29 Quotes by James Cagney

You know, the period of World War I and the Roaring Twenties were really just about the same as today. You worked, and you made a living if you could, and you tired to make the best of things. For an actor or a dancer, it was no different then than today. It was a struggle.

The Postman Always RingsTwice.

Once a song and dance man, always a song and dance man. Those few words tell as much about me professionally as there is to tell.

There's not much to say about acting but this. Never settle back on your heels. Never relax. If you relax, the audience relaxes. And always mean everything you say.

You dirty, double-crossing rat.

New Orleans is 5 feet below sea level, which means that holes dug in the ground immediately fill with water. Coffins were punctured and sunk with weights, which didn't stop them from floating up out of the cemeteries and down the streets of the French Quarter on stormy nights. The solution was to bury people above ground, in what are called vaults.

You don't psych yourself up for these things, you do them... I'm acting for the audience, not for myself, and I do it as directly as I can.

Learn your lines… plant your feet… look the other actor in the eye… say the words… mean them.

Absorption in things other than self is the secret of a happy life.