139 Quotes by Kirk Douglas

Why can’t a woman be more like a dog, huh? So sweet, loving, attentive.

All children are natural actors, and I’m still a kid. If you grow up completely, you can never be an actor.

I know Italians and I like them. A lot of my father’s best friends were Italians.

The first time I had got an offer to come to Hollywood, I turned it down. I said, ‘No, I’m an actor of the stage.’

Virtue is not photogenic, so I liked playing bad guys. But, whenever I played a bad guy, I tried to find something good in him, and that kept my contact with the audience.

Cancer does give you a new rejuvenation. I know what it's like to be down. I lost a couple of good friends - Larry Hagman and Nick Ashford - who had the same type of cancer that I did, and that makes you think.

I have studied religion, and I have concluded that there is some power. We don't understand it.

God bless Dad, he came to every one of my shows. I was bad, and I had horrible stage fright. My dad was so relieved - he'd say, 'You were terrible; this kid is not going to be an actor.' Finally, I did a play and he said, 'Son - you were really good.'

People are composed of many things, and in my work, what influences me is the complexity of people - the chiaroscuro of dark and light. When I play a strong guy, I try to find, where is he weak? And, conversely, when I play a weak guy, where is he strong?