but even when I was mayor I never gave speeches. I gave talks.

My dad was fiscally conservative, and I was influenced by that. He didn't believe in spending more than you had because it gets you into trouble.

I don't really get into a big intellectual analysis of why I am going to do a certain script or not.

Everybody thinks making films back to back is a big deal but they did it all the time in the old days.

Actors know what actors are insecure about - and they're all insecure.

Man becomes his most creative during war.

Some people feel that the world owes them a living.

It would be great to be 105 and still making films.

I think our politicians could learn a lot from Mandela.

When I was born, the economy wasn't in a great state; it was the Depression, and my father had to be quick to try and find work.

Fate pulls you in different directions.

Governor Romney has a great business background. He is extremely well educated. He has several degrees from Harvard, including, you know, business and including a law degree.

Liberals are not always so liberal with people who disapprove - disapprove of their point of view.

You always want to quit while you are ahead. You don't want to be like a fighter who stays too long in the ring until you're not performing at your best.