Explore the most impactful and insightful quotes and sayings by Clint Eastwood, and enrich your perspective with the wisdom. Share these inspiring Clint Eastwood quotes pictures with your friends on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or your personal blogs, completely free. Here are the top 393 Clint Eastwood quotes for you to read and share.
To me, life is like the back nine in golf. Sometimes you play better on the back nine. You may not be stronger, but hopefully you're wiser. And if you keep most of your marbles intact, you can add a note of wisdom to the coming generation. -- Clint Eastwood
I take vitamins daily, but just the bare essentials not what you'd call supplements. I try to stick to a vegan diet heavy on fruit, vegetables, tofu, and other soy products. -- Clint Eastwood
Man becomes his most creative during war. -- Clint Eastwood
War pictures are always fascinating for people; they were for me growing up, even though I'm not nuts about war."
"War is the ultimate conflict, and conflict is the basis of drama to begin with. -- Clint Eastwood
There's only one way to have a happy marriage and as soon as I learn what it is I'll get married again. -- Clint Eastwood
I've never met a genius. A genius to me is someone who does well at something he hates. Anybody can do well at something he loves - it's just a question of finding the subject. -- Clint Eastwood
Actors know, with me they aren't going to be allowed to rehearse a scene for a couple of hours and then get away with doing 25 takes before we get it right. So they come with their full bag of tricks. -- Clint Eastwood
Tomorrow is promised to no one. -- Clint Eastwood
I am not a regret type person. I don't believe in regrets. Lots of things you would do differently if you'd do it again, but you don't do it again, so you don't think about it. But that goes for life in general. You're only dealing with the knowledge you have at that time. -- Clint Eastwood
Let's not go and ruin it by thinking too much. -- Clint Eastwood
I'm just a kid - I've got a lot of stuff to do yet. -- Clint Eastwood
The best part of aging in this business is losing that obsession about work and being able to spend a little more time with family. -- Clint Eastwood
I am sort of anti-hunting. I don't put down what anyone wants to do, but it seems to me that killing a creature for fun is not a progressive idea. -- Clint Eastwood
I think it is more important to tell a story rather than follow any trend; that is a less bold way to go. If you do that [follow trends] you are just trying to ride on the coat tails of someone else's success. -- Clint Eastwood
You know when you're young and you see a play in high school, and the guys all have gray in their hair and they're trying to be old men and they have no idea what that's like? It's just that stupid the other way around. -- Clint Eastwood
I want the troops from Great Britain and the U.S. to be successful, but by the same token, Afghanistan has always been a screw-up. -- Clint Eastwood
I don't wanna need you because I can't have you. -- Clint Eastwood
Having the security of being in a series week in, week out gives you great flexibility; you can experience with yourself, try a different scene different ways. If you make a mistake one week, you can look at it and say, 'Well, I won't do that again,' and you're still on the air next week. -- Clint Eastwood
Hollywood seems to succumb to fads. Well, action films do well. Give me violence. Give me a scene where there's a couple of car chases or shooting and stuff like that. They're forgetting the fact that there's a basic structure to a story that is essential to making it really broad and appealing. -- Clint Eastwood
I like Italian movies. I was frequently there in the '60s, in Rome and the vicinity. It was a great period in life. I was very influenced by their stuff. -- Clint Eastwood
I do believe in the energy and the productivity of the American business world. -- Clint Eastwood
I was kind of a little disappointed when they started building a competition between Marty (Martin Scorsese) and me. I have the greatest respect for him and all the films he's done over the years. -- Clint Eastwood
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. -- Clint Eastwood
My mother knew how to read music and everything. But I just kinda learned off of records. And so, I was listening to records and I'd play 'em over and over. -- Clint Eastwood
I couldn't tell you exactly what I like about golf. Just when you think you've got it mastered it lets you know you haven't. I'm just crazy enough to do it. -- Clint Eastwood
I'm not a regrets-type person. -- Clint Eastwood
The fact is, violence is not only not a beautiful thing, but it's also very painful and not without consequences for the perpetrator as well as the victim. -- Clint Eastwood
It's much more fun to play something you're nothing like than what you are ... It's much easier to hide yourself in a character. -- Clint Eastwood
In my career as a director, there's always been some point where you get halfway through it, or three-quarters, and you go: 'What is this thing all about, and why am I telling the story? Does anybody really care about seeing this?' At that time you have to say: 'OK, forget that and just go ahead.' -- Clint Eastwood
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. -- Clint Eastwood
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. -- Clint Eastwood
I don't see myself as conservative, but I'm not ultra-leftist. You build a philosophy of your own. I like the libertarian view, which is to leave everyone alone. Even as a kid, I was annoyed by people who wanted to tell everyone how to live. -- Clint Eastwood
Extremism is so easy. You've got your position, and that's it. It doesn't take much thought. And when you go far enough to the right you meet the same idiots coming around from the left.
(Interview, Time Magazine, February 20, 2005) -- Clint Eastwood
You should just evaluate the work and make your judgments accordingly. That's the way you do it in life and every other subject. -- Clint Eastwood
I tried being reasonable, I didn't like it. -- Clint Eastwood
I love stories about women. -- Clint Eastwood
Everything that you do is a challenge. And acting is just building up your concentration and being able to listen and to do the ridiculous. -- Clint Eastwood
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. -- Clint Eastwood
Society has made us believe you should look like an 18-year-old model all your life. -- Clint Eastwood
I always thought of myself as a character actor. I never thought of myself as a leading man. -- Clint Eastwood
Movies are fun, but they are no cure for cancer. -- Clint Eastwood
I'm trying to preach the idea that if we don't pay attention to history we're destined to repeat it. -- Clint Eastwood
A lot of people regret, because we live in a society that reveres being at the prime of life and everything, but you have certain primes at certain times, and mine happens to be ... -- Clint Eastwood
My old drama coach used to say, 'Don't just do something, stand there.' Gary Cooper wasn't afraid to do nothing. -- Clint Eastwood
Just trust your instincts. There's an old saying in golf, you've studied the swing many times, and you practice and practice, but when you stand over the ball, you just have to trust your swing. And you trust it. And if you don't trust it, you'll ruin it; your brain will take over. -- Clint Eastwood
Acting to me is a very organic art form and you just go and do it. And I like to direct the same way that I like to be directed. Let me bring in what I want to bring in, and if something's wrong, just tell me about it and I'll make some corrections or adjustments. And that's what I do. -- Clint Eastwood
Every movie I make teaches me something. That's why I keep making them. -- Clint Eastwood
I've got to learn French because I've been going there for years and still, the only words I know are the swear words. -- Clint Eastwood
It's a very confusing era that we're in. -- Clint Eastwood
Over the years, I realized there was a Republican philosophy that I liked. And then they lost it. And LIBERTARIANS had more of it. Because what I really believe is, let's spend a little more time leaving everybody alone. -- Clint Eastwood
I just make the pictures and where they fall is where they fall. If somebody likes them, that's always nice. And if they don't like them, then too bad. -- Clint Eastwood
In the Bay Area, there was a resurgence of Dixieland jazz in the '40s - there was the Frisco Jazz Band, and Lu Watters and the Yerba Buena Jazz Band. -- Clint Eastwood
They say marriages are made in Heaven. But so is thunder and lightning. -- Clint Eastwood
When a naked man is chasing a woman through an alley with a butcher knife and a hard-on, I figure he isn't out collecting for the Red Cross. -- Clint Eastwood
I don't necessarily look for dark themes; they just seem to appear. -- Clint Eastwood
When you work with kids, especially, you want to be ready to turn the camera on at a moment's notice. -- Clint Eastwood
When you're making a film you start living with it, and I find myself sitting down and figuring out a sound or melody that would go with a film, or a particular period. It's not brain surgery, you just kind of feel it along. -- Clint Eastwood
Don Siegel last advice to me was 'Don't short yourself.' He said the tendency is when an actor's directing is to kind of you want to work on everybody else but you're going to short yourself. He said, take the time to do a good job with yourself so that you're satisfied with it. -- Clint Eastwood
I read every book there was on jazz, about the original players - King Oliver, Buddy Bolden and all those groups. At one time I was fairly well schooled in that ... I could tell you who played where and when, historically, way before my time. -- Clint Eastwood
I'm not a reality-TV kind of guy. But it's almost like we're living in a reality show. Every day in this country, everybody keeps worrying about the deterioration of America, and it's like a big reality show. -- Clint Eastwood
Abuse of power isn't limited to bad guys in other nations. It happens in our own country if we're not vigilant. -- Clint Eastwood
If you're afraid to take risks in anything in life, it's just boredom. -- Clint Eastwood
As much as I love the Western genre, I figured if I kept doing those, I'd eventually run out of steam on that, and that would've been the end of it. -- Clint Eastwood
With people in high office, the old - you go into the extreme, which is absolute power and absolute power corrupts. -- Clint Eastwood
A talented executive would be somebody who knows how to surround themselves with a lot of people that will make him look good. You could say that about a politician or you could say that about a head of a major corporation or what have you. The people you surround yourself with are very important. -- Clint Eastwood
I loved the fact that Obama is multi-racial. I thought that was terrific, as my wife is the same racial make-up. -- Clint Eastwood
There's nothing like a nice piece of hickory, -- Clint Eastwood
As a movie actor, once you've become known, you're observed all the time so you don't get the chance to observe anymore. You still get a taste of life but it's not quite the same and there's something to be said for a more anonymous life. -- Clint Eastwood
The U.S. military was segregated 'til the Korean War, and the blacks in World War Two were totally segregated. -- Clint Eastwood
I try to stick to a vegan diet heavy on fruit and vegetables. -- Clint Eastwood
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. -- Clint Eastwood
They say all marriages are made in heaven, but so are thunder and lightning. -- Clint Eastwood
I don't write. I usually look for material by other people. Sometimes I change things or adapt things but I don't write from scratch. I wish I had that ability. -- Clint Eastwood
Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn't have messed with? That's me. -- Clint Eastwood
First, I blow a hole in your face; then I go back inside, and sleep like a baby ... I guarantee you. -- Clint Eastwood
That's why I don't rehearse a lot and why I shoot a lot immediately. I have ideas of where I'd like to take the character, but we both end up going together. -- Clint Eastwood
You definitely do not do films for that particular reason. You do them for yourself, for your satisfaction of creating this thing with characters and watching these characters take on real life - that's all you care about. -- Clint Eastwood
I like working. That's when I'm feeling my best. And the people around me know that. My wife knows that. -- Clint Eastwood
You have to steal a lot. You have to have a criminal mentality to be a film director. -- Clint Eastwood
If anybody asks me what I attribute the longevity of my career to, then I say it's because I was never satisfied with being a cowboy in the plains of Spain and later I was never satisfied with just playing a detective in San Francisco, and constantly just pushing the envelope. -- Clint Eastwood
President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people. -- Clint Eastwood
It's a hell of a thing; killin' a man. You take away everything he ever had and ever would have. -- Clint Eastwood
A lot of people are bored of all the political correctness. -- Clint Eastwood
If you get a certain amount of notoriety for doing something, and you can stick to that type of project for the rest of your life and make a decent living, I think you still have a responsibility to stretch. Flexibility is what keeps you alive. -- Clint Eastwood
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. -- Clint Eastwood
In 'Gran Torino,' I play a guy who's racially offensive. But he learned. It shows that you're never too old to learn and embrace people that you don't understand to begin with. It seems like nobody else got that message, I guess. -- Clint Eastwood
There's something about the first time an actor runs the material over his or her face, when they kind of run it through their eyes and you see the thing and there is little imperfections in it and not every line is delivered perfectly, and it doesn't have that mechanical feeling. -- Clint Eastwood
The cruelty of nature is you have to work out harder when you get older ... It should be the other way around: Work out hard when you're a kid you should be able to coast when you get older. But unfortunately you have to do more to stay in the same position. -- Clint Eastwood
Winning the election is a good-news, bad-news kind of thing. Okay, now you're the mayor. The bad news is, now you're the mayor. -- Clint Eastwood
There are a lot of conservative people, a lot of moderate people, Republicans, Democrats, in Hollywood. It is just that the conservative people by the nature of the word itself play closer to the vest. They do not go around hot dogging it. -- Clint Eastwood
I've always felt that if I examine myself too much, I'll find out what I know and don't know, and I'll burst the bubble. I've gotten so lucky relying on my animal instincts, I'd rather keep a little bit of the animal alive. -- Clint Eastwood
I'm interested in the fact that the less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudice. -- Clint Eastwood
Directing is more like you're being a psychologist and you're kind of analyzing the situation and evaluating each person for their idiosyncrasies. -- Clint Eastwood
Work hard, keep your nose clean, and just stick around. -- Clint Eastwood
I haven't been very active in politics. -- Clint Eastwood
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. -- Clint Eastwood
If I'd had good discipline, I might have gone into music. -- Clint Eastwood
Comedy isn't necessarily all dialogue. Think of Buster Keaton: the poker face and all this chaos going on all around him. Sometimes it's a question of timing, of the proper rhythm. -- Clint Eastwood
Are you going to pull those pistols or whistle Dixie? -- Clint Eastwood
Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands. -- Clint Eastwood
A lot of people are realizing they had the wool pulled over their eyes by Obama. -- Clint Eastwood
If you ever go to a music session, you'll notice that the musicians can sit down and start playing right away, and everyone knows what to do. Of course they're reading it, but the conductor can tweak little things, and you can take that back to directing motion pictures. -- Clint Eastwood
'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. -- Clint Eastwood
Today, the only thing Hollywood swears by is space adventures because that's what goes over well. For my part, I trust my instinct and I make the films I believe in. If the public follows me, that's wonderful. If it doesn't follow, c'est la vie. -- Clint Eastwood
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. -- Clint Eastwood
Plagiarism is always the biggest thing in Hollywood. -- Clint Eastwood
The country has come a long way in race relations, but the pendulum swings so far back. Everyone wants to be so sensitive. -- Clint Eastwood
It's always appealing to play a character that has to overcome himself as well as an obstacle. It makes the drama so much deeper. -- Clint Eastwood
I liked Vittorio De Sica a lot, and I got to work with him once in a segment movie. He was a great director. He was a very charismatic character and a guy I watched a lot when he was directing. -- Clint Eastwood
I never expect anything. I am always amazed at why anybody goes to any movie or why anybody doesn't go to any movie. Any movie you make, you make it because you're hoping somebody wants to see it, but you never know. -- Clint Eastwood
That's the secret to a movie career - just keeping an open mind. -- Clint Eastwood
Listen, punk. To me you're nothin' but dogshit, you understand? And a lot of things can happen to dogshit. It can be scraped up with a shovel off the ground. It can dry up and blow away in the wind. Or it can be stepped on and squashed. So take my advice and be careful where the dog shits ya! -- Clint Eastwood
If a person is confident enough in the way they feel, whether it's an art form or whether it's just in life, it comes off
you don't have anything to prove; you can just be who you are. -- Clint Eastwood
The prospect of dating someone in her twenties becomes less appealing as you get older. At some point in your fife, your tolerance level goes down and you realize that, with someone much younger, there's nothing really to talk about. -- Clint Eastwood
If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster. -- Clint Eastwood
Casting a film is to me one of the most important things next to the writing. If you cast it properly everything takes place very easily. If you cast it improperly you're fighting an uphill battle. -- Clint Eastwood
The stronger the participation of the female characters, the better the movie. They knew that in the old days, when women stars were equally as important as men. -- Clint Eastwood
When you're making a movie, you can't think anybody will ever see it. You've just got to make a movie for the values it has. The greatest films were made because someone really wanted to make them. And, hopefully, the audience will show up, too. -- Clint Eastwood
I guess a great movie would be one that has the most great moments in it. -- Clint Eastwood
I'm a movie maker, but I have the same feelings as the average guy out there. -- Clint Eastwood
An awful lot of good movies have gone unrecognized, and an awful lot of bad movies have had tremendous recognition. As long as you keep that in mind, you are never really disappointed. -- Clint Eastwood
You are always hoping that movie audiences are interested in characters and interested in story values rather than just mindless special effects. But you never know. -- Clint Eastwood
Alfred Hitchcock once told me, when I was analyzing a lot of things about his pictures, 'Clint, you must remember, it's only a movie.' -- Clint Eastwood
You make a movie, and if somebody reads something into it, then great, more power to him. -- Clint Eastwood
I guess any movie actor can become a role model for audiences out there who enjoy him. -- Clint Eastwood
Dying ain't much of a living, boy -- Clint Eastwood
I've lived through the shooting of movie, the editing and every other process along the way, so it's not for me to really judge it. I'll probably look at it again five years from now to get a fresh feel for it. -- Clint Eastwood
I pay tribute to the writing always. The writer is a creative artist and the director is an interpretive artist and the actors are interpretive. You take zero and make it into something, that's always amazing to me. -- Clint Eastwood
I've always said the one advantage an actor has of converting to a director is that he's been in front of the camera. He doesn't have to get in front of the camera again, subliminally or otherwise. -- Clint Eastwood
Even people on the liberal side are starting to worry about going off a fiscal cliff. -- Clint Eastwood
The craving for information is so huge now, and it can be marketed at such a rapid rate. -- Clint Eastwood
Nothing wrong with shooting ... as long as the right people get shot. -- Clint Eastwood
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. -- Clint Eastwood
Naturally, everybody has certain things they wish they hadn't done in life. They wish they hadn't kicked their dog when they were ten or something. -- Clint Eastwood
If you've done what you intended and if nobody tampered with it, then it's yours. And if people don't like it, then they just don't agree with you on that subject matter, and that's life. -- Clint Eastwood
My mother always told me it wasn't polite to ask what people make. -- Clint Eastwood
Nobody looks like they did when they were 20, so why not take advantage of the fact that you're changing, emotionally as well as physically? -- Clint Eastwood
I'm not a chick-flick enthusiast. -- Clint Eastwood
I'd like to be a bigger and more knowledgeable person ten years from now than I am today. I think that for all of us as we grow older, we must discipline ourselves to continue expanding, broadening, learning, keeping our minds active and open. -- Clint Eastwood
Everybody thinks making films back to back is a big deal but they did it all the time in the old days. -- Clint Eastwood
You change as the years go by. The more knowledge you get, the more things change in your life and circumstances change. -- Clint Eastwood
Just try not to ingest a lot of fats, and just try to eat carefully. -- Clint Eastwood
I grew up with J. Edgar Hoover. He was the G-man, a hero to everybody, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation was the big, feared organization. He was ahead of his time as far as building up forensic evidence and fingerprinting. But he took down a lot of innocent people, too. -- Clint Eastwood
It's a hell of a thing, killing a man. You take away all he's got and all he's ever gonna have. -- Clint Eastwood
A Love like this happens but once in a lifetime -- Clint Eastwood
I'm a firm believer in research, but I'm also a firm believer in utilizing the instincts that are within your soul or in your body or in your stomach, wherever they reside. -- Clint Eastwood
When I look back on my life, I don't have regrets about what I didn't do. If I'd become a musician, it could have ruined my life. -- Clint Eastwood
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. -- Clint Eastwood
It's not about you. It's about them. -- Clint Eastwood
I always liked characters that were more grounded in reality. -- Clint Eastwood
The most gentle people in the world are macho males, people who are confident in their masculinity and have a feeling of well-being in themselves. They don't have to kick in doors, mistreat women, or make fun of gays. -- Clint Eastwood
I love every aspect of the creation of motion pictures and I guess I am committed to it for life. -- Clint Eastwood
I think kids are natural actors. You watch most kids; if they don't have a toy, they'll pick up a stick and make a toy out of it. Kids will daydream all the time. -- Clint Eastwood
In 'Changeling,' I tried to show something you'd never see nowadays - a kid sitting and looking at the radio. Just sitting in front of the radio and listening. Your mind does the rest. -- Clint Eastwood
I think being able to age gracefully is a very important talent. It is too late for me. -- Clint Eastwood
Every man has got to know his limitations. -- Clint Eastwood
Always keep your ego in check and not be afraid to listen. Listening is a great art form. -- Clint Eastwood
Everybody always feels that they're right even if they're wrong and that's what a whole actor's career is built around rationalizing your way into whatever character you're playing. -- Clint Eastwood
When you're an actor, you're so busy: people are always coming up to you and pulling your collar, making sure that things fit, brushing your hair and you're always being yanked up, so finally when you're behind a camera, you're just a slob. -- Clint Eastwood
I knew Billy Wilder socially and would have loved to work with him. -- Clint Eastwood
I'm just naturally gravitating towards different things. As you mature, different subject matters. And as you're older, you can't play as many parts, or you shouldn't be playing the parts that you used to play. But also there's the opportunity to play parts that you couldn't have. -- Clint Eastwood
Politicians have to make unpopular decisions. Schwarzenegger is going to understand the nature of his job. I wish him good luck, he's going to need it. It's going to be difficult for him. -- Clint Eastwood
I'm always trying to tackle subjects that tax me and make me think. That's the key to staying young at heart. The brain has to be exercised the same as the rest of the body. -- Clint Eastwood
On 'Mystic River,' I had to cut my salary and everyone else's to get it made. -- Clint Eastwood
'Mystic River' just smelled interesting to me. So I read it and liked it right away. Even the dialogue in it was great. -- Clint Eastwood
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. -- Clint Eastwood
Nowadays, politically, everybody is promising everything. That's the only way you can get elected. -- Clint Eastwood
I never look back and think too much about my films. I've done some work I've been proud of over the years but which of them is my favourite I really don't know. I could say the last one. I've had little jumps in my career like Unforgiven possibly. -- Clint Eastwood
Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to
self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt,
that's real power. -- Clint Eastwood
Acting gets into your blood, after so many years, and I just always like revisiting it. It's fun to meet new people and watch them coming along, at different stages of their careers. -- Clint Eastwood
If somebody's dumb enough to ask me to go to a political convention and say something, they're going to have to take what they get. -- Clint Eastwood
Nobody, I mean nobody, puts ketchup on a hot dog. -- Clint Eastwood
When you listen to Ray Charles, there's never any doubt whose voice that is. -- Clint Eastwood
Over my career I played some badass characters. So, people sometimes think I should have a .44 magnum. But that's not true, I don't have that. But I do fire them and I do enjoy target shooting and all that sort of thing. I'm not much of a hunter. I don't like killing animals, but I love to shoot. -- Clint Eastwood
Highway: Just because we're holding hands doesn't mean we'll be taking warm showers together until the wee hours of the morning.
Sgt Gunnery Highway to Stitch Jones in Heartbreak Ridge -- Clint Eastwood
Our modern society - especially in the West, and especially now - reveres youth. -- Clint Eastwood
I've always been very liberal when it comes to people thinking for themselves. -- Clint Eastwood
The innocence of childhood is like the innocence of a lot of animals. -- Clint Eastwood
My wife and I are both Libertarian; she was a Democrat and I was a Republican, and we both met in the middle somewhere. -- Clint Eastwood
I have been trying to retire to the back of the camera for quite a few years, and in 1970, when I first started directing, I said, 'If I could pull this off, I can some day move to the back of the camera and stay there.' -- Clint Eastwood
Am I aging? The pros and the cons? Well, you know a lot more, at least until the time you start forgetting it all. Actually, aging can be a fun process, to some degree. -- Clint Eastwood
As you get older, you're not afraid of doubt. Doubt isn't running the show. You take out all the self-agonizing. -- Clint Eastwood
Hollywood, as everyone knows, glamorizes physical courage ... if I had to define courage myself, I wouldn't say it's about shooting people. I'd say it's the quality that stimulates people, that enables them to move ahead and look beyond themselves. -- Clint Eastwood
All I know is there's thousands of people in the Academy and a lot of them, the majority of them, haven't won Oscars.A lot of people are crying, I guess. -- Clint Eastwood
Well, if you're waitin' for a woman to make up her mind, you may have a a long wait. -- Clint Eastwood
I keep working because I learn something new all the time. -- Clint Eastwood
The reason I don't retire is that I learn something new every day. The brain has to be exercised the same as the rest of the body. It's about expanding, constantly pushing yourself. -- Clint Eastwood
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?' -- Clint Eastwood
Drama usually has some sort of intense conflict. -- Clint Eastwood
There's a rebel lying deep in my soul. Anytime anybody tells me the trend is such and such, I go the opposite direction. I hate the idea of trends. I hate imitation; I have a reverence for individuality. -- Clint Eastwood
My wife used to be an anchorwoman in Arizona, so she knew John McCain, and she liked him, and I kinda liked him. -- Clint Eastwood
We don't even know who's in the Academy. -- Clint Eastwood
I tend to believe that audiences are relatively well-balanced people. -- Clint Eastwood
You have to teach yourself to act but Michael Chekhov will give you the necessary tools - and for me, Psychological Gesture and Centers are extremely valuable They work like a charm. I've used them all along and still do. -- Clint Eastwood
By the Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood) in A Fistful of Dollars. -- Clint Eastwood
A lot of dumb pictures have made a lot of money, but that doesn't mean they're going to be anything cinema students will revel over in the future. -- Clint Eastwood
The more time you have to think things through, the more you have to screw it up. -- Clint Eastwood
I just think it is important that you realize, that you're the best in the world. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican or whether you're libertarian or whatever, you are the best. And we should not ever forget that. And when somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go. -- Clint Eastwood
You spend your life training to be an actor, observing people's characteristics so that you can design characters around what you've seen. -- Clint Eastwood
I'd been trying to retire to the back of the camera for quite a few years. And then, in 1970, when I first started directing, I if I could pull this off, I can some day just move in back of the camera and stay there. -- Clint Eastwood
The reason I still work at this stage of life is because I enjoy learning something new each day. -- Clint Eastwood
Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and that's what everybody needs to know. -- Clint Eastwood
I like the inspiration of the first take. -- Clint Eastwood
I have worked ever since I was 13. -- Clint Eastwood
I don't like to see a president who is just out campaigning all year long or for the last four years. I'd like to see somebody who's going in the office. In fact, I'd like to not see them because that way you'd be sure that they'd be working. -- Clint Eastwood
Most people who'll remember me, if at all, will remember me as an action guy, which is okay. There's nothing wrong with that. But there will be a certain group which will remember me for the other films, the ones where I took a few chances. At least, I like to think so. -- Clint Eastwood
I don't watch a lot of films. I'm usually involved in making them. -- Clint Eastwood
I have a very strict gun control policy: if there's a gun around, I want to be in control of it. -- Clint Eastwood
Keep your eyes on the horizon and your nose to the wind. -- Clint Eastwood
[ J. Edgar]Hoover, I'm sure, felt that he was right in everything he did and even the things that we don't like about his character. -- Clint Eastwood
In recent times it just seems that women have been relegated to either romantic roles or fluff pieces. So the appeal, for me, is to make a picture about a real woman. -- Clint Eastwood
I always like to try different things, different genres; stories that have a dramatic element and can generate conflict which I find appealing; where the characters have to overcome obstacles. That kind of thing is challenging. -- Clint Eastwood
Let's put it this way: there wouldn't be much point in me attending a high-school reunion now because there wouldn't be anybody there. We'd struggle to raise a quorum. -- Clint Eastwood
I don't mind telling a dark side. -- Clint Eastwood
This film cost $31 million. With that kind of money I could have invaded some country. -- Clint Eastwood
Hoover was a patriot in his heart, but he definitely exceeded his power. -- Clint Eastwood
Things always look different from higher up. -- Clint Eastwood
I'm past doing one chin-up more than I did the day before. I just kind of do what I feel like. -- Clint Eastwood
In past generations, people would try to play younger than they really are. My trick is, I don't try to play younger than I really am. -- Clint Eastwood
I'm not really a Hollywood person. Not that I don't like L.A., but I'm just a Northern California guy. -- Clint Eastwood
I like to direct the same way that I like to be directed. -- Clint Eastwood
I've taken advantage of a few breaks that came along and moved along with them. -- Clint Eastwood
There's a lot of young guys coming along, but I'd like to say to the various financiers, don't forget the senior guys. The senior guys and gals are there, willing to do their best work for you. -- Clint Eastwood
The thing that haunts a man the most is what he isn't ordered to do. -- Clint Eastwood
I was always respectful of people who were deeply religious because I always felt that if they gave themselves to it, then it had to be important to them. But if you can go through life without it, that's OK, too. It's whatever suits you. -- Clint Eastwood
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. -- Clint Eastwood
Deserve's got nothin' to do with it. -- Clint Eastwood
Nobody wants to make something that displeases people, but once you make a film, that's out of your control and you can't think about that. You just have to follow your head and make sure that you're satisfied by putting down what you intended. -- Clint Eastwood
In America, instead of making the audience come to the film, the idea seems to be for you to go to the audience. They come up with the demographics for the film and then the film is made and sold strictly to that audience. -- Clint Eastwood
Take your work seriously, but don't take yourself seriously -- Clint Eastwood
There are so many parallels in society today [with era of J. Edgar Hoover ] that you can use, whether it's the head of a studio or the head of an organization, a major newspaper, a major factory or company, of people who stay too long, maybe, and overstay their usefulness. -- Clint Eastwood
I don't really get into a big intellectual analysis of why I am going to do a certain script or not. -- Clint Eastwood
Pose? I don't pose. What am I? Paris Hilton or something? -- Clint Eastwood
I'm not afraid to look bad on the screen. -- Clint Eastwood
I would like to be interpreted as a liberal libertarian, like leave everybody alone and let them do their own thing. -- Clint Eastwood
My dad was a big admirer of Sergeant York stories from the First World War. -- Clint Eastwood
People love westerns worldwide. There's something fantasy-like about an individual fighting the elements. Or even bad guys and the elements. It's a simpler time. There's no organized laws and stuff. -- Clint Eastwood
Do ya' feel lucky, punk? -- Clint Eastwood
Some people feel that the world owes them a living. -- Clint Eastwood
Libertarian: everyone leaves everyone else alone -- Clint Eastwood
I was an Eisenhower Republican when I started out at 21 because he promised to get us out of the Korean War. -- Clint Eastwood
I was drafted during the Korean War. -- Clint Eastwood
I tried being reasonable, but I didn't like it. -- Clint Eastwood
If you cast a film incorrectly, then you're going to be fighting an uphill battle. -- Clint Eastwood
When anybody gives you an award, it could be wrong. You've just got to bear that it mind and go ahead and enjoy it. Like Morgan [Freeman] says, it's a pat on the back, so great you'll take it and then move on. -- Clint Eastwood
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. -- Clint Eastwood
My whole life has been one big improvisation. -- Clint Eastwood
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. -- Clint Eastwood
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. -- Clint Eastwood
Politicians love regulating. That's part of the whole power structure. -- Clint Eastwood
[FBI] philosophy is "Go ahead and make the story you want to make, and hopefully we'll love it." So that's that. -- Clint Eastwood
Hitchcock used to believe that if there were three or four memorable scenes in a film that would be enough to drive it, but I don't know if that's true or not. -- Clint Eastwood
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. -- Clint Eastwood
Fate pulls you in different directions. -- Clint Eastwood
Music does have a very special place in my heart. I enjoy it very much. I suppose it is my first love and I do a lot of it. It seems to be when you are making a project it inspires you sometimes to jot down something that you think fits the situation. -- Clint Eastwood
I don't think I've met anyone with a stronger work ethic than Ray Charles. -- Clint Eastwood
Of course we all know Biden is the intellect of the Democratic Party. Kind of a grin with a body behind it. -- Clint Eastwood
The only reason I ever thought about retiring from the front part of the camera as opposed to the back is sometimes you think, "How many roles are there for someone my age?" -- Clint Eastwood
It must be the Brit in me, because I like animals. -- Clint Eastwood
My wife is my closest friend. Sure, I'm attracted to her in every way possible, but that's not the answer. Because I've been attracted to other people, and I couldn't stand 'em after a while. -- Clint Eastwood
There's a rebel lying deep in my soul. -- Clint Eastwood
I probably would have retired years ago if I hadn't found interesting things to do. -- Clint Eastwood
You get to a certain age and you're just glad to be there. I don't know what to add to that. It's fun. You have to be a realist, so you try to look for roles that are within the age you are. -- Clint Eastwood
We are like boxers, one never knows how much longer one has. -- Clint Eastwood
It's what people know about themselves inside that makes them afraid. -- Clint Eastwood
There is an interesting idea: almost everybody's fascinated by the perpetrator of a crime; very few people study what happens to people for the rest of their lives, and how it affects not only that particular character but other characters around him as well. -- Clint Eastwood
It takes tremendous discipline to control the influence, the power you have over other people's lives. -- Clint Eastwood
I like a drama. And I think that's the basis of good films, or good plays, is to have a nice drama. -- Clint Eastwood
Whatever the drama of the story is, you have to be true to it. -- Clint Eastwood
I have great respect for the FBI, and I know that there have been some rumors lately that the FBI was disenchanted because of what we were doing in story, or doing a certain take: that's not true. Actually the FBI was tremendously enthusiastic about us doing [ J. Edgar Hoover ] film. -- Clint Eastwood
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. -- Clint Eastwood
Everybody accuses me of moving fast when I direct a picture. I don't move fast, but I just keep moving. -- Clint Eastwood
Stage actors are usually much more conscious of speaking up and making sure that everyone can hear in the back of the theatre; a film actor probably thinks of that a little less. -- Clint Eastwood
No, I don't have to practice that grunt. You just do it. Once you're in character, you're in character. You don't sit there purposely thinking, Well, I'll grunt here, or I'll groan there. -- Clint Eastwood
Most people are afraid of change. But if you look at it as something you can always count on, then it can be a comfort. -- Clint Eastwood
You can't stop everything from happening. But we've gotten to a point where we're certainly trying. If a car doesn't have four hundred air bags in it, then it's no good. -- Clint Eastwood
Aging can be fun if you lay back and enjoy it. -- Clint Eastwood
As long as somebody finances you, can make a film and get it seen any place and in any language; then, hopefully, it's a success. -- Clint Eastwood
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. -- Clint Eastwood
If you're really satisfied with your position on something, you just say, 'Hey;' you just very calmly present something. -- Clint Eastwood
Kids piercing themselves, piercing their tongues, what kind of masochism is that? Is it to show you can just take it? -- Clint Eastwood
Once you finish a film, it doesn't belong to you anymore - it belongs to the audience to interpret it the way they feel like interpreting. -- Clint Eastwood
Buzzards got to eat, same as the worms. -- Clint Eastwood
Now you've got to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? - Inspector Harry Callahan -- Clint Eastwood
Great stories teach you something. That's one reason I haven't slipped into some sort of retirement: I always feel like I'm learning something new. -- Clint Eastwood
When I do a picture and it's 90% black, like 'Bird,' I use 90% black people. -- Clint Eastwood
I think great movies have to have some great moments in them to bring them up to that level. -- Clint Eastwood
The main thing is, you just want to have your place in history. You hope that people will look back on it in 15, 20, 30 and beyond years, and say, "That was an exciting film." -- Clint Eastwood
At the major studios, you see people wanting to remake a TV series, wanting to make a sequel. -- Clint Eastwood
I've done a few special effects movies in my life, so I've gotten that out of my system. -- Clint Eastwood
I'm more focused on making a scene seem real as opposed to perfect. -- Clint Eastwood
Don't look at me like I've gotten old or something like that. -- Clint Eastwood
Writing is a creative art form and the acting and directing is more of an interpretive art form. -- Clint Eastwood
Every picture has its own demands, and every picture stimulates something within you to tell it a certain way. I don't know what that is; I don't think too much about that. -- Clint Eastwood
It's always fun to talk about jazz. -- Clint Eastwood
As I get older, I tend to put more into family than I used to. -- Clint Eastwood
I am a good listener. I think that came from my schooling. -- Clint Eastwood
I don't believe in pessimism. -- Clint Eastwood
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. -- Clint Eastwood
What do you want me to tell Romney? I can't tell him to do that. I can't tell him to do that to himself. You're crazy. You're absolutely crazy. You're getting as bad as Biden. -- Clint Eastwood
I can't do that to myself! -- Clint Eastwood
People have lost their sense of humor. In former times, we constantly made jokes about different races. -- Clint Eastwood
You hear about actors being late and all that sort of stuff, but you never find that with an actor who's directed, because an actor who's directed understands all the problems your production is going through. -- Clint Eastwood
Why am I a star? It can't be because of looks. -- Clint Eastwood
I think Pebble Beach is kind of a unique place on the planet. -- Clint Eastwood
When I was young there was no respect for the young, and now that I am old there is no respect for the old -- Clint Eastwood
I love big business! -- Clint Eastwood
Movies were invented for Jimmy Cagney, and he was invented for the movies. A perfect match. -- Clint Eastwood
Actors know what actors are insecure about - and they're all insecure. -- Clint Eastwood
I guess I'm living in the present more than the past. -- Clint Eastwood
You should never give up your inner self. -- Clint Eastwood
The guys who won World War II and that whole generation have disappeared, and now we have a bunch of teenage twits. -- Clint Eastwood
Michael Moore and I actually have a lot in common. We both appreciate living in a country where there's free expression. But Michael, if you ever show up at my front door with a camera, I'll kill you. I mean it. -- Clint Eastwood
My father had a couple of kids at the beginning of the Depression. There was not much employment. Not much welfare. People barely got by. People were tougher then. -- Clint Eastwood
The interesting thing with child actors is that kids are natural actors. They're wonderful actors, and most kids are acting all the time. They're imagining they're out in the yard playing. They're imagining that things happened, and they can get very vivid. -- Clint Eastwood
Prime time for men is, say, 35 to 45. Then they level off and fall off. -- Clint Eastwood
I played characters with villainous aspect. But out-and-out villain? No. -- Clint Eastwood
I'm a mentor to anybody who's interested. -- Clint Eastwood
My grandfather lived to be late 90s on one side and on the other side, 70s or something. And my father died young, at 63. But he didn't take very good care of himself. -- Clint Eastwood
I still work out on a daily basis. -- Clint Eastwood
Opinions are like a**holes, everybody has one. -- Clint Eastwood
Shut your fucking face. -- Clint Eastwood
When you're young, you're very reckless. Then you get conservative. Then you get reckless again. -- Clint Eastwood
At certain points if your life, you like doing more. I'm not sure what causes it or for what reasons; you just do it. -- Clint Eastwood
I never sympathise with the accused unless there's a chance the accused is not guilty, but I certainly don't ever sympathise with the criminal. -- Clint Eastwood
It would be great to be 105 and still making films. -- Clint Eastwood
I hate to see anybody sink. I hate to see anybody lose their dream, lose their home, something like that. -- Clint Eastwood
I played a little basketball. Some football in junior high. -- Clint Eastwood
If a person doesn't change, there's something really wrong with him. -- Clint Eastwood
That's the kiss-ass generation we're in right now. We're really in a pussy generation. Everybody's walking on eggshells. -- Clint Eastwood
A man's just gotta know his limits -- Clint Eastwood
To me cinema can be a much more friendly world if there's a lot of things to choose from. -- Clint Eastwood
There's no real excuse for being successful enough as an actor to do what you want and then selling out. You do it pure. You don't try to adapt it, make it commercial. -- Clint Eastwood
Twenty-some states in the United States have statutes that say showing the nipples to children is oscene. That's the first thing we come into contact with when we arrive on this palnet: a woman's breasts! -- Clint Eastwood
Everybody's got a right to be a sucker ... once. -- Clint Eastwood
If you're doing a biography, you try to stay as accurate as possible to reality. But you really don't know what was going on in the person's mind. You just know what was going on in the minds of people around him. -- Clint Eastwood
I'm suffering from oxygen deprivation. It's overwhelming watching your career go by. -- Clint Eastwood
There was a stool there, and some fella kept asking me if I wanted to sit down. When I saw the stool sitting there, it gave me the idea. I'll just put the stool out there and I'll talk to Mr. Obama and ask him why he didn't keep all of the promises he made to everybody. -- Clint Eastwood
If you read any of the biographies on J. Edgar Hoover, you find that they contradict each other more than they agree. Often times, they're often told from a political perspective. -- Clint Eastwood
Being comfortable is over-rated. -- Clint Eastwood
I guess maybe when you get past 70, other people start asking you how you feel. -- Clint Eastwood
What I think the mentor gets is the great satisfaction of helping somebody along, helping somebody take advantage of an opportunity that maybe he or she did not have. -- Clint Eastwood
What you put into life is what you get out of it. -- Clint Eastwood
I have a small child. Being a parent takes a lot of time. People always ask me, "What movies have you watched lately?" I tell them, "Finding 'Nemo' ... 'Shrek' ... -- Clint Eastwood
Society is at odds with itself. -- Clint Eastwood
You have to trust your instincts. There is a moment when an actor has it, and he knows it. -- Clint Eastwood
Once a man has some money, peace begins to sound good to him. -- Clint Eastwood
I haven't killed anybody all day. Help me keep it that way. -- Clint Eastwood
Men must know their limitations. -- Clint Eastwood
If you feel like you've got something to offer you should do it while the iron's hot. -- Clint Eastwood
You have to be realistic about where you are in life and enjoy it. -- Clint Eastwood
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. -- Clint Eastwood
I'm a day-to-day-type person. -- Clint Eastwood
I just don't want to copy the current trends or do movies for teenagers. I want people to get more out of movies. -- Clint Eastwood
If you consider film an art form, as some people do, then the Western would be a truly American art form, much as jazz is. -- Clint Eastwood
I kind of make a film for myself to sort of express myself. -- Clint Eastwood
The only black battalion on Iwo Jima was a small munitions supply unit that came to the beach. -- Clint Eastwood
Participating in a gun buyback program because you think that criminals have too many guns is like having yourself castrated because you think your neighbors have too many kids. -- Clint Eastwood
I always felt blessed that I was able to make a living in a profession [acting] that not a lot of people can make a living at, and I was able to do something I liked, rather than be in a job that I hated. -- Clint Eastwood
I think 'Dirty Harry' was probably sensitive toward the victims of violent crime. -- Clint Eastwood
Go ahead, make my day. -- Clint Eastwood
If you save your breath, I feel like a man you can manage. -- Clint Eastwood
A war is a horrible thing, but it's also a unifier of countries. -- Clint Eastwood
Everybody is idealistic when you're a kid. -- Clint Eastwood
You have to feel confident. If you don't, then you're going to be hesitant and defensive, and there'll be a lot of things working against you. -- Clint Eastwood
When I see a story, I ask: is this something I'd like to be in? Is this something I'd like to see? And if I'd like to see it, would I like to tell it? -- Clint Eastwood
I know what you're thinking 'Did he fire six shots or only five? -- Clint Eastwood
Liberals are not always so liberal with people who disapprove - disapprove of their point of view. -- Clint Eastwood
In school, I could hear the leaves rustle and go on a journey. -- Clint Eastwood
I would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we - we own this country. We - we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours. -- Clint Eastwood
Yes, I'm always - I'm always surprised when you make a film and you live with it a while and you put it out, you never dream that anybody is ever going to want to really see it. -- Clint Eastwood
I just don't like killing creatures. -- Clint Eastwood
A good man always knows his limitations. -- Clint Eastwood
Overnight stardom can be harmful to your mental health. Yeah. It has ruined a lot of people. -- Clint Eastwood
You take the work seriously, you don't take yourself seriously. You keep that straight and you'll do well the rest of your life. -- Clint Eastwood
There are certain age limits on police officers. They'd have retired me out at 65. -- Clint Eastwood
When I'm a director, I look at myself the actor as a completely different person. It's somebody else up there, an actor playing a role. I keep myself out of it. -- Clint Eastwood
I think our politicians could learn a lot from Mandela. -- Clint Eastwood
I think there is a lot made out of age, and what age you feel. -- Clint Eastwood
I do believe in self-help. -- Clint Eastwood
There's really no way to teach you how to act, but there is a way to teach you how to teach yourself to act. That's kind of what it is; once you learn the little tricks that work for you, pretty soon you find yourself doing that. -- Clint Eastwood
Every story has its demands. -- Clint Eastwood
I became a Republican in 1951, the first year I could vote. -- Clint Eastwood
Like most pictures that I've done, I've had no idea whether anyone would ever want to see 'em. But I figured, I'd like to see it. -- Clint Eastwood
There has to be something in every role that interests you. -- Clint Eastwood
Let's take the work seriously, and not ourselves seriously. -- Clint Eastwood
When you hang a man, you better look at him. -- Clint Eastwood
I am certainly not politically affiliated with Mr. Obama. -- Clint Eastwood
Self-respect leads to self-discipline. -- Clint Eastwood
I'd always tried to resist playing the supervirility thing. I liked showing the vulnerability of age. -- Clint Eastwood
Other than obvious errors like forgetting a line, often I can't see any difference between take one and take 20. -- Clint Eastwood
When I was a kid, I thought movies just came from air. I thought they just appeared. -- Clint Eastwood
When you think of a particular director, you think you would have liked to be with them on one particular film and not necessarily on some other one. -- Clint Eastwood